Did Delta Scrap the Big Machines

[Brian in sunny FL]

I went to the Delta site looking to see what a 22-470 planer looked like and when you look at planers only thing there was a bench top model. Did they get rid of all the larger planers and other machines?

[meackerman]

looks that way.

toolbarn still shows it in stock, but the other sites I looked at show as discontinued or out of stock, so toolbarn might be also.

[doobes]

It's REALLY sad what all the Harvard MBA's (and their disciples) have done to Delta and Porter Cable in the past 10 years or so.

They have destroyed functioning, profitable enterprises in search, I'm certain, for more "shareholder value".

[Brian in sunny FL]

The avenue for them should have been a direct sales model to compete with Grizzly. Now they are a big box store company which I guess does drive more volume.

[AHill]

I really don't know if they were profitable or not before their decline. Harvard MBAs - or any MBA for that matter, don't make money liquidating a company's assets and making them unprofitable. They'd get fired in a heartbeat. Even when Delta designed a new table saw and moved manufacturing to the US, it still wasn't profitable. My PM2000 (made in Taiwan) was cheaper than the new Delta TS, which, sadly is out of production.

What did them in is a whole lot of people buying stuff made in China. (A US-made TS in my price range wasn't available when I made my purchase.) It's really hard to compete with someone offering similar goods for nearly half the price. What also did them in was the market crash after the dot-com craze. People stopped buying new furniture and other things that drove the market to use the big machines. Companies like Powermatic survived, largely on their reputation, but even Powermatic moved manufacturing overseas.

[daveferg]

Contrary to AHill thoughts, I do think MBAs, etc. DO make money chopping up a company. I can't count the number of times I've seen a strong company with a good reputation being bought out by another company and left to sink or swim on their own, rather than under a corporate umbrella.

As to overseas competition, let's keep in mind that Delta use to make only two tools in the USA---their 14" bandsaw and the Unisaw. Everything else was made in Asia. Then, after being kicked around the block by a number of owners, they started the Unisaw plant here in the US, but I don't think there was ever the support for their efforts.

Besides, and I could see it in comments here----people were loosing faith in Delta because in the very stupid actions of previous owners-----they dumped their inventory of replacement parts. If there was one thing ww'ers agreed on was Delta used to stand behind their products with support and parts when needed. No one wanted to lay out hundreds or thousands of dollars for a tool only to find there was no future support if needed.

I'm kind of surprised the stationary tool market didn't sustain them. There is a load of competition in the power hand-tool market, so I can see Porter Cable backing out. But in the big tools----the only active brands appear to be Griz', Powermatic/Jet. Even General (which at least had some tools made in North America) changed their marketing.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

Am I reading this correctly: The Unisaw is no more?

[JGrout]

the unisaw still is being made AFAIK

[BloomingtonMike]

470 is the 24"?

I think mine is the 451 - its 20"

Looked the same only wider.

[Brian in sunny FL]

BloomingtonMike said:

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470 is the 24"?

I think mine is the 451 - its 20"

Looked the same only wider.

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It is. Have a government agency looking for one outfitted with a Byrd head, guess I'll just no bid or steer them toward a PM.