Orion Craftsman Steel City Tablesaw ???
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I understand that Orion is a subsidary of Steel City. Does Orion manufacture the Hybred tablesaw for both Craftsman and the Steel City brand? If so, are they manufactured to the same tolarances/specifications?
In esence, are they the same saw with the exception of color and some other slight variations?
Thanks
Replies
The 10" Cabinet Table Saw (35670) uses the same manual/parts catalog as the Craftsman 22124.
The do look very much the same. The "slight variations" fall in favor of the Steel City, though. Paddle-style Off switch, 5-year warantee (available for $80 from Sears). Resale value might be a factor down the line.
FG -I know you are a fan of SC machines, and I like the idea of the company. But does this change your opinion of them at all? I mean, it's not exactly a "totally different company." It seems like a marketing thing here. Obviously, the only thing that matters is the quality of the product and if the company stands behind it. But this seems more like Saturn (a division of General Motors) than a company like SawStop.Don't take this the wrong way, this is not a flame attempt, but I know you do your homework on these types of things, and I am wondering if this concerns you.
The Craftsman will lose some of it's similarity to the Steel City machines soon. They're coming out with at least one new design, supposed to be this month, I've heard. I don't know enough about the guts of the machines to know how closely related they are. That Orion-made Craftsman saw was on the market quite awhile before Steel City made it's debut, I think.
Thing with the Craftsman saw is, you'd have to deal with them down the road for any problems. I've dealt with Steel City and am very confident about their customer service.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hybrid saw 152.221140
How to make contact with Orion / Steel City Customer Service?
From my view, this is a relationship where Sears stepped up, not one where Orion/SC stepped down. If it weren't for Orion/Steel City, there'd be at least one less Craftsman tool in my shop.
Very similar..."kissing cousins" as I like to call them.
AFAIK....SC owns Orion. Orion makes both, but there are some slight differences....fences are a similar style, but distinctly different. SC offers a 3hp version of their 1-3/4hp hybrid design with some beefed up trunnion components to accommodate the larger motor...SC tells me that their 1-3/4hp contains the same beefed up parts. Some say SC has tighter tolerances too, but I'm not certain....in manufacturing, it's considerably easier and less expensive to have one set of specs...when one customer wants a higher spec, the manufacturer will often adapt all manufacturing to the tighter spec if feasible. It seems to be a decent design that has worked out well for both brands, but if price is close, SC has some advantage IMHO.
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