To be entered into the contest for a chance to win, ALL of the following MUST be completed:
1. Sign-up for our e-Newsletter (blue box at the bottom of any website page)
2. Follow @harveywoodworking on Instagram
3. Follow @bridge_city_tool_works on Instagram
4. Tag a friend in the comments of the Instagram Giveaway post (Every unique friend tagged in separate comments will count as an entry)
*Winner will also receive FREE freight shipping within the continental US.
**Winner may also choose an e-gift card equal to the amount of the C200 for any Ambassador Products.
***Due to electrical differences, this offer is only good in the USA.
]]>Ever since we introduced the T-40 Turbo Wood Lathe in the US, some of the top turners asked us if we could provide a larger capacity lathe with the same features and benefits of the T-40 but just scaled up.
The T-60S lathe does just that by combining the technological advances of the T-40’s Industrial Servo Motor and control system with a 24” swing over the bed and 48” between centers. The T-60S motor has the same 300% overload capacity and the same 2 microsecond response time that provides the torque you need when working on larger pieces.
Other features include:
We will be showing the prototype units in Raleigh, NC at the AAW Symposium on July 11-14. Stuart Kent will be there doing demonstrations on our Harvey lathes and a few turner friends of Harvey will be dropping by to try it out. Come and see what they think!
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It is a pleasure to report to you that Harvey Machinery products are enjoying continued growth in awareness and acceptance in the US market and that we will be expanding into the Canadian market soon. The Gyro Air has been experiencing increased attention from a wider range of industries including prosthetics manufacturing, heavy metal grinding (molybdenum), and CNC router manufacturers. We will attend the Fabtech show this month to do further research and to make new contacts.
The T40 lathe is getting a lot more attention through demonstrations at numerous local and regional shows.
We are now looking at a number of additional Harvey products for the North American market and we will give you more details as we firm up the final specs.
The recently enacted tariffs will be impacting us by the end of the year as we need to order new inventory. These tariffs are affecting everyone in the machinery market substantially and we will be raising prices to offset them. We will provide more detail as soon as we have completed our analysis of the impact. We will keep the increases to the minimum required to offset the tariffs. Expect to hear the details around the first of December. If you have been considering making a purchase, now may be the best time ever.
On October 20th, Bridge City Tool Works hosted an open house at our new headquarters in Montclair, CA. In addition to John, Consuelo, and their families attending the event, there were around 50 people who came through and met the new owner, Jack Xu, myself, and the new Bridge City Tool Works team. Everyone had a chance to speak with all of us and see firsthand the products we have available and were on display in our new showroom. Jack also showcased Harvey’s Gyro Air dust collector and introduced the latest model that was just released here in the US last month. We truly enjoyed meeting those who were able to attend the open house. If you missed the event, we hope you can visit our new headquarters in California soon.
We have been working hard in keeping up with the demand for the tools we have available and appreciate your patience as we make progress in getting some of these back in stock. We are extremely thankful for your support and are dedicated to our commitment in maintaining the legacy of Bridge City Tool Works.
Last month, John also met with the team to plan for the next batch of products to add to the roster. The upcoming tools will be a mix of planes and other essential woodworking items. We are looking forward to offering these fantastic additions soon and hope to have these in stock by mid-2019.
In other news, the recently enacted tariffs have impacted the cost of our Bridge City line. Based on what has been happening and forecasts from economists, there is strong evidence that the second round of implementation will be initiated as planned and will raise tariffs to 25%.
After meticulously taking every possible step to manage these costs, we unfortunately need to raise our prices beginning the 19th of November. Between now and then, we will continue to honor the current rates for the In Stock items on our website.
Lastly, thanks again for your continued support as we work through the start-up of Bridge City and deal with the challenges presented by our economic policies. Let me be among the first to wish you a happy holiday season and I hope you have a great “season” in your shops this winter!
Mark Strahler
President, BCTW
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Bridge City Tool Works 35-Year Legacy of Innovation and Quality Continues Under New Ownership
Harvey Industries, Co., Ltd., a world-class manufacturer of woodworking machinery headquartered in China, is acquiring Bridge City Tool Works of Portland, Oregon. John Economaki founded Bridge City in 1983.
