Delta Reviews

This machine handles it's work load very well. It's only draw back is a poor dust collection system. The enclosed stand makes this machine rate a 5.

I bought this a few weeks ago. Set-up was surprisingly simple and I did it by myself in about an hour or so. All adjustments were dead-on right out of the box. The steel stand is very sturdy. I do want to get a mobile base, as this thing is very heavy to move around the shop.

I was missing one minor part - the handle & knob on the fence. I called Delta on Monday morning and got the part via UPS on Wednesday.

I've used this to edge several boards already. Usually, one pass at 1/16 inch gets me a glue-straight edge.

This is a great little jointer. It works well, is easy to set up, with one small exception (the belt which I upgraded to link belt), and is small enough to fit into my garage workshop. So far it has handled cypress and red oak, making my jointery perfect. If you're interested in a small jointer, this is the one.
I purchased this jointer in July '04 as a floor model clearance sale and saved a bundle. They're not hard to find and a little talking saved me $150 on the jointer and wheeled stand.
Don't wait!

When I recieved this baby, I thought it looked pretty good.
However The parts in the box were from two different models.
and the holes in the base did not fit the column base. five holes in the column and four in the base..Delta has not yet fixed this problem..

While this is my first and only drill press, the unit seems to be very nice.

I recieved this as a Chrismas present from my wife, we had looked at several units and this on had the best price for features....

First off the the instructions were very clear considering that alot of the parts came preassemblied. Took only about 1 hour to set up and every thing went very smooth. It did take 2 people to put the head onto the post but even this went very smooth!

Speed adjustments are very easy with the pop up cover and tension adjustments. The fact that the unit uses a Morris tapper for the chuck is great. The depth adjustment is very easy to use and quick to set!

Fit and finish seemed to be very good. There is some play in the table but from what we saw on other units they will also have the same problem due to the way the rack is held in place to the post!

I only gave 4 stars because this is my first and only drill press and it runs a little loud!

I purchased this drill press over 2 years ago and have nothing but praise for it,its a workhorse.I've drilled treated 4x4 post,100's of boards and even metal plating all this without even a wimper its one solid machine.When i purchased this machine it came complete ,all parts and accessories were in box unlike some other tools and machines that i have purchased in past years and the ease of assembly it was a breeze.I had it set up and boring holes in wood in just under 30 minutes ,its a very well put together machine with alot of extra and helpful features that help you get the job done right.I've been a woodworker for over 20 years and have owned other brands that don't even standup to the quality and durability of the Delta 17-900 drill press.75 percent of my woodshop is setup with Delta machines and accessories the other 25 percent with another well known brand.I put my machines through their paces day in and day out and Delta products haven't let me down yet.The delta model 17-900 drill press is very worthy of the 5 star rating i gave it and i highly recommend it as well as other delta machines to anybody looking for quality and durability in woodworking machinery.

Let's assume you are a typical dollar-minded woodworker who can't pull the trigger and justify the cost of a unisaw or powermatic 66. If that is the case, 3 stars is unfair because for a contractor's saw class, this machine is very good. It's a step above the typical bench-top machine. I have owned the 10" Contractor's saw for 2 years and have been happy with it's performance after putting it through the paces, BUT, the cantilevered motor design does pull the blade's angle off parallel with the fence when rotated for angle cuts. It's just the nature of the beast with these saws. Also, the motor will protest when ripping hard or thick materials; 1 1/2 horses can't quite cut the mustard, so watch your feed rate. Dust collection is fair, you will need to fabricate a tray at the box bottom for a 4" connection to catch the flyings; there isn't much you can do about the open frame in the rear where the motor is located. Unifence vs Biesemyer? I have used both, personal preference is definitely the unifence. Set it up square once, it will stay that way. Don't even think about buying the saw with the stamped steel extension wing, you'll hate it. I have the cast wings, and it's worth the slight cost increase.
It's a great job saw, general purpose machine for a weekend woodworker. Don't expect it to approach the performance of a saw that costs $700 more. You get what you pay for, in this case: if you want the performace, bite the bullet and buy a cabinet saw. For the projects I do, it will be worth selling my contractor's saw and upgrading to a cabinet saw.

