Thread: 13 in. thicknesser-what do you get for name

It's the 'C' that is silent, not me!!

Another consideration is "what does it mean to you if the machine is not quite as accurate or has some down time?"

If your income depends heavily on these machines being highly accurate and very reliable then you might sink or swim by your decision.

For occasional use, a prestigious brand would be fantastic if you can afford it but you will probably never ever wear it out or use it to it's full capabilities but it would be a joy to use.

A cheaper machine for occasional users gives you a machine sooner plus more tools and machines. If the machine requires some time consuming maintenance you can do it at your leisure or you can afford to wait for parts. It might be inconvenient but so what.

Highly accurate machines I think are for those who cannot fine tune the joints (eg use a shoulder plane to adjust a tenon) or those who need to pump out volume where fine tuning each component might detract from profit or blow out deadlines.

I think you should buy the best you can afford taking into account how much you plan on using the machine and the consequences of down time.

Go Silent !!!!!!

Informative, and my sentiments exactly.

In some ways we are in a honeymoon period with the machinery available in the economy ranges, and I am sure that the Chinese options are going to increase in price as the globalisation there will push up costs. Until then, make hay etc.

I certainly would never have been able to justify my toys by pre-China prices.

Originally Posted by silentC

Here are some facts:

There are some 'ideas' that have been propagated through various posts and even in some written reviews that we can't really prove. These are that:

Machines look the same because they are made in the same factory. The difference is that Jet employs quality control people who reside at the factory and make sure their stuff meets their quality standards.

Machines are all the same and just rebadged on the way out. Some machines, ie Jet, use better bearings, motors etc but otherwise are identical to the rest.

The other manufacturers make copies of popular Jet/Delta/etc machines with inferior parts and QA.

Most of what you have said is spot on, and all of it may be spot on as I have no personal knowledge of the facts.

What I have read however, was in an issue of AWR, whereby Phillip Ashley actually visited a number of factories contracted to build Jet equipment. He reported on the quality control scenario and the process involved in producing a Jet product.

He commented that the factories that produce for Jet also produce for others. So you will end up with machines that look the same. But it is difficult to tell which machines come from the same factory as different factories produce similar looking machines.

I think you do get something for your money, but whether its worth it is debatable. As for these little screamers (the thicknessers), I think they are excellent value for money and personally would not pay the extra for the name brands. If you were a heavy user then I would personally go for Chinese 15in planer over one of the portable name brand 13in planers.

And it is certainly only the C that is silent

FWIW, there was a review of 15" thicknessers in FWW some time ago. They named the factory where they were all made (all the same factory) and the difference between the highest and lowest price machines according to this article, was neglible. So there appears to be something to the "badge engineering" scenario.

In my research on tablesaws recently I have read a lot of reviews of different tablesaws. In a lot of cases the cheaper machines performed as well as the dearer ones and in quite a few cases the cheaper ones got the nod over the dearer ones.

I know I will probably be flamed here, but there was one test in particular where the Grizzley saw was preferred to the Jet .

When one looks at the amount of advertising that some brands do, one could be forgiven for thinking that some (most?) of the difference in price goes into the marketing/advertising budget.

I have certainly experienced this with "upmarket" cars, so the same could well apply to woodworking machines.

Phillip Ashley actually visited a number of factories contracted to build Jet equipment. He reported on the quality control scenario and the process involved in producing a Jet product.

That would be good enough for me.

Hi All,

SilentC, You make some very good points..

I just thought for the benefit of all that I might share my experiences. For the last couple of years I have been working as a quality /design engineer for a certain melbourne based car manufacturer (that shall remain unamed but has a small blue oval on it) and have on a number of occasions had to deal with Chinese suppliers.

It is worth noting that China does not have any copyright laws and it is a major battle for any company whether they make cars or handbags to protect their intellectual property in China. With this in mind it is probably a fair assumption that machines that look the same arent necessarily built inthe same factory. In a lot of cases, a company will get it hands on another company's product and make a direct copy of it.

Now there are a few things to remember here.

1) China's ability to engineer (and by engineer i mean design from scratch... i.e choose shape, form materials etc) is poor. They are learning very quickly and will soon be world leaders, but at the minute they are behind us.

2) Given their inability to design, and their culture of copying others designs, be very wary of chinese brands. If a part of the original design is made out of a certain metal, it is entirely possible that the chinese knock off will look the same but be made of a slightly different metal with different mechanical (strength) properties. hence dont be surprised if this part fails... Why? because it wasnt designed correctly... it was copied

3) From my experiences with the blue oval I have come to the conclusion that the difference really is in the brand and the operating philosophy of that brand. If the brand (Dewault, ryobi whoever) believes in quality then they will ensure that their supplier (said chinese manufacturer) has the correct quality controls are in place. I know when we were dealing with chinese manufacturers we had to force them to put certain quality controls in place to get the product we wanted.

So, dont be afrtaid to buy chinese or taiwanese products... "Built in China" does NOT always mean "this is crap". However you do have to be wary. If you want a tool to last a while, then i would definately buy a decent brand. I would never go to the extent of buying a dewault because i believe they are way too expensive, but i guess i just dont like the idea of buy cheap crap.

On the other hand. If i need something to do a quick job, i have no objections going down to Bunnings and buying an Ozito... mainly on account of the fact that i know that for the next couple of years i'll always have a new one because they have a no questions asked replacement policy and it wont cost me a fortune.

Any way... i hope this helps in some way.

Joe