mat
14th November 2006, 10:01 AM
When did Taiwanese manufacturing reach a level of high quality? I would assume they went through a phase like China when they were cheap(ish) but not so good on the quality side.
I am looking at a Delta Jointer made in Taiwan in the mid/late 90's. Would you expect better quality than the current Chinese made machines?
keith53
14th November 2006, 10:25 AM
Dunno about the Delta stuff but most of my heavy gear ( 6" jointer, 15" thicknesser, 2 hp dusty, floor standing drill press, linisher etc) is 10 year old Tiawanese gear and works OK. With some of it, the trick is to tune it properly. e.g. I did a work-over on my thicknesser about a year ago and followed an article by Major Panic (do a search on this forum ) i.e. blades sharpened, feed rollers adjusted etc. and it performs like a new machine with no snipe!
I haven't had any problems with bearings etc or anything else that I can think of. Most of this type of gear is pretty simple in construction and usually quite solidly built.