I bought this saw about 3 months ago and wanted to wait until I used it for a while to write a review.

This saw was an upgrade from an old skil direct drive benchtop table saw, and what an upgrade it is.

The only thing I would recomend is trying to buy it with the 52 inch fence if you can find it. I bought it with the 30 inch fence it comes with, and the fence works great, I just found I often wanted to do longer cuts. I just upgraded to the 52 inch rail, which cost me about $...well worth the money, but if you can get the saw with the bigger fence originally, it is even cheaper.

I have cut some pretty good size stock, up to 2 inch hardwood with absolutely no problems at all, and tons of sheet goods including 1" MDF.

The fence is great for cutting sheet goods, and I LOVE the sliding cutoff ability for the fence. I find it so much more accurate and easy to use the scale, than to have to clamp a cutoff block to the fence.

Assembly took me about 5 hours, it was pretty straight forward and I did not have any problems at all, the instructions were easy to follow.

All the adjustments are easy to make, to make sure everything is square and true.

I would highly recomend this saw to anyone looking for a great saw, without breaking into the cabinet saw price range.

From this point on, I will have a hard time not buying a Delta when looking for power tools.

First - I love using Amazon.com Products have always been delivered on schedule and arrived in one piece. The only problem I had this time was with the shipping company. They called the day before delivery and said they would need help taking the saw parts off the truck due to the weight of the items (the only send one person). Being the non-confrontational sucker I am, I greed to their request and helped the delivery person. Luckily I can still lift heavy things.

As far as the saw.....I am new to the woodworking world and this is my first table saw. Prior to my Delta, I used a circular saw and jigsaw to do all my cuts, so using the table saw was heavenly. My cuts have improved dramatically and I have created some fairly decent pieces in a lot less time. The unifence is one of man's greatest accomplishments. The saw has good solid construction and has little vibration during operation.

Setup was bit of a hassle. The instructions are a bit hazy. Definitely read ahead to see where they are taking you. When installing the wing and unifence, the separate instructions booklets are in conflict.

I had no problem leveling, aligning and calibrating the saw. By my shaky standards, the saw cuts are dead-on. The only real downside is dust collection. The open drop pan allows the dust to move freely about. I am looking into a better enclosure system to corral the dust.

Overall, I am a happy guy and hope to use this saw for years to come. I will buy more Delta products as my woodworking enthusiasm grows.

I've been trying to think under what circumstances someone would operate this (or any other) planer without dust collection. Outside? Maybe in the woods. At a saw mill? If you are using a portable planer you will not be in business for long. This Dust Connector works just fine but it REALLY should be standard, especially since a generic connector fitting is not nearly as effective. C'mon Delta.

I had the Delta 12-1/2" 22-560 planer with the dust hood and it worked better than this one.A larger opening would have been nice. The best part about it is that you can have the hood come out on either side of the planer.

A plainer creates a ton of wood chips and dust. Using this attachement for the Delta 13" planer along with a dust collector saves time. Before I had this attachment I would have a pile almost a foot deep of wood chips, which I would have to sweep and shovel into a garbage can. Now all of the chips are sucked right into my dust collector.

This is a must have for even the novice woodworker. Saves hours of clean-up time.

I've been making a lot of knives lately and have found this sander invaluable for that application. The narrow belt has more utility than wider ones for doing handle work and the disk is great for shaping. It's got plenty of power for both wood and metal, is relatively quiet, and has performed flawlessly for almost two years of pretty heavy use.

So, why am I not rating this 5 stars then you might ask? Well, there are a few drawbacks. First off, the dust extraction isn't all that great. Every second or third time I change the belt I need to vacuum out the dust channel underneath the cover. The disks don't last all that long and are a pain in the neck to scrape loose and replace. I finally decided to leave off the inner guard below the disk sander which, best as I can tell, is only there to help channel dust. Since it doesn't work all that well anyway and takes three screws to remove and replace each time I've just left it off. The sander still works fine and it's one less step to replace the disk. I've also had a really hard time finding 8" disks in anything other than 80 grit, though the belts are available in a variety of grits.

