On 13 Apr 2005 05:44:27 -0700, wrote:

Hey Dave:
I kindly disagree with you. Delta is doing what the stupid American
public woodworker is driving it to. People decide to buy from Amazon
or who ever is cheaper or so they can get around paying the sales tax.
I was a Delta dealer for years and believe in Delta. But everyone
wants to buy it "cheaper"....so Delta has to make it cheaper or people
will buy Grizzley or other imports. It is hard knowing what to do. If
a customer had purchased this jointer from my store, I would have
personally delivered him a new unit with no dents and set it up for
him. However, I could not compete price wize, but the customer always
wanted me to match mail order price but give full dealer service. You
can not have your cake and eat it to!! I do not know what the answer
is and I sure hope Delta can survive and get it right.
Sorry to go on like this but I feel very passionate about buying and
supporting your local dealer and Delta.

As a guy with a very gray shop, all of it from the local Delta
dealers, I'd like to agree with you 100%.... but you have to admit,
they do slack off a bit when it comes to the finishing touches.
Overall, they're better tools than most of the junk out there, but I'd
rather pay the extra $20 and have them make a guy at the factory
deburr everything and maybe give the cast iron parts a good going
over. For my part, I don't want them to be cheaper, I want them to be
better. They should stick to quality and go for snob appeal. The
guys who want a Wilton tablesaw are going to get one of those no
matter what they do, and the guys who want a well-made Delta should
damn well be willing to spend an extra couple of bucks for it.

FWIW, the Grizzly stuff I've seen up close is held to a higher level
of quality than Delta's current crop. It won't be long before I
switch to the green guys, and it's got nothing to do with the price
tag. I'd like to stick with Delta, but there is starting to be way
too much plastic and pot metal in the tools I buy.

I'm getting really tired of the race to the bottom. *sigh*



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