nts directly
Also, most importantly: what helps us grow and make a better product is
your technical criticism. I've read a lot so far, and I am truly grateful.
Please, please, continue to comment, ask questions, and make suggestions based on your particular headaches you've experienced with automatic (or any, really) chain sharpener. I want all of you to know that we take technical criticism very seriously and read and consider every single one. We
want to improve the FP1000 and keep it affordable so that you don't have to break the bank just so that you can quickly get back to doing the honest and hard work all of you do.
Thanks for your positive impression, and we're glad that you found the videos. We think the build quality is great, but within one year of your purchase, should you find that the FP1000 is not as durable as you'd like, parts fail, or you're just not happy with it: we have a one year no-questions-asked return policy. We'll even cover the return shipping.
Heck yeah! Getting a good raker profile for your particular situation is arguably just as important as sharp cutters. Don't neglect them!
Hey those are some respectable brands and good sharpeners. If you already have an automatic sharpener that works for you, that's awesome! We think that there's honor in working with your hands, and we're just glad you're able to do that whether it is or it isn't with our products. Thanks for your hard work! If in the future you're interested in having some TEMCo products, we'll be there to help.
Because of the way the grinding armature moves on an axis, the FP1000 will only do a round grind. I've seen an automatic square grinder before - I forget the brand the model of the top of my head. I think it costs a pretty penny, though. Just curious: what are some of the reasons you guys want/need a square grind?
That is correct - it'll do 43 and 50 only. We've read and heard from a lot of people asking for it to do larger chains, and though I'm not at liberty to discuss R&D, I can note that you guys have been heard loud and clear.
You guys should just try it out! We think once you get a few chains through it, you'll absolutely love it. Gary's right: you can't beat that guarantee, and we offer it because we stand behind all our products: it's a one year no-questions-asked return policy and one year warranty. That means if you need parts, need a replacement, or just want to return it 11 months and 2 weeks from when you purchased it, we'll pay for a shipping label to send it back to us and give you a full refund.
Hmmm...
I am able to note that we are working on this. The reason we're developing our own proprietary wheels for this is because we aren't really happy with the tolerances on other CBN wheels. Because a CBN wheel is typically a hefty hunk of mass and must be on a relatively small spindle spinning at a pretty high RPM, any axial or radial runout or it not being concentric will cause the machine to vibrate. Developing our own wheel can better control for the situation of customers going out and getting out of spec wheels and wondering why their machine just walked itself off the bench.
We're glad you're happy with this price point, but please note it will not be at this price point for long.
I want to be completely transparent with you: TEMCo Industrial LLC is an American company. The R&D for improvements, design, marketing, sales, order fulfillment, etc. are all proudly done here in Fremont, California. Even the time taken to respond to your guys' questions and comments is paying for an American job (me!). The manufacturing, and only the manufacturing, is done in China. We do this in order to keep the cost of the machine down, which allows us to pass those savings on to the customer, while also leaving a margin to pay all of our hard-working American employees. We also work directly with manufacturing to maintain our standards, so we're not sacrificing quality for cost.
Thanks for the comments. Some of the responses to these comments were made above, so I'll spare this post the extra volume and refer you to them.
It definitely is a challenging task to get all the right engineering for all the right features while keeping costs down. The reason we want to further develop the automatic technology for chain sharpening is that a human hand needs experience to get consistently even cuts, especially for taking down rakers. (Hey, how many of you have done a manual grind and had the chainsaw do the arc cut of shame?) A go/no-go piece of plastic won't get the type of precision an automatic sharpener can, especially when you've got a mound of chains to get through and you're already tired and hungry, but your hands are dirty and you realize you're out of deli meat for a sandwich, so now you're pissed
and hungry . The FP1000 doesn't get hungry, it doesn't get tired, and does a consistently good cut every time.
It does need a bit of calibration, though, and we do admit that it does currently have some limitations. However, the reason I'm here is to listen to what you guys think those limitations are and to report to our engineers in R&D about what we can do about it. When we're through, we expect to have an even better sharpener and hope to keep its low price point so that no one here has to break the bank just to buy it.[/QUOTE]
Hello everyone - I'm back from the holiday break. Hope everyone here had a great break. Who here cut down their own Christmas tree? Show of hands?
We'll have to do some extra market research on this. It looks like several other people here want it, especially at this price point. As a business, though, I have to consider how many people want it, and whether that interest will cover research, engineering, planning, tooling, etc.
Thank you for the welcome, and I'm glad I'm among people who are truly passionate about chains. Looks like I'm among like-minded people - most the guys here at TEMCo are also pretty obsessive and scrutinizing about tools and equipment. Just the other day we were discussing the nuances of cutting teeth profiles on conduit knock out punches. That's why the most valuable thing to us is technical criticism - it really helps us work on the product and work out the nuances. So long as there is interest, there will always be new versions of this product, and what fuels that progress are communities like this.
I've noticed that a lot of people are interested in demoing the product, and I can be transparent about this point: that price is currently at a demo price. The FP1000 is sort of in a "beta" phase. What does that mean? First, we have a limited run of them. Second, we have it set at slightly lower price point. We're doing this to test the market: Do people even want them? What do they like or dislike? What do they wanted added or taken away? Are there any technical issues? I'm personally calling customers and asking how it's going, logging their responses, and also resolving any technical issues they might be having. I'm tracking common user errors and seeing how design changes might prevent them. Also, if there are hardware issues, I ship out parts at no cost to the customer. Because we're a small company, this process allows us to work from the ground up, instead of investing way too much money into machinery and selling everyone an over-engineered and therefore over-priced unit. We want to hit a sweet spot for what you guys need and want at a low price point.
I just wanted to make all of that clear so that there's no confusion about what we're doing.
This is an interesting idea, but maybe this is something we can show in a video we can make for you guys? That way, everyone can just see how it works. Hmm, might be something I can quickly story board, shoot, edit, and post. Would you guys even care about a demo video, or would you just think it's marketing BS?
On that note, is there any in the videos or listing you guys want to see made about the product?
Glad to be here! Thanks for the warm welcome.
You make a convincing business/marketing point. You guys have really got us thinking about this, because what's at contention with this concept is basically whether the cost of tooling up to make an automatic square grind sharpener justifies the PR for Joe Schmo to buy the round grind sharpener. What I'll need to look into is the spin up cost for this. This takes time - please allow me to carefully look into this.
Thanks for the welcome and your interest in our grinder. We're glad see to a range of interest in this unit, from people who use it several times a day, to people who only occasionally use it. It makes us happy to see it doing so much work for you guys.
Reply #1: Our no-questions-asked warranty and return policy applies to everyone, including our international customers! How was you Christmas in Croatia, sir?
Reply #2: There is a clamping mechanism in the tracks.