Good value; solid product. If it ever gives up the ghost I'd replace it with another one in a heartbeat. Not perfect but very useful and certainly recommended.

Pros: Great sander, easy to use, small footprint. Picked up a stainless steel cart to move it around.
Cons: Unit is Heavy (Not really a Con but care for your back)
A couple of the screws can be difficult to reach when assembling
No Dust bag with unit gets a minus 1 star

This sander is a solid tool that has been designed and factory assembled with thought and care for its intended purpose. It is very heavy compared to other home shop tools, but that weight allows the user to work with large dimension wood without any movement of the tool.
The power is more than adequate for sanding through two inch oak stock and the results will please most users.
The only two items that I would design differently would be the placement and orientation of the on/off switch. [Tools should switch up for on and down for off.]
The second change would be a larger working surface for the 8" sander. [I have addressed that issue with a laminated 12" x 20" extension surface that mates up with the existing metal table.]
The product was delivered with a defective miter gauge. One quick call to Delta and the part was in my shop within a week. That is consistant with my experience with Delta support. Over the years, they have performed better than most and even when a tool has been past the warranty date, the required part was shipped without charge.
Whenever possible, if the choice is available, I choose a Delta tool over the competition.

This is the first table saw I have owned. The reason I choose it was because it had the best fence and table for the price. I am still happy with my choice, however I would like to step up to a nicer saw sometime.
At first I had problems with power and the blade burning the wood, but after I threw away the orignal blade and put on a nice Oldham 8" I think its cuts wonderfully. Also the dado that I purchased is smaller 6" i think. After all the 8" blade removes only an inch from its original cutting depth, leaving a 2.5" cutting ability. The smaller blades also effectively increase the motors torque.
Some reviews complain about the motor bogging down. It is a universal motor, same design as most drill motors, its unloaded rpms will obviously be higher than its loaded rpms. I can hear the motor slow down some but it doesnt seem to be stalling to me. The motor is definately louder than an induction motor.
I choose not to put on the blade guard, if its not on perfect it would be a hazard. The most important safety equipment is on top of your neck! If you dont use your head you will get hurt.

I've had this table saw for over 2 years now and have cut stuff on a regular basis. It keeps on going and never quits. I paid $200 at Home Depot for a floor model. I've definately got my money out of it. It doesn't look fancy like a Dewalt or Bosch but it gets the job done.

Pros - Saftey breaker trips when motor starts to overheat. This feature is great when your boards bind and the moter starts to work too hard. It resets itself after about 30 seconds. The fence and ruler are very accurate. The blade it comes with is carbide tipped and lasts for a long time. The blade is a good compromise between a fast ripping blade and fine cutting blade. I've cut plywood with it and ripped 4x4 boards at a reasonable feed speed. It does require 2 passes since the depth of the blade is 2 1/2". I've finally after 2 years need to replace it.
The saw with stand is heavy duty and stable.

Cons - The rubber leg inserts that fit on the bottom of the legs to protect your floor and absorb vibration will fall off if you move the saw. They are cheap and don't fit tight after a while. I advise to use liquid nails when putting them on right away or they will get lost. The safty shield with anti-kickback easily comes out of alignement if bumbed too hard and requires adjustment often. I took mine off after 2 weeks and have been happy ever since. This saw is far too heavy and bulky with the stand to use as a portable unit unless you are Arnold Schwarzenegger. No side bins or adequate mounting holes to mount a bin to keep the manual and arbor wrenches on the saw. I lost one of my arbor wrenches already.

Warning: Make sure your fence tension lock handle is adjusted with enough tension or else your fence will move when running big pieces resulting in a miss cut. I found this out the hard way. Once the proper tension is found it will stay put.

Buying my first table saw was an agonizing experience. I had limited room in my garage. I had limited... well, actually, I had NO experience. And most importantly, I had a limited budget. I just knew I wanted to start learning to woodwork and realized one of those bench top models wasn't gonna cut it. After researching all the models in my price range (@$300) I settled on the TS-300.

