would you buy a Delta machine?

[HowardH]

I'm in the market for an oscillating horizontal edge sander.  My choices have been narrowed down to the Jet OES 80CS or the Delta 31-482.  The Delta is a couple of hundred dollars less though.  Delta was purchased by a chinese company about 4 years ago and abandoned the service of the machines made by the prior owners.  I know that rankled a lot of folks who had older Delta machines but that shouldn't affect anything new.  That is, unless, they abandon those too!  That aside, is the Delta a good machine and I wonder just how much of risk buying one of their products really is? The two products look almost identical and probably come off the same line.   

 

[copcarcollector]

Have you considered a Grizzly machine? Their 6 x 89" belt size is 2HP (The Jet / Delta are 1.5HP), but does cost more at $1625 (G0563)http://www.grizzly.com/products/Oscillating-Edge-Sander-2-HP/G0563?utm_campaign=zPage

How is your Grizzly 20" planer working out for you?

I have read a few negatives on the Jet, a fussy belt change operation and when you want to raise the bed, you almost need three hands due to where the controls / knobs etc for that are located on the machine. Also something about setting it back to 45 degrees if you tip the table, there is no positive stop... not sure the Grizzly has one either though. Also the Jet's dust ports can be an issue from what I have read.

I would be a little bit concerned buying the Delta due to the possible parts availability / warranty issue in the future

I will never buy anything Jet or Powermatic again, just based on recent experiences with their machines and "service"

Good luck with your purchase!

 

[Mort]

There are really so many choices out there that one does not need to buy from a company they don't have confidence in.

Just my opinion.

 

[Kev]

Doesn't Laguna have an offering in this space?

 

[copcarcollector]

Doesn't Laguna have an offering in this space?

Yes, but to me it looks almost the same as the Jet & Delta, as if they came down the same line and went to three different paint shops!

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

 

[Kev]

Doesn't Laguna have an offering in this space?

Yes, but to me it looks almost the same as the Jet & Delta, as if they came down the same line and went to three different paint shops!

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

Afraid you're right by the look of it. Laguna do make a better oscillating bobbin sander, so I thought they could have been better in this space too.

 

[copcarcollector]

A quick check of Amazon's listed specs says the Jet has a 1/2" stroke, The Delta and Laguna do not list the stroke. The Grizzly curiously has only 1/4" stroke.

I think the Laguna spindle (bobbin) sander looks a lot like the Delta offering. Both have a tilting spindle vs most others with a tilting table. (Sorry to swerve the thread off topic a bit!)

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

 

[Kev]

A quick check of Amazon's listed specs says the Jet has a 1/2" stroke, The Delta and Laguna do not list the stroke. The Grizzly curiously has only 1/4" stroke.

I think the Laguna spindle (bobbin) sander looks a lot like the Delta offering. Both have a tilting spindle vs most others with a tilting table. (Sorry to swerve the thread off topic a bit!)

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Blame me for diverting [wink]

I hadn't noticed that Delta has snuck that model in .. and the table looks more substantial on the Delta too!

Back on the belt sanders, the table setup on the Grizzly looks a lot more flexible than the clones!

 

[HowardH]

How is your Grizzly 20" planer working out for you?

The planer has worked out great.  I have found I sometimes have turn the workpiece at a slight angle into the cutter head in order to get it to feed properly.  Must be something to do with the spiral head. The Laguna and Delta are indentical as far as I can see.  I have a Laguna 14"SUV BS and I'm really pleased with it's performance.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

I'm not confident that "off the same line" means much anymore.

I took a class in woodworking machine maintenance a couple of years ago.  The teacher invited us to bring in new machines for setup, calibration, and tuning (or old machines in need of repair).  By chance, we got in planers from Jet, Delta, and Grizzly.  At first glance, the only difference was logos, paint color and knobs.

But when we looked closely at flatness, alignment, fit and finish, etc. there were big differences.  The Jet needed very little work, the Delta was in the middle, and the Grizzly was in such bad shape the student/buyer chose to return it.

Not definitive, and initial quality may not be a good indicator of how well the machines would have lasted over time.  With some good
replacement parts and careful setup, even the Grizzly probably would have been a decent machine.

I could especially see buying any of those sanders if you could see them in a showroom and test for flatness, squareness to table, etc.