Hello Outdoor Power Equipment Forum! My name is Gun, and I'm the Chief Product Officer here at TEMCo Industrial. Thank you for your interest in the FP1000. It took me a while to respond to you guys because I needed manual clearance from the mods/admins. I first and foremost want to say that my intention is to clarify any questions or comments directly made on the forum while following forum rules and respecting its members. I understand that every forum has their set of rules on things like marketing and advertisement, so if at any point my responses break these sorts of rules, please allow me to rephrase them in such a way that is acceptable. In order to avoid such issues, I will quote questions and comments and directly respond to them.
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.
Boy the first impression of that grinder was not positive but after I watched the vids I'm impressed...hope durability isn't a factor. Seems like someone put a whole lotta thought into its design
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.
Unbelievable! I could see this set up as a dedicated raker grinder.
Heck yeah! Getting a good raker profile for your particular situation is arguably just as important as sharp cutters. Don't neglect them!
Nice idea. Ill stick to my USG and Tecomec/Oregon. I often run into stuck links or other oddities.
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.
I don't think they will ever make an automatic square grinder. I have been really, really wrong though... lots of times
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?
I read up on the specs, this grinder is 43 and 50 gauge only.
It’s too bad it won’t do 80 gauge 404 or 11H/BC chains that’s where something like this would sell and fast.
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.
I kinda like that thing. Who is gonna get one to try it out?
can't beat the guarantee they offer
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.
Can’t imagine it’ll be that long to get one for .63 and skip etc.....
Hmmm...
Hmm, will anyone be doing a diamond/CBN/ABN raker wheel for this?
If you watch the video where they do the rakers you can see the wheel has a rounded contour on the backside to actually shape the raker. That makes it a proprietary wheel as far as I can see.
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.
Being under $300- msrp I was truly expecting to see something pretty cheap'n'nasty but it looked fairly well made & designed. If they work well they will sell.
A month or so ago I might have asked Santa for this. Will need to see where it is price wise come spring...
We're glad you're happy with this price point, but please note it will not be at this price point for long.
Yeah, I thought the pricing did not scream USA-made. Thanks for the extra info Philbert.
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.
'Proprietary' wheel design obviously keeps $$ coming in after point of sale. The wheel size looked like the small wheels homeowner type or bar mounted type grinders use. Only 050 is a problem for many including saw shops that have to be able to grind anything their given. This grinder really interests me, given all the variables an auto grinder must deal with, it's a challenging task to say the least. I can't see myself retiring the 511 style grinder yet, it can deal with any pitch, gauge, chain style on the market & there cheap, easy to repair/service & buy parts for. I rarely like or approve of a cutter ground by someone else in general 90% of the time I see room for improvement/s. The more I think about an auto grinder the more I think perhaps there not for me.
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.