That was two and half years ago, and I don't regret my decision a bit. I've cut thousands of feet of board with this saw and have very little to gripe about. I've constructed everything from built-in bookshelves to simple planters. As an entry level saw, the TS-300 rocks.

It's rock solid, dependable, and has an accurate, adjustable fence (up to @ 30?). Yes, it's a bit loud (get some earplugs!), the power switch is sort of small and awkward, and the factory insert design is just downright STUPID, but this saw really gets the job done.

You can radically expand the capability of this saw. I've added a mobile base, an out-feed table, a sacrificial fence, shop made zero clearance inserts, and a dust collection port on the bottom. (The latter two REALLY helped with the sound issue). I've bought several nice blades (including a dado stack), and several standard jigs which work well with the TS-300. If you're new to woodworking and limited on space and funds, this saw will serve you very well.

The best advice I can give you is no matter what saw you get, BE CAREFUL! I got pretty haphazard regarding safety after a few months. That was until I nicked the tip of my thumb with the blade. Thankfully, it healed up perfectly, but it could have been really bad. Don't be stupid like me. Always take your time and use safety devices. Never view push sticks, feather boards, and splitters as a hassle. Your fingers will thank you!

How can I rate it when you only send the base and will not send me the rest of the machine?? I am so upset with your service in this matter. We have called, e-mailed and we get not one thing done!

I picked up the unit at the truck terminal because their forklift could load it on a pickup which can be backed up to the shop door. No shipping damage whatsoever that I could see. The mobile base was a big help. We set up the base cabinet and mobile base first and then took everything except the jointer out of the long box. We slit the box sides and were able to turn the jointer on its side to clean it up and get rid of the styrofoam. Using cardboard, we slid it from the truck bed onto the base to save on lifting. Uh oh, the motor was supposed to be mounted at the factory;It was not and hard to get to as well. The manual and pics say to adjust the belt tension with the motor mounts--not true. The frame bars are moved, not the motor mounts. Never could get the spring on the guard to tension and will ask for a replacement for that. Just a simple adjustment to square the fence at 90 deg to the table. The tables were in perfect alignment as were the knives. I had a scrap piece of alder bowed on 2 sides. The jointer took almost all of the bow out before I decided to cut a few inches off the ends. All 4 sides are smooth as glass. Even though the beast is made in China, it's very good quality compared to some of my other machines made there. I'm very happy with it and would have given 5 stars if the motor had been installed and the manual written correctly. Yes, I read the manual and think that it should be written correctly and the pictures, too. The machine is very stable on the mobile base which is really a heavy duty model. I did buy mine from ToolCrib via phone because I had some questions which were answered okay. This is a much better place to write reviews rather than trying to search for them on the various woodworking forums. It's oh so much easier to find the reviews here than other places. Hope y'all will help us out with your review as well. Thanks!
Update: I got a replacement spring for the guard assembly in less than 24 hrs. from Delta. Now that's service!

I have had my DJ-380 for about 8 months and have nothing but praise for it.
It was packed well and arrived in great condition. I did feel as though I had pulled a double shift at the local Jiffy Lube by the time I removed all the grease and oil from the machine.
Assembly was straight forward and easy.
I never had to contact Delta on this machine, however, when I did contact them in the past, I always found them very helpful and prompt.
The dust collection system could use some improvment - only gets rid of about half the chips.
Adjustments are easy and precise and the location on the off/on switch is great.
I would recommend this machine in a heartbeat.

The motor is tough, and won't quit even if you wish it would put itself out of it's own misery.
I gave it 3 stars only because of the price and ease of finding replacement blades, which is better than my experience with DeWalt and Hitachi's returned planers.
Downers are that an 8mm wrench(supplied) is dangerously loose on the 7.5mm blade bolts when you change blades, and frequent slips on the head bolts will slice you up like Freddy Kruger!
But who doesn't like a little blood and gore now and then?
Buy a Craftsman 7mm open-end wrench and grind 0.5mm off one inside edge for blade changes, then tie a dollar to the cheap Delta 8mm wrench (supplied) and heave it into the woods. That way you can say that you actually threw something away !
The old hexagonal-head bolts are still the best clamp-down system for blades, and Delta should not change that. They should simply supply a 7.5mm wrench, or upgrade the bolts to 8 mm for safety's sake.
Wear leather gloves when changing these blades, or you WILL be sorry one day !

