A friend of mine was looking for a corner square and had asked about my home-made version. I shared my design, but mentioned that Carbide has a really nice square. However, when we looked at the store, the corner bracket was out of stock - but the essential hold down kit (which has a corner bracket) was in stock. So we started to consider the kit.
Interestingly, the kit costs more than its component parts…which was a little confusing. 8 Essential clamps with screws (2x$9=$18), the corner bracket ($20), and 100 inserts ($16) is $54. The kit is $60 and, as far as we can tell, only contains double-sided tape that is not in the individual pieces. We had assumed that buying them as a kit would actually end up saving money.
So now, we’re wondering if the corner bracket really has to be out of stock - if there is supply to support the kit?
Simply for reference, that double sided tape looks about 1", and I bought LLPT 1" double sided woodworking tape from Amazon for $11.99; Rockler sells a 1" wood working double sided tape for $19.99; but Rockler also has a different, Fast Cap, 1" double sided tape for $12.99.
Pricing aside you have to have the kits assembled and in stock to sell them. Seems that C3D does not back order and only sells what is in stock. C3D has had a lot of out of stock items in the last year and most likely because they are growing and adding new products. It is a logistical nightmare these days to keep things in stock with the unpredictable supply chain. I am not defending C3Ds lack of planning but I can understand it from a logistics standpoint. The truth is the public is fickle and what they want is sometimes hard to figure out and plan for. Anytime a business is out of stock that is a lost sale usually. People will go elsewhere to find a similar product. I would hope C3D knows this and is working hard to get things in stock.
C3D is like a swan on the lake, smooth and graceful on the top but paddeling like crazy under the surface. Lets hope.
Just to be clear - I’m not knocking C3D. I LOVE C3D!!!..and want them to be as good as they can be and as successful as possible. Every comment - even those that call them out, are intended to be productive. I’m always just trying to influence, wherever I can, to encourage a better product / deliverable.
That’s ultimately it. We allocated a batch of squares to be boxed up in the kit and put on the shelf so there are no individual squares available at the moment.