Just got back from Lowes and saw a couple nice surprises. They just can’t seem to decide which way to go on their Contractor Table Saws category. Jet, Delta, Hitachi, back to Jet, now back to Delta. Anyhow, for anyone in the market for a new Contractor Saw, they got the new Delta in…appears to be a very solid value. Solid Cast wings, mobile base built into the saw, they got away from that angled dust port that couldn’t be hooked up to dust collection, they didn’t have the fence attached but my guess is that it is that T2 fence they use on some of their saw. Best part was the $449 price tag. Seems like a very fair price.
Side note, they were also selling the T2 30″ fence as an accessory. $150. Also saw a Biesmeyer fence/table system for $400 in a box. Not certain what it included.
Yes, I’m bored tonight.
Edited 4/14/2006 11:26 pm ET by woodk2
Replies
I heard Lowe's was offering that Delta with either the T2 for $600, or with no fence for $450. I got a look at one at a show recently. It's an updated version of their 36-680 ...it sports different legs and the built in mobile base that looks pretty good. Eventually they'll probably have several fence options....T2, Biese, Unifence.
Scotty, that makes sense as the saw I looked at had no fence on it. Hmmm...I wonder if that strategy will work for them. Kind of a nice idea as many guys like to choose their fence. Probably not the bargain I thought it was though. Sure does seem like Contractor Saws have gone up in price at some of the manuf. Man, I bought my Jet for about $500 6-7 years ago. I could have sworn I saw Amazon selling it for $750 the other day.
Price of steel has caused many tools to shoot up lately, in spite of lower labor costs in China.
" in spite of lower labor costs in China." ...or, less so, Taiwan. Which is where the better Asian-made tools are manufactured. There's a real difference, IMHO, between tools marked "Made in China" and those that are made in Taiwan.
Now, since my original post was so historically inaccurate I'm going off to read a little world history at Wikipedia. (Just about my speed)
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 4/15/2006 9:43 pm by forestgirl
"Doesn't matter that the Brits don't control Taiwan any longer..."When did the Brits control Taiwan? You're probably thinking of Hong Kong or India or one of those other places that is easily confused with Taiwan.
Jeeeeeez, how embarrasing. You're right, I was being sloppy and I didn't think that one through. Hong Kong was what was in my subconscious. I've edited that post. My basic point is, Made in China and Made in Taiwan are not the same thing.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
one more thing to add, pretty strong point at least IMO...the saw is left tilt...and appears to have improved dust collection underneath. This is only based on my quick review of the saw, but Delta appears to have made the cabinet area smaller, with less ledges inside to accumulate dust. The dust port is also more of an agressive angle. I saw an advertisement and they do mention that it is more effective at dust control. Made sense to me.
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