Workshop Cookies Video Challenge #1: Announcement

Interesting Idea Martin
This should be good.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, Riddle Oregon

Martin, I see you’ve been busy!

The Winter 2010 Contest was really fun. This one should be interesting too. Thanks for all the hard work!

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

“JUST MY OPINION!”...The Rockler cookies seem like something only a bored person with some extra money would buy. It really doesn’t seem like a very useful product. Like I said,...”JUST MY OPINION!”

-- If you don't work, you don't eat!.....Garland, TX

I have found them extremely useful

-- Semper Fi -- Ours is not to reason why ours is to do or die----Rick Kruse, Grand Rapids, MI

Well, Cozmo, I guess every entry will be an opportunity for you to change your opinion. Who knows… by the end of the challenge you may decide you can’t live without them.

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

Yeah I’m with cozmo. This is one large marketing ploy. They are great but its a rubber hockey puck! Not rocket science. I only say this because I see them on the site ads here. on rocklers site ads every time I turn around, On the front cover of the rockler catalog that just came in, and at the recent woodworking show in atlanta they had an entire booth devoted soley for the cookies! A large Booth!
Anyways. I have yet to try them but I know what they are and they are useful, I just get sick of seeing them EVERYWHERE. I’m not much of a fan of cram it down your throat advertising either, but then again it just may be a strange series of events that only happened to me. Can’t wait to see what people come up with. I can’t enter though because there’s no way I’m buying any….
Bench Cookies are AMAZING! GO BUY THEM NOW!

-- LAS, http://www.abettersign.com

Can’t wait to get mine. Have had many uses for them and had not gotten any yet. Now they are on the way. Maybe I will come up with a video for this contest.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Guys. Martin keeps this site going, and I’m sure on a shoestring. It may be another facebook some day but doing this is a lot of work and an expense in time and money. And like any business, you usually spend a lot of time and money before there is any return. If Rockler is providing some funding to the site and/or providing a few awards then what the heck? It’s like paying for an ad that we’d see in the margins but this time it also comes with a little contest and possible reward. Yes it’s still advertising and yes it’s not a bandsaw. Then again we’re not facebook either. I won a package of four Rockler Cookies at the last New England Get together in a raffle. They donated, a few of us got them, and Rockler got thier cookies out there with their name on the package. We are flooded with advertising on a daily basis. Just like Capitalism it’s almost become part of the ‘American way of doing things’. We’re used to it. We are so used to it we know how to mentally filter it out or in depending on our interest in it.
I’m glad Rockler is participating. I’m glad Martin puts things like this together both for us and maybe for the site. And don’t tell me that you don’t look at all those Rockler web and mail ads when you get them. And I’m glad it’s a woodworking store with a woodworking item they are giving away. Heck, it could have been a shampoo company. I’m nearly bald. What good would that be? At least everyone here is a tool user. ;-)

Personally, living at the lake with good ice this year, I find that the Rockler cookies don’t work well for hockey. The rubber on the sides of them severely limits their travel on the ice when hit with a hockey stick. They do hold fast to my bench when I’m using my router on the edge of a cabinet door though. No clamps needed for some things like that.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

i wanted to try them and ordered them….they arrived and im very happy with what they help me do…there a great idea..and are very helpful in the shop….id like to see the ways they work..anything that helps needs to be at least looked at….and nothing like a cold class of milk with your cookies…........grizz

-- YOU HAVE BEEN TAGGED BY THE GRIZZMAN...[''''']

great idea…i love mine.

-- If Ed can do it, I can do it!

one question——when will we get the LJ Discount for wearing our LJ gear into Rockler???

-- If Ed can do it, I can do it!

Thanks for your comments Craftsman on the lake. I think the points you raised are something that should sit in the back of everyone’s mind when critiquing these style of contests or the vendors who support them. Martin’s work has provided many of the members here with a voice that goes straight to the tool manufacturers here. For those that are not aware, Jockmike2 had an incredible experience shortly after posting his bad review of the Bostich compressor package her purchased. and Ecocandle had an interesting experience with Taunton Press due to a blog he wrote.. We have a collective force of potential buyers and this gives us some power.

