Initial review of the Delta Left Tilt Unisaw w 50" Beismeyer - refurb - (LONG)

[LRod]

I went back to the original auction where I bought it and it plainly says magnetic control. That answers that.

Look at my reply to the "table saw switches" elsewhere for a URL to his current auction (for the mag switch above). You can post a query through that to him directly about the drill press switch.

[LRod]

Eureka! I found the auction # (expired) for the one I bought:

7539744293 Again, from it you can post a query if he has any more.

[Frank Boettcher]

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 21:41:12 -0500, Greg G. wrote: Greg, your original post was heavily slanted to the negative and I offered the truth in areas where your assumptions were wrong (cheap chinese blade, table ground so far that the clearance was only .001", UL/CSA which is a good thing, being the reason for design issues, true measurement of the grind, etc.).

Your saw, with the exception of the WEG motor was manufactured in the USA. The machining, sheet metal fabrication, welding, painting, assembly were all done in America.

I am pro Delta, but I make it a point to not slam any competitor of Delta. I have many friends in the industry, who are knowledgeable, good people.

I will only post what I know to be the truth when a question is asked or I see something posted that is not true.

It is usenet and it is unmoderated and total anarchy. You asked in an earlier post why the company might not participate in this venue. That is exactly the reason. While most on this group are serious woodworkers ready to offer advice and opinions, it has its share of trolls and sockpuppets. Companies have other venues to answer questions and offer help without getting into that quagmire.

In your case, I might suggest that you purchase another brand if you are so dissatisfied. And possibly move from the state of Georgia since one of your posts cast dispersion on the people who live there.

However, If you wish to dissassemble and repair this saw or replace it with another Delta Unisaw and you have issues with it, my offer to help still stands.

Frank

[Wes Stewart]

[snip]

Whenever I've gotten this recommedation, I always take them up on it.

BTW, 14 months ago I posted the following:

I used to own a 15-year old Craftsman contractor's saw. With a little adjustment, the blade was parallel with the miter gauge slots, the two open rib cast iron extension wings were perfectly flush with the table top and the arbor run-out, measured at the base of the blade gullets was 0.003". The fence sucked but I learned to compensate and live with it. With only one hp, rip cuts on hardwood were---excuse the pun---hard, but doable. Being completely open, dust was a big annoyance. Nevertheless, using the saw I built a 1200 sq ft addition to my house, a few cabinets and all the other little things a home handyman does.

Recently I've become more interested in doing some simple furniture building and some kitchen and bath remodeling so I figured I could factor the cost of new tooling into the *alleged* cost saving of DIY.

Thus I succumbed to the siren call of the CABINET SAW and decided to buy one. But which one? Using comments in this forum, product reviews, etc. etc, I decided for various reasons to buy American and get me one of them Unisars.

In other threads I railed against what I perceived as lousy quality control and the fact (in my mind) that manufactures didn't sell saws, they sold saw kits; a bunch of parts that needed to be finished by the sucker-err---buyer, to complete the construction. I gotta a lot of flack over that one so without further ado or editorial comment follows the ongoing story of the Delta Unisaw...

1. Decided to buy locally (glad I did) from Woodcraft during their March 10% off sale. Went with a 30" Biesemeyer fence and Delta mobile base. Paid all of extra for home delivery.

1. Week later, saw arrives. Two Woodcraft guys deliver in PU truck with no lift gate. Call next-door neighbor over and four of us skid it down a couple of 4x4s without incident. Tilt indicator was bright red before unloading and big hole in box but no apparent damage. Sell Craftsman saw to neighbor for hundred bucks.

2. Manage to single-handedly get saw off pallet onto mobile base. Work stops here during three-week trip.

1. Back home, back to assembly. Options are: open all boxes and do inventory and then lose parts before they are needed; or, wait until parts are needed to open boxes. Choose second option.

2. Assemble left-hand cast iron extension wing. Doesn't line up. Make it flush with the table front and rear and it sags 8 thou midway along the joint line although one inch back from the front, the extension is proud 4 thou. Left front outside edge of extension droops 20 thou.

1. Call Wendy at Woodcraft. She says Delta will drop ship replacement to me. Work stops for a week.

2. UPS man brings new extension wing. This one is worse than the original! The finish is horrible. On both wings, it appears than when the grinding wheel was introduced to the iron there was a lot of chatter. The first couple of inches bear witness to this by being very rough and showing the wheel marks. If I eat enough Wheaties, I can turn this thing upside down and use it as a wood rasp. Say to hell with it and reinstall original extension wing. Determine that part of the misalignment is an artifact of the main table having a high spot at the left front edge. Aligning the wing to this spot creates misalignment along the rest of the interface. Use flat grinding stone to hone this high spot down and fiddle fart around until I figure it's good enough.

1. Install front and rear angle supports. Instructions say that front support that holds rip fence rail must be installed to exact dimension of 2 27/32" below table top. No way in hell will this happen without enlarging mounting holes in table top. Start elongating holes with rat-tail file. Slow going. Decide that since angle surface is too low, another option would be to add shims between angle and fence rail. Bolt on fence rail using ¼" flat washers as shims. Works dandy.

