I just bought a 28-206 last November. As I have noticed through my own experience and that of others here on the 'Wreck, Delta quality for any given machine is usually either pretty good or particularly atrocious, no rhyme or reason. It's like you get either the machine they built at
5:45PM the day before a holiday or the one they built the day the Quality Assurance inspectors came through. So, for any given Delta machine, it's going to be (1) a very good value and give you years of service or (2) the thing that makes you take up drinking and cursing like a sailor if you don't already.
That being said, the Delta machines I have were all pretty much okay when I got them. Except for the 28-206. Here's a list of the manufacturing defects I had on mine:
- Vibrated like diesel - Caused by an out-of-balance upper wheel, an arguably out-of-balance lower wheel, and a misalignment between the motor and wheel pulleys adjusted to their maximum travels.
- Loose lower guide bracket - Caused by an undersized steel rail, a known problem Delta acknowledged.
- Misaligned doors - The lower door in particular as it was wont to pop open at whim.
- A particularly nasty rattle between the table and the 90-deg stop bolt.
I should also note that I bought the 28-206 knowing Delta's inconsistent quality problems, and I spent an inordinate amount of time puting the machine together and getting every measurement/alignment/setting as close to perfect as I could manage with the way it was built. (It took me at least four or five hours to get it all together out of the box.) In spite of that effort, I discovered all the problems listed above.
I should also note that Delta's Customer Service department did a stellar job helping me identify the problems and either recommending a solution or getting replacement parts out quickly. I received all the replacement parts in 2-3 days with the exception of the upper wheel which was backordered for two months. I just recieved it this week. I'll post more when I get a chance to put the new parts on.
The one thing I have noticed that is a weakness in design is the flexibility of the top of the enclosed stand. American Woodworker noted this in their review of the 28-206. When I was doing my research on this band saw I read a post here about a guy who reinforced the top with angle iron underneath. That's probably the best solution for the problem, but I don't want to go running down that road until I've gotten everything else normalized first to see if needs improving. Hope all that helps.
Chop