While I fully support the use of the blogs and reviews to offer criticism to these manufacturers, I am not really in agreement of criticism of a product when one has not used it. If you have an alternative, please share, as we all would like to know these things. But I, for one, am very grateful that Martin’s efforts has inspired manufacturers to promote these types of things and has given us a direct line to those manufacturers. And I will also do whatever I can to support those manufacturers who work with us, provide us with opportunities to connect with them, and support this website.

And in so saying, if I do try their products and find it to be junk, I will let them know that also ;) But not until I actually tried them.

David

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

Bench Cookies kick butt! Great idea.
Now, think, think, think!

-- Andy Brownell

I buy from Rockler from time to time and I really enjoy this site but in all honesty this contest is really rather dull. Rockler could do so much more than this. I challenge them back te get more creative with their marketing ideas.

Whats wrong with using old truck tires and run them on your flat belt sander to get them the same size and glue them up using polystyrene and acetone? Bad joke I know! Thanks for getting this together Martin I agree with “Craftsman on the lake” I do a lot of shopping from Rockler and love there stuff

-- "The problem with doing nothing is you don't know when you’re done."

I was a skeptic when I first heard about Bench Cookies, but after actually trying them in the store I was a complete convert. I love mine.

My question is whether we can submit more than one entry. I have several ideas.

-- "When you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think straight" - Inherit the Wind

Hi Martin,
Great idea, I am not good with video so I won’t be entering, but I wish you well with the challenge… Hope it all goes well….
Wisty

-- New Project = New Tool... it's just the way it is, don't fight it... :)

hey Dan, I’m with you on that. I run my own site, Which I think many of you use. It does take time and money, and a LOT of effort for small returns. I’m all for supporting Martin with this site. I’d like to donate a few things for future contests. Now I’m not a huge superstore like Rockler but I do carry the essentials.

My hat is off to Martin for this spectacular site. He really found a way to bring us pig headed woodworkers together. Thanks for that Martin. I visit here daily and I click ads just to help out. I really don’t like to hear when someones not happy here. There is nothing to be unhappy about.

Thanks for the great site, and thanks for stepping up Dan. By the way where is the lake your on? I live in Etna, Me about 20 mins from Bangor.

Lumberjocks automatically get 10% off your order total. Use promo code “LJuser”

-- Bulk Woodshop supplies at discounts. 10% off promo code "LJuser" @ www.getneds.com

Hey getneds,
Thanks for the comments. I’m in southern Maine on Mousam lake in Acton. It’s just outside of Sanford.The wife’s from Old Town so I know your area.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Just a side not about ads on websites. I say these things because I’ve seen a couple people post in the forums about clicking on ads for martins sake.
Every time you click an ad on a web site (content) or on a search engine (direct), google or the search engine charges the company that is running the ad a certain amount. If the company gets a lot of clicks and not a lot of actual sales they may cut back or consider getting out of that keyword or site all together. Clicking ads just to click them is never a good idea. On the other hand, if you know your going to buy something from rockler or any other company who’s ad appears on Lumberjocks, go to lumberjocks and look for the rockler ad then click it to take you to their site and purchase your item. Lumberjocks gets a good nod from rockler who will know that you purchased that item through a lumberjocks ad and will be more apt to give martin and lumberjocks more money/ advertising.

-- LAS, http://www.abettersign.com

I’m buying mine right now! Won’t be making any videos though.

-- Janice

Woohoo!! Free shipping because I’m a lumberjock. Can’t beat that. Usually you have to spend so much to get free shipping.

-- Janice

@Janice, You just had to mention free shipping he says $116 later? Oh well, I now have 2 free Rockler t-shirts along w/ some of next year’s Christmas shopping done ;-). The free shipping paid for 8 cookies and T-s.

@Martin, great site. I’ve been a lurker for over a year and just recently joined.

-- Mark, Chesapeake Bay - Southern Maryland

Hey, TODAY is March 9th! Tell me what I win!

-- Kerry Drake, Loudon NH, http://thenickedfinger.blogspot.com/