After 35 years of running Bridge City Tool Works, John Economaki, iconic designer of heirloom quality woodworking hand tools, has decided it’s time to step down and hand over the reigns to his friend and Chinese licensing partner, Jack Xu, CEO of Harvey industries, Ltd.
The good news for the passionate customers of Bridge City is that they’ll hardly notice the change. Under a licensing agreement that went into effect several years ago, Harvey has been building more than two dozen Bridge City tools for international distribution. That includes everything from Try Squares to Planes to the award-winning Chopstick Master.
Jack Xu and John Economaki first met in 2013, and quickly realized they shared a common set of beliefs and values. Both view their companies as vehicles to express new ideas and concepts using tools as a canvas.
According to Jack Xu, “I made the decision to add Bridge City to the Harvey family of innovation products because I believe that tools ought to inspire their owners. John and I share the belief that ‘Good Enough is NOT Good Enough,’ a business philosophy that permeates our entire company. I know there is a perception in America that tools made in China are somehow inferior, and in some cases that is true. We are acutely aware that for Harvey to achieve our corporate objectives, we cannot afford to let anyone down, particularly the current and future customers of Bridge City Tool Works."
For his part, Bridge City’s John Economaki has no doubt that he’s made the right decision. “When I read the correspondence from international customers who have been buying Bridge City tools made by Harvey, I know that they will successfully continue to travel the path of quality and outstanding customer service we have enjoyed for the past 35 years.” (That path is demonstrated with stunning photography in one of the most beautiful woodworking books in print today, Quality is Contagious.)
The other very good new for Bridge City customers is that John Economaki will continue to design “fun stuff” for Harvey for at least the next two years. And John will head the Harvey quality control department. All to ensure that the legacy of quality continues.
Harvey Industries manufactures industrial quality woodworking machinery sold in more than 100 countries around the world. In North America, Harvey has been an OEM for many of the best-known woodworking brands and currently sells select machinery under its own name.
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As any hard-wrought woodworking enthusiast will tell you, the mess made is half the fun – but the cleanup is none at all. All projects that see us pouring countless hours into exquisitely-crafted projects will transform our cozy shops into dens filled to the brim with shavings. There’s no getting around the detritus that arises from removing all but the necessary elements of a piece – but thankfully there is a way to getting around the hassle that comes with scooping handful after handful of sawdust into the bin for hours on end: The Harvey Industries G700 Gyro Air Dust collector.
The G700 bears the hallmark build quality and functionality that is found in all Harvey Industries products. With a sound level of only 72Db, the Gyro Air manages a comfortable noise level equal to a quiet conversation. With such a low decibel ceiling, the Harvey Dust Collector is tailor-made to be the most effective dust collector out on the market.
With a variable speed setting ranging from 2280rpm to 4275rpm, the G700 is more than capable of tackling the most demanding clean-up jobs that your workshop could shake its sawdust at. Coupled with a dustbin with a maximum capacity of 32GAL, a manual filter cleaning system as well as an intelligent dust-full monitoring display, the G700 is a powerhouse of a machine in a compact package.
Sacrificing nothing for its size, the G700 ensures that any workshop that fields it significantly reduces the amount of dust that is circulated through the air – providing not only a more efficient cleaning machine, but also significantly reducing the impact on the respiratory systems of the shop works. Placing machine effectiveness, worker health, and longevity at the forefront, Harvey Industries are committed to be the first brand that woodworkers turn to.
Masterclass build quality featuring zero-toxicity paint, high strength aluminum for spark resistance, and 100% stainless steel for a lifetime of strength and reliability, Harvey Industries leaves out nothing in what is a no-brainer package for any committed woodworking workshop. With a significantly lowered overhead and effectiveness that extends far beyond the competition, the G700 extends its effectiveness not just to wood, but to plastic, food, and stone dust as well.
If you find yourself in the market for a top-of-the-line collector and cleaner that will increase your in-shop productivity while minimizing cleanup, look no more than Harvey Industries’ G700 – you’ll be glad that you did.
