In responding to a post just now, It occured to me that this would be a good place for us to share "Bargains" we find advertised or unadvertised with other crafty type Magi (this is plural, right).

I mean, I enjoy woodworking, but who can afford all the goodies at the regular price? A "good" table saw alone can run into the thousands of dollars. I bought my Delta tabletop tablesaw for around $38, new on a closeout sale. It is small, but for constucting a few devices, or small stuff around the house, it's great.

So how about if we spot a bargain, ie something from Harbor freight (etc...) on special sale, tool, or something to use as a device, we pass it along here.

I'll start with the thing that made me think of this originally.

Tip#1
Lowes and/or Home Depot have a policy of beating their competition's price by 10% on the "exact" same item.

i.e. In checking, you find Delta tablesaw Mod#xxxx at Lowes for $90.
While Home Depot has the exact same model for $100.
Go to the service desk at Home Depot, and inform them.
They will then check to be certain, and then, give you the same item for a price of $81.
Total savings to you, $19 (less the gas money for the trips) over the one you almost bought at Lowes.

I am checking to get the exact wording on those policies, from each of those companies, and will post it here, unless, one of you know it, and care to post it first.

I've let time slip away, and am going to be late for a Dr's appt if I don't leave right away, so I'll post more when and if I get back. The 25 miles between my house and Ft. Bragg is one of the most dangerous stretches in NC at certain times of the day.
Godspeed
Steve

That does not always work. Sometimes the manufacturer of a product (say Delta) will have a different model number or serial number for different vendors such as Lowes and Home Depot.
I had that done to me at Sears on a Sony tv. I went to Sears with an ad from another store and the sales guy looked at the fine print in the ad to say that they had two different model numbers. They were both for a 32in Sony Trinitron. I got to looking into it and found out that Sony makes give different vendors a different model number for the same product.

This is supposed to be illegal but I think it still happens.

Hope you can get around that.
Tim

Tim
I know what you are talking about, and in Romanian they have a saying that covers this, it comes out to, "it's legal, but it's not honest."

Many companies do things of this nature, but most of the "tool" companies feel they can relate to the people they sell to, and go out of their way to keep things on the up and up.

Actually, In the past I worked for "The Woodworking Shop", it's a North Carolina Based Company, (Great Company, a little pricey at times, but some real bargains to be found there) so, I had time to research this. I personally know the Delta rep for this section of the country, and he assured me that their stock number is the same for the same product. I have also checked personally several of there products, and found this to be true. So although you may find isolated cases of this happening, I don't believe it will be as widespread as the problem you had with Sears.

And while we are on Sears;

The Good---I believe they still have a tool sale on right now, I know it's ending soon, and the best price I found for a socket set was a special on their 98 piece set for around $48 , that's around 50 cents apiece, try buying them seperately for that.

The Bad--- Although their return on handtools (non power) is probably the best anywhere, (as long as it says "CRAFTSMAN" on it somewhere)

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING TO GET THE SAME DEAL ON THEIR POWER TOOLS.

The return policy does not cover ANY power tool.

That may be common knowledge, but some of us found out the hard way.

Such is life, you learn, and pass on the knowledge so others won't make the same mistakes.

Godspeed
Steve

I emailed Home Depot, and this is part of what they emailed back;

Quote,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Home Depot guarantees low prices on everything we carry.
If you should find a lower price from a legitimate, local competitor on an identical instock item, even if it's an "advertised special," we'll not only meet that price, we'll beat it by 10% to thank you for bringing it to our attention.

To receive your discount, please contact your local Home Depot. (This guarantee excludes closeouts, liquidations, and clearance items).

If you find a lower price from a competitor on the Internet on an identical item we stock, please print the product/item page (including applicable taxes and shipping) and take it to your local Home Depot. We'll be glad to match the Internet price.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am almost positive that Lowes has the same type guarantee, probably verbatim , now how could that have hapened?

Anyway, that's it so far, and although for small stuff, it doesn't sound like much, if you happen to need a high-dollar item, you can save a substantial amount of money.

