DIYbanter - View Single Post - Flesh Sensing Kapex, Track Saws, Domino ??

Leon[_7_]

On 7/9/2017 7:38 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 9 Jul 2017 10:35:54 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

In article 968229027.521296539.111193.lcb11211-
, says...

DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Sunday, July 9, 2017 at 5:44:38 AM UTC-4, J. Clarke wrote:
In article ,
says...

On Friday, July 7, 2017 at 7:18:54 PM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

Looks like one of the competitors that appreciates the technology took
Gass seriously.

I'm betting that we might see more tools from Festool that might have
this type technology.

This all assuming that they bought the rights to this technology also.

Probably a couple of different things at play here. I don't know Gass,
never met him, but he has a reputation for his abrasive behavior. I
don't see much commentary about the actual technological achievements,
but it could be he has taken this as far as his own talent can take it.
While furthering his own agenda he has no doubt sunk countless hours
and dollars into defending the blade stop patents.

A fresh infusion of money, a team of exacting engineers with new ideas
and energy could be a real boon to SawStop. Plus, a billion dollar
company with a hard of lawyers will be defending the SawStop technology
as they have aggressively done with their own products.

My hope was that Gass would run out of gas and start licensing the
technology and its ancillary developments.

He was always happy to license it. The trouble is he wanted a bizarre
royalty arrangement--3% of wholesale initially, going to 8% if most of the
industry adopted the technology.

With their teams of patent attorneys and the own marketing plans, no
doubt in my mind that TTS will guard, protect and hoard the technology
until they no longer can.

I dunno. European companies have a reputation for being fairly altruistic
with regard to safety technologies.

Just a question, not an attack:

If Festool is indeed altruistic regarding the technology and allows other to incorporate
it in their own tools - at what you would consider a fair royalty arrangement - would you
still refuse to buy Festool products based solely on the fact that Gass
is part of the company?

Some will always make decisions based on non pertinent emotions. It's the
only way they know how to choose.

The cost to offer a feature on a product is inconsequential if your
customer is willing to pay for it. Proven time and again with the success
of each new line of saws that SS has introduced.

Given SS's success and dominance, in a relative short amount of time, and
the obvious disappearance of some brands and their respective models in
woodworking businesses, I would say that not paying for the licenses and
offering their customers a choice to to buy this safety technology was far
more costly than the license.

Before SS I recall being able to touch and feel, at local stores, the
larger DeWalt hybrid TS's, Hitachi contractor saws, Powermatic contractor
saws, Delta Unisaws and contractor saws, ShopSmith multifunction machines,
Steel City table saws. Today in the our country's 4th largest city/metro
area your obvious choices have shrunk to SawStop, Powermatic, and Jet if
you want to touch and feel a non bench top sized TS.

In the past 15 or so years, with the introduction of each new model/class
of TS, those brands/models listed above have one by one disappeared from
local retailers floors.

I would say that Festool was pretty smart with the acquisition of SawStop.
Obviously more costly than just buying a license to offer the technology
but also an investment into remaining relevant.

Why? The only market in which SawStop has made any inroads is table saws.
Festool does not make table saws, so they don't even try to play in that
particular market.

Until now.

It is more likely that they have decided to expand their product line to
include stationary tools than it is that they thought they needed to
"remain relevant".

Perhaps not "remain relevant", rather "grow". What further portable
(hand operated) power tools can they make that they don't now?

I think remain relevant for some. Is Delta or Steel City relevant any more?