]]>The T40 Lathe – A Deceptively Powerful Addition to the Workplace
Written by: Nikola Muckajev
Appearances can be deceptive. From across the shop, the T40 may strike the uninformed observer as nothing more than a standard bench-top lathe. But dare to look deeper, and a revolutionary and precision-crafted technology comes to life. Far from the standard shop lathe, the T40 Lathe by Harvey Industries sets itself far apart from the pack with impeccable construction quality and functionality all with a sleek design.
Boldly bringing the name of Harvey Woodworking to the forefront of every craftsman’s mind, the T40 Lathe is feature-packed to not only make it an indispensable addition to your workshop, but to become the centerpiece of any passionate woodworker’s arsenal. Spurring the T40 to life is an awesomely powerful state-of-the-art Industrial Servo Motor – the likes of which are fielded in CNC machines – so you will never compromise power for size.
From a 60 RPM starting speed to a peak of 4300 RPM, the T40 excels in handling even the most demanding projects. And when the chips start flying in the middle of your most intense projects, you’ll always have the impervious build quality of the lathe to fall back on. True to its nature as a Harvey machine, the heart of the T40 rests atop a Premium Grade Cast Iron bed and features a headstock spindle that is supported by 3 oversized ball bearings.
For every other major locking point, good old-fashioned Solid Steel has been employed in abundance to ensure that stability is never an issue. Speaking of locking points, Harvey Industries has employed every trick in the book to give users the most function with the least amount of hassle. Featuring a 90° Head stock swivel that allows for larger diameter pieces and a 24-position spindle indexing system with tool-less locking, the T40 Lathe is engineered to minimize the amount of time that it takes you to go from conceptualization to production by putting the workflow first.
And when it’s time to hang up the cap and wonderful hours of turning reach their end, you can rest easy knowing that the incredibly powerful servo can halt to complete stop within mere seconds of the switch being flipped.
With full-size lathe production in a mid-size package, it won’t be long before you find yourself wondering why you hadn’t thought to purchase a T40 sooner. It’s okay. We don’t blame you. A bench-top lathe with full capabilities is something that many would have sworn against in the past. But no longer. With Harvey Industries leading the way in footprint-conscious equipment, the T40 Lathe is an absolute no-brainer to any serious woodworker’s workshop.
We understand it, stick to the tools you know and love, and that goes for brands as well. The Harvey name may not be familiar to most people, especially in the United States, but we’ve been around longer than you think. Harvey Machinery has been building wood lathes and other tools for almost 20 years now, but in the US, we’ve mainly been making tools for other companies, the same companies that you trust. It wasn’t until recently Harvey decided to step into the US woodturning market, under its own brand, with our most innovative lathe to date, the T40 wood lathe.
We like to compare the T40 lathe to a high end sports car. If you drive a regular car on a daily basis, but you’ve ever had the opportunity to drive a high end sports car, you know the difference we’re talking about. Yes, both vehicles get you from point A to point B, but the sports car handles better, drives smoother, feels more capable. The same thing when someone who has experience on a lathe.
Now, for all the experienced woodturners out there, you know the difference between a high quality lathe and basic, run-of-the-mill lathe. An experienced woodturner can distinguish the feel and sound and torque of a quality lathe. Someone new to woodturning might not be able to distinguish all the same things as someone who’s spent years behind a wood lathe, but they will still able to know what a quality lathe feels like.
The biggest difference that sets our T40 lathe apart from other bench top lathes is the motor. The T40 is powered by a Industrial Servo Motor. These are the types of motors that you can find in high quality CNC machines that offer precise power and torque when needed. The motor can detect a change in torque and adjust accordingly in 2 milliseconds, or in other words, about 100x faster than other woodturning lathes on the market. This may not seem like a huge deal, but anyone that works on a lathe, knows how quickly a project can be ruined with the smallest error. Consistent speed helps to avoid those errors.
Two of our product ambassadors will be at this show. Jeff Hornung from The Walnut Log Studio will be there with the T40 doing demos and Stuart Kent of The North Carolina Furniture School will be showing the Gyro Air. The Wood Turners Symposiums are excellent events that draw hundreds of like-minded creative types together to see what everyone has been doing and to look at the latest new products.