Now come on, aren't there any more frugal/bargain hunting magicians out there, with magical money saving ways to get stuff to make our props and accessories, inexpensively?

Steve

I was recently surprised to see a local ad for a woodshop you could "buy" time in, all the tools were there, you paid by the hour, and I think a membership fee (probably to cover finger removal insurance) and they had a master woodworker there to help or answer questions too!

Kaytracy
That is amazing, I know the military has this type of setup on some posts, but I have never heard of this in the civilian sector.

This type of arangement is wonderful, in the military, usually they give you an introductory class, a safety brief, and watch you for a while, probably to avoid, as you put it, "finger removal". You just pay the hourly rate and you are on your way.

With a shop full of really nice tools (they even sell wood at a pretty decent price) all you need are some good projects/ideas to work on.

It would take a fortune to duplicate the tools in a military woodworking shop.

Kay, does this sound like the place you went?

Does anyone else know of places like this?

Thanks
Steve

The best place to find bargains on tools are at garage sales or classified ads in the newspaper. Power tools take up a lot of space and many are looking to unload their tools since they simply don't use them and their garage is cluttered with them. If for some reason you have to sell your tools, you'll be able to sell them for what you paid for them if you picked them up used rather than new.

I'm amazed that some of you crafty close-up magicians haven't mentioned your neighborhood Jo-Ann Fabrics or A.C. Moore. Their craft items can come in great handy for performers using smaller props. On mass producing certain close-up effects, I've found them to be a goddess-send. They ALWAYS have some kind of sale on something a clever mage can look at and say , "IT MUST BE MINE!!!" Just a thought.

-From a Budget-Wage Mage,
Malak aka Daniel GreenWolf

M.ruetz
Great ideas, and you are right, about both, but the yard sale stuff is always the cheapest, and usually the best.

However, let us not forget, Flea Markets and Auctions, I believe they fall in somewhere between yard sales, and classified ads, with the Yard sales being the King of bargains in the used tools group.

You get a for the best tip yet, probably ever.

Thanks
Steve

A Budget-Wage Mage,
Malak aka Daniel GreenWolf

Great suggestions, and neat signature. You are also on the money, those craft shops can be worth a fortune if you are a crafty type, and can do the,

"think outside the box" thing.

I guess that is really something all magi have in common, but the further out of the box the better, especially when inventing or improvising.

Thanks for the tips Daniel.

Steve

Steve!
I have been to the shops on military baseds, and even learned stained glass and jewelery making there, but this was an add in the local Pennysaver paper for a public sector (Civilian) place in a central Califronia town-Modesto! There were calling it a woodworker club, sort of like a Health club affair it seemed, from the ad, except they provided the muscle in the form of all the cool tools. Still a little more evening time than I have right now, but for those in Ca, you might check into it. I know my workplace has a metal work hobby club, they meet once a week and let you use the "Big" tools-I am so proud of being able to run a milling machine! Next step....the metal lathe!
As to the craft stores, I love them, small lightweight items, already shaped wood things, and boxes of many sizes, why some are already nested! just sand, paint and finish!
I also have found some pretty good things at the local thrift stores, need the odd goblet or metal tray but don't want to spend a fortune? Especially if you are going to "hurt it" in some way? Sally-Am's or St. Vinney's are fun places to hunt, and do not forget the little counter up front where they keep the jewelery, rings, and pin stuff!

I love this kind of stuff; always great to save some money for more magic tricks.
Here is my tip and I believe it still works.
Sign up at Lowes and Home Depot on the websites.
Use the buying a new home to sign up and they usually send a welcome email or letter with a one time 10% off coupon, which is great if you are making a big purchase or a bunch of stuff at once.

Here is my best tip and the one that has saved me a ton of money over the last three years.
Go to http://www.fatwallet.com/ then go to the forums and look for Hot Deals forum.
Then bookmark that page and check it often, I have found some unreal deals from that site.

Hope this helps someone.
Thanks
Nick Zender
Akron, Ohio

I got the best deal in town I bought a couple grand in cordless tools, and a Dremel plus all the goodies.