2. Time to mount the laminate extension table. Manual says, and photos show, mounting of "Z-bracket". No Z-bracket to be found in boxes. Call Woodcraft. They say they will call Delta and call back. Next day after not hearing from Woodcraft, I call Delta. Guy says, "Oh, the Z-bracket isn't used with Beisemeyer fence, the manual is wrong." While I have him on the phone I mention misalignment of fence rail. He says, 'Be glad that it's too low, that way you can use shims for alignment, some of them are too high then you have a real problem." Lucky me! I also mention extension wing problem. He says he will send another.

1. Ten days later, UPS man comes with extension wing. The box is completely shredded and it is obvious that somewhere along the line, the extension has exited the box and landed on a corner against a hard object. Besides the bent corner, the finish is as rough as the others. Unless Delta sends somebody out to retrieve this one, I now have a heavy-duty surface plate of questionable accuracy.

End quote. Non-editorial mode -off-.

It appears to me that Greg has been fair and balanced.

[Patrick Conroy]

Greg G. wrote in news: [e-mail]:

[AL]

Maybe their blanchard grinder was broken that day and they decided to ship it without grinding.

[Greg G]

I have already done so.

Even though he is not a representative of Delta at this time, I did take him at his word that they were repaired with quality in mind.

It was, however, refurbished on his watch, according to the September

28, 2004 refurb date. So... there you have it - lip service.

Heck, for all I know, he is a 19 year old troll who isn't really who he claims to be - this IS Usenet. But I don't believe so.

Don't get me wrong, aside from one emotional off-color comment, I still think he is OK, and has something to contribute to the group. To be honest, I had never seen one of his posts due to a hiatus from the group, and have only recently returned. (It's fall now, it's just too darned hot-n-humid out there in the middle of a southern summer. Too many other things to do.)

.........

Ugghh.... Please, don't use that PARTICULAR expression... ;-)

Greg G.

[Greg G]

Yea, I didn't expect perfection, but this was a bit much for MY $1300.

Greg G.

[Greg G]

Or installing and tightening all of the hardware properly...

But according the local Delta expert, (and I'm NOT being sarcastic),

"The grind is a rotary wheel, reciprcating table grind with a wheel large enough to cover the whole table. It leaves a different profile than a blanchard grind (rotary wheel, rotary table) or an engine grind (horizontal shaft wheel over a linear feed table). "

And he is absolutely right. The mill pattern supports his contention.

But apparently the wheel wasn't dressed properly, or someone threw a handful of metal chips on the table when they ground this one. Maybe the equipment malfunctioned.

For all I know this thing was built by an angry drunkard who was serving out his last 2 days of notice. Who the heck knows what happened - but if it's gonna happen, it'll happen to me. :-\

Greg G.

[Frank Boettcher]

Missed this one first time around but it deserves comment

The last Unisaw was manufactured in the Tupelo factory (Under my watch so to speak) was in May of 2004. I own the saw. It was signed by each person who worked on it. Unfortunately it was submerged by Hurricane Katrina and is slowly being recovered. If you want verification you can go to yahoo groups, deltawoodworking, pictures, last unisaw and see for yourself. There are no 19 year old trolls, or trained monkeys in the picture, only a dedicated group of people who averaged 30+ years of service.

The last refurb on Unisaws was done in Tupelo (under my watch) in the same month.

From that point the refurb was transferred to Jackson, TN, not under my watch. My assmumption was that they were similarly re

From May until the plant was finally closed in March of 2005 the Tupelo facility was only manufacturing castings for the U.S. made product.

I could immediately tell that it was not refurbed under my watch because it was reboxed. We did not do that. We put the saw completely together, aligned it, tested it under power then strapped it to an oversize pallet and waited for the distributor to pick it up. We refused to ship our refurb LTL. The dealer you bought your saw from will verify this and the level of quality that came from my refurb operation. He wanted to hired my refurb leadman. His name is Jerry.

And, following up on one of your comments in an earlier post, I do not own stock in Delta (would be Black & Decker now) and am not paid by them in any way shape or form.

I am terribly sorry that your saw was problematic and you feel that you were not treated fairly by your dealer and by Delta. I hope you find what you want.

Frank \

One can only wish

troll who isn't really who

????? I

[Ba r r y]

So you were there when my DJ-20 and X5 Bandsaw were made? Both were missing large, heavy, metal parts.

Tell me, how can a radio control car kit manufacturer, like Team Losi or Team Associated , weigh a box and tell if a (2) 3mm screws are missing from a 10 pound box (hint, they can...), but Delta can't tell if a box is missing 10 or 25 pound from a 100 pound box?

It seems that every box should weigh very nearly the same. Perhaps Delta needs to weigh boxes before shipment.

I wish you luck cleaning up after the hurricane. What a mess...