If you happen to be in the Greenville, NC area (eastern North Carolina) on August 18th, you should try to drop in at the NC Furniture School for its Open House from 4-7PM. Stuart Kent has recently completed a months’ long project of moving into a new facility and he is looking to show it off. He does commissioned work from there and also does a lot of turning classes. It is certainly something to see and the Gyro Air and T40 will be there.
If you cannot travel to these locations, you can spend an evening at home with Jeff Hornung who has recently started to do live woodturning demos from his home shop which are aired on his Facebook page.
Jeff demonstrates on various machines and he has promised to be doing demos with the Harvey lathe in the near future.
Jeff will also be at the Ohio Valley Wood Turning Symposium
The symposium runs from October 13th through the 15th near Cincinnati, OH.
]]>There are lots of things different about the Gyro Air compared to regular dust collectors, but we’ll start off with some of the most noticeable (or unnoticeable) differences. Our dust processor is quiet, really quiet, like stand next to it and not realize it’s running quiet. Most dust collectors are loud, over 90 decibels (dB). The Gyro Air ranges from 61 to 72 dB, which is the same noise level as a normal conversation. This allows you to keep your silent dust collector running while you focus on other things.
When we say our dust processor ranges from 61 to 72 dB, it’s because the Gyro Air is one of the only machines with a variable speed. Most dust collectors have one setting, ON, when often times you really only need about half the suction power. We decided to let the operator decide how much power is needed with just an easy turn of a knob. So whether your collection needs are large or small, you choose how much suction you need.
Why do we call the Gyro Air a dust processor and not a dust collector? We’ll try to describe as simply as possible. Your average dust collector works by pulling the air (and dust) through a fan, possibly through a cyclone chamber, and then to the bags (or pleated filters) where the major filtration really takes place. The bags will only allow air and the really small dust particle through, depending on the rating of the filter. But once those small holes in the bags become filled with larger dust particles, the sucking power of the collector decreases drastically requiring the operator to constantly clean the bags or pleated filters. How the G700 works is completely different. When the air (and dust) gets pulled into our system, it is sent down the 2 stainless steel tubes spinning around the edges like a tornado at extremely high speeds. These forces on the dust particles cause therm to thrown out of the air flow and shot down into the disposal bins. Over 99% of the dust doesn’t make it to the filters. Why is this important? Since almost none of the dust is making it to the filters, you keep full suction power for longer! Hence a dust processor, not a dust collector, we want to make sure everyone knows that we are different.
The Gyro Air dust bins are easy to empty using disposable bags. Once the bins are full, the machine will let you know that the system needs to be emptied, and automatically turn off. Simply, unlatch the front door of the Gyro Air and slide the bins out and pull out the disposable bags, Done. Our two pleated filters have beaters for the times that they need to be cleaned and that very fine dust can be easily removed from the ports beneath the filters.
These are just a few of the really cool features of the Gyro Air Dust Processor. To learn more, check out the product page on our website and don’t be afraid to ask the Harvey Team any questions you may have.
]]>The T40 is nearly 180 pounds, which is a lot heavier than your normal bench top lathe, but it is still movable if needed. This extra weight comes from the solid cast iron design, and allows the woodturner to really dig in and not be afraid of the piece they’re making. We wanted turners to focus on their designs and not have to wonder whether their machine can handle the capacity.
The biggest difference between the Harvey T40 and other lathe competitors is the motor used for our machine. The T40 uses a 1HP Industrial Servo Motor, which is the same motor used in many CNC routers. This state-of-the-art motor reads changes in torque demands and reacts in 2 milliseconds, that’s .0002 seconds compared to the common industry level of .2 seconds. Now that might not seem like a big difference to some people but in the woodturning world, that reaction time can be the difference between creating a masterpiece and ruining a project you’ve spent hours on.
We didn’t stop there when building this machine though. We added a bunch of awesome features that woodturners have been loving. From the Digital RPM readout to the easy turning of the headstock swivel up to 90 degrees, the T40 lathe is full of high end features that we know any woodturner will love.
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