Well, after saving up for several months, equivocating about my jointer
decision, buying the DJ20 X5 from Amazon Tool Crib, and waiting 6 weeks
for the back orders to fill, my jointer finally arrived today via ABF
Freight. I thought I'd give my experience for those who might benefit
from (or be entertained by) it.

(1) ABF was supposed to deliver the item between 1 and 4 PM today, but
showed up at 9:30 AM, without calling first. Fortunately, I was home
and didn't have to wait around all day for them to show up. If I wasn't
home, I would've been PO'ed at ABF, since we arranged the time last
week on the phone.

(2) It turns out the driver was the same guy who delivered my Unisaw a
few months ago. I tipped him them $15 for helping me unload the saw and
getting it up my driveway. This time, my neighbor helped me get the
equipment off of the liftgate onto a steel-reinforced truck/dolly with
10" pneumatic tires I built just for such deliveries. The driver seemed
to be waiting around for another tip, but since he didn't really help,
he got no more than a warm thank you from me.

(3) The jointer came in two parts. One was the base and motor in a
large cardboard box, with gross weight 130#. It came from China. The
box had a small ding in it, but no visible internal damage (I opened
the box before the driver left). The other was the jointer head unit,
which was crated, net weight 400#. The whole unit was preassembled with
the center casting and both tables attached, making this a very long
and narrow crate. It came from Taiwan. Multiple shipping labels were on
it, with the originating label from Kingcraft Machinery Co. Ltd. in
Taichung Hsien, Taiwan, who I suppose built the unit. No visible damage
to the unit.

(4) My neighbor and I wheeled both containers on my truck down my
backyard hill to the walkout basement door and into my shop. Total time
to get the equipment from the truck to my shop was 15 minutes.

(5) The X5 rebate offer allows for a mobile base. I redeemed my TS for
one which took two months, so I decided to buy the jointer mobile base
earlier, so I would have it at the time of delivery. I will redeem the
rebate for the PC router instead. I mounted to motor to the brackets in
the base unit without trouble and put it onto the mobile base myself.

(6) I completely uncrated the jointer head unit and was impressed by
the way it was packed. The whole jointer was completely sealed in thick
plastic with multiple silica bags within. There was a thin layer of
dried cosmoline on the infeed/outfeed tables and on the cutterhead, but
not the tremendous amount of sticky cosmoline I have been used to in
the past. It only took a few minutes to clean everything off.

(7) After cleaning off the tables, I noticed two dents in the outfeed
table, much to my disappointment. The dents were not in the cast iron
part of the table, though. Rather, they were in the so-called table lip
of the outfeed table, which is a separate piece which looks like cast
aluminum, rather than iron. One dent was right on the edge of this lip
towards the front of the unit, depressed about 1/32 of an inch, as if
someone dropped something on it or struck it with something. The other
was more like a small surface irregularity about 1/64" deep. I can tell
these occurred in Taiwan, because it was obvious to me that someone had
try to sand these dented areas. However, there was no way these defects
could be remedied with sanding.

(8) I called Delta and informed them of the problem. They told me they
could send a serviceman out but this would take "a while" to get
someone scheduled. They suggested that I first try to install a
replacement of the table lip they would overnight to me. I told them I
would be glad to try to install this replacement lip, but it looked
like the table had been ground with the lip already on, and I was
unsure if I would be able to create a perfectly flat surface where this
aluminum lip met the iron table. I also realized it would be a royal
pain to install this lip, since the screws holding it on are covered by
the cutterhead. They suggested that I turn the jointer head on its back
and unbolt the outfeed table from one of the parallelogram rods, pivot
it on the other (attached) rod, and get to the screws that way. I
wondered whether removing the cutterhead wouldn't be an easier
solution.

(9) Any thoughts on any of the above, particularly #8, would be
appreciated. I'll give an update when I get the replacement lip.

All in all, I must say the machine is a beauty, but such careless (and
selfish) attention is a royal PITA! The production crew obviously saw
the defect but still let it go through! Oh, well, I guess it could have
been worse...

Thanks,
Stu