Barry

[Frank Boettcher]

Well Barry, the DJ-20 was never made in the Tupelo plant. A very good machine with a unique design, however, originally manufactured at Invicta in Brazil and then moved to Taiwan.

As for the X5 band saw a serial number and details about the missing items, would be handy to determine where and when it was manufactured and what might have happened.

Frank

[Upscale]

Sorry to disappoint you Greg, but you are over 95% of the life of this thread. The amount of messages you've placed solely dedicated to the problem you've experienced with this saw exceed by far, the amount of replies anyone else has made.

You're well entitled to gripe about the difficulties you've encountered, but there comes a time where you just have to ease up or it's going to eat you alive. Take my word for it, there's far worse things that could have happened to you than having difficulties with Delta.

This is not an attack, just an observation. If you want to castigate me for it, then feel free.

[joe2]

I?m very new to woodworking, started with a Delta Unisaw, very pleased with my decision, have called Delta?s tech support a couple of times with very satisfactory results. During one of the calls I asked if the Unisaw was still made in the US, the answer was that some parts are and some aren?t. The person I was speaking with has worked for Delta for a little less than 20-years, used to work on a line making parts for the Unisaw, but those parts are now made overseas. I didn?t ask what the parts were. From what I was told I presume there is more of a Unisaw than just a motor that is imported. Fwiw, nowhere in any of the Unisaw literature that I have seen does it say ?Made in America?. The cardboard box that covered my brand new Unisaw (it was bolted to a pallet) is printed with ?Made in America of foreign and domestic parts.?

[Greg G]

No attack - I agree with you. Most of the posts were made the first few days. It is now gone from here, and I've moved on. I respond to others because it is polite to answer others - well... sometimes...

But just when I think all is calm, like gum stuck to my shoe, here is a another one.... ;-)

Greg G.

[joe2]

(a) the diff is closer to $300, was $250 diff a month ago, (b) there is/was a mobile base included, 50-273 for the saw and 50-284 mobile extension base for the extension table, (c) don?t know exactly what model Unisaw I got. Printed on the cardboard cover is ?for the 36-830L and 36-831L? and below that in big letters is ?36-953?. The accompanying documentation all says 36-953. My saw?s serial number is

05G107xxx. Perhaps someone on the forum knows how to extrapolate the manf date from the serial number?!?, (d) there are NO PACKING AND DELIVER CHARGES. All over that web site is/was text indicating free shipping and delivery of any Unisaw. Don't know if it is still the same. However, as I noted in a previous post, there was something like a $13 booking fee I had to pay. So I guess you could say s&h was $13 TOTAL, (e) there are no shipping problems. You order your Unisaw, sit back, and a week later it shows up at your door. The shipper uses one of those pallet jacks to move it wherever you want it put, (f) I don?t believe WWS is a drop shipper, they have 3 retail store. They certainly aren't a drop shipper for Delta products. When I talked to them they specifically said they have regular delivery trucks running from Delta to one of three distribution points in the US. They told me they would prefer to drop ship the Unisaws because they sell so many of them, but Delta will not drop ship any products.

-In business for three decades, Woodworker's Supply provides top quality woodworking tools, machinery, abrasives, adhesives, hardware, accessories and wood specialty products to customers, worldwide, from stores and distribution centers in Casper, Wyoming, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Graham, North Carolina.-

I don't have any particular like or dislike for WWS. It just happens they have/had the best price on a new Unisaw when I was buying, shipping cost considered. But that may change at any time. I did check locally and the same Unisaw was a few hundred bucks more, and state sales tax applies on top of that, and I would have to pay extra for someone to move it. I don?t mind paying a little extra to buy locally, but I won?t play the fool. I can?t see putting someone's kid thru college while trying to justify 'feeding my neighbors'. If they want to eat steak and lobster, the ?neighbors? need to consider a more competitive business model.

Ironically, the problems you had with your Unisaw purchase impress me as unjustified. That saw should never have been allowed to be sold, but it was ? by the very neighbors you are trying to feed.

[Greg G]

BTW, I counted the messages. My contribution has been about 48% - many of which were simply short answers to other's posts and comments.

But I hear what you are saying... I know I'm sick of it!

Greg G.

[Greg G]

It's slightly OVER $300 at this point. Things change...

Apparently not any more... Things change...

Does it say DeltaX in big letter on the front of the saw? Probably the same saw inside, but it IS different. Frank would know about the serials.

But from what I know about the serial numbers, you got the new Chinese castings...

I punched it in - put it in my cart - and went to checkout. They charge a crating/packing fee...

You don't know if it's the same?!?! I just told you... Things change... My father paid .25 for a loaf of bread...

I didn't want to wait a week. I needed it today.

I am not in the Northeast of California or the Midwest. There is NOTHING much here... It would have been shipped long distance FTF.

I have no idea, but I'll take that into consideration. They should put that info on their web site - I didn't see it.

Thanks for the interest. I'm not trying to bust your chops over this, but I did consider WWS and decided not to buy.

I think I'll look for a good used one for the next 10 years...

Greg G.