Then I hired someone to do the work I was going to do. (I got ill) I have a well stocked closet of top of the line tools.

I would post them for sale, but I don't even know where to start. Oh well....Maybe I'll build something in the future...LOL

Hiya, Magi:

The front end cost of buying a tablesaw, planer or what have you is certainly prohibitive, at least on decent machines. The hidden cost is another consideration: New parts, accessories ("oh, you want a PRECISION fence for that saw?"), and maintenance all factor into the service-life cost of an equipment purchase. (In my shop, roughly 5% of my time is dedicated to machinery tweaking.) One alternative is to use the facilities your tax dollars have already purchased.

When I started my first job shop in '85, there was no money for equipment. However, I was able to afford the free woodworking and welding classes at the local community college. These taxpayer-funded classrooms were filled with good machines, staffed by pro's, and the minor scheduling inconveniece was offset by the cost savings.

Please don't get me started on Harbor Freight tools!

Sincerely,
Leland Stone

Leland, my dad used to say things like, "If you don't have time to do it right, imagine how much time it will take to do it twice." With that in mind, you can imagine what he said about places like Harbor Freight. That is a store full of crappy tools, the likes of which would normally be at a flea market. If you have any plans to make furniture or anything requiring precise measurement, Harbor is not where you need to shop. I recommend Porter Cable, and other higher end tools. The up front cost, as you noted, is higher, but you won't be buying replacement tools anytime soon. As far as Sears is concerned, hand tools only. I personally like them better than the Snap Ons that I used to use when maintaining aircraft.

For some of you guys who already have a real woodshop with lots of tools and time on your hands, you might consider running a home business and opening up a wood-worker's club in your area. As a business, you would be able to deduct the cost of space and equipment from taxes. It then would be a business expense rather than a personal one to get the latest handy-dandy-doo-dad for your "club." Even if you only opened the "club" once a week to start and see how it goes, you might find it profitable enough to quit the day job and do it full time. However, check on what the insurance costs would be before you get too involved.

Whoa Guys, I was afraid this thread had disappeared for real. Thanks for bringing it back.

I really love a bargain, and while markjens has a point about Harbour Freight, You do have to be careful about the quality of some of the stuff you buy there, you can't discount all of their equipment. It would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Some of their stuff comes from the same factories as the "Big Brand Names", it just has different labels.

Recently, I bought a Roto-zip at a flea market for 50 cents. I figured if I couldn't get it running maybe Roto-zip had a refurbishing type plan.
You know, where you send it in with $29.95 and they go thru fix anything that's wrong with it, replace the brushes and send it back "good as new" .

Well, they Don't.

The Roto-zip company was bought by Bosch(Great tool Company).

However, if you have a poorly/non working Roto-zip, you can call 1-877-ROTOZIP, and they have 3 Refurbished Roto-zip models(with accessory packages) that they will sell you, "IF" you give them the serial number off your old "poorly/non working one".

The Prices are $60, $70, $80 and the accessory packages that come with them sound really nice. I believe the savings would be around 50% off what a new comparable package would cost.

If you do a web search , I believe you'll find that many of the big name companies have refurbished tools that they will sell at really good prices.

I used to work for "The Woodworking Shop" (A "Klingspor" Company) and we carried a lot of great equipment and tools. In our "Porter Cable tools" line we had several Refurbished tools, but we were not supposed to push them(I usually did anyway). However, If customers asked about refurbished or less expensive stuff, we always had them as a backup. I can't vouch for all of them, but I bought a 12V cordless drill that is now 5 years old, and still works Beautifully. As far as I can remember, we never had a complaint about any refurbished Porter Cable tools.

Well, gotta go, it's Saturday, and the Yardsales will be shutting down soon, so the real bargains are calling my name .
Later
Steve

This is a sort of howie-didits...but for deals!

Hey guys, I just came across what looks to be a real good tool site.
http://www.ToolBarn.com
It seems to have really good prices on name brand tools. Check it out and see what you think.
Steve