On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 11:10:38 GMT, "W. Wells" wrote:

I have been in the furniture mfg. business for 35 years and my advise to
anyone who does much woodworking is buy good old equipment rather than the
new cheap stuff from China.

I had the opportunity to go to a local school auction today. Almost
all of the equipment there was of US manufacture.
Several (4 I think) Rockwell/Delta 12" drill presses were sold and
none went for over $150.00 most around $100. One Powermatic drill
press went for $250. There was also an 18" 3 phase 3HP Powermatic
planer that went for around $1500. A powermatic 8" 3 Phase joiner
with a very long bed went for only $400.00.
6 large scroll saws were sold (4 Powermatic and 2 Delta/Rockwell) and
none brought over $100. My partner bought an old Delta/Millwaukee 6"
Accu-Set joiner, motor and stand for $130. The bed's not too long but
it's a good size to carry on the job.

Getting caught up in the rapture of it all, I may have spent too much
on an old 1HP Delta/Rockwell Unisaw at $550 plus tax. It does have a
52" Beis on it with that big ass overhead guard. I took it apart this
evening to get at what is probably bearing noise and at least
everything is there. That's the biggest damn 1HP motor I have ever
seen! No wonder I'm still sore from trying to move it. Some guy at
the auction gave me his number just in case I wanted to buy a 3 HP
Unisaw motor he had. I'll wait to see how the rebuild goes before I
worry about that.
I went to the Delta site to look for a manual and I'm pretty sure that
I could hear laughing when I punched in the model number. It seems it
may be too old to get the paper work.....or maybe printing hadn't been
invented yet.

Mike O.