After a little dulling of blades, the depth handle moves freely and won't stay put. Keeps you real busy.
Delta blades for this thing don't last very long at all on hardwoods (or heart-woods), but the up-side is that you can buy carbide for this machine before you will buy carbide blades for ANY other 12' to 13" planer in the mainstream market! (Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, Etc.)But of course, the carbide costs about as much as the planer ($200)! LOL !
To date, you cannot buy the replacement drive belt,though advertised, through Amazon. I have had to reconfirm my April order for 3 of them about 6 times now, at pain of cancellation, so I guess we are supposed to throw the machine away when it spins some notches off the rubber belt.
So with mixed emotions I can say,
Thanks Again, Taiwan USA !

I was looking cheap, just to clean up some rough-hewn boards. The bottom-end Lowes had was the TP-305 (12.5" vs TP-300 12.0", otherwise EXACTLY the same) for $199, so I got that.

Into and Basics
First off, the TP-305 is single speed. Fine for my purposes. As someone else said, if you're doing "fine woodworking", you'll sand with high-grit before calling it done.

Everything is metal, and the handle on top doubles as a foam covered transfer roller. It's very solid and stable, you know, for a "portable".

The belt drive is about 3/4", versus about 2" for the Hitachi and DeWalt. Conversely, the belt on the Delta is fiber reinforced black rubber, like a fan belt, rather than being clear, plain rubber.

There is supposedly a chain-drive for gear reduction, but I haven't dismantled it yet to lubricate them.

Setup
Second, it was a snap to prepare. I pulled it out of the box. It's maybe 75 or 80 pounds. OK if you lift right, or 2-person lift otherwise. It included the planer assembly, a dust chute with 2 fasteners, a hex wrench which fits in a slot on top, a magnetic blade tool, and a crank handle with hex-head fastener.

I put it on top of a table. No LRF support, and there was a little flashing on the bottom, so don't unpack this onto a nice table. Something like this should be bolted down. The deck holes are 1/4", one on each corner. I used some washers and deck screws and that was more than enough to keep it stable.

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
You NEED earplugs. Yes, it is "quiet" compared to some shop planers/jointers, it's still loud. Earmuffs should be OK, but I opted for spongy/expanding 33db earplugs. No problem there, but I was definitely deaf to the world.

Also, goggles are a must. These two things are silly and simple, but just in case you didn't know. This might not be so important if they ever get immunology and organ cloning down, but since you're limited to one set of eyes right now, best protect them from flying debris.

If you want to reach, adjust, oil, or perform ANY maintenance, unplug your machine. "I thought I was safe but something fell and flipped the switch" wouldn't quite cut it with your friends.

ALWAYS operate with the dust chute in place. The motor blows air into it and it sends the chips out the back. Without it, A) You'll be covered in vertically launched curls, and more importantly B) The top of the cutter head will be exposed, which is very not safe.

Keep distractions and horseplay away from this machine. This is not a toy, it's an 8000 RPM spinning blade of doom. No playing. Period. OK? JUNIOR!?!?! Are you LISTENING TO ME! NO PLAYING. Ok. Good. Serious machine.

SNIPER, NO SNIPING!
As a portable planer goes, the fold-out tables are fairly small. I tried using Skill brand roller stands on each side to help hold the workpiece, but this planer loves to snipe on ingress.

Tilt your board down into the planer about 5 degrees, and don't cut deep and you'll limit it. Even so, every board has a 2-3" spot that's maybe 1/32" thinner than the rest of the length.

Egress snipe is alleviated by lifting ever so slightly on the workpiece for the final stretch. If you don't get it, you'll hear the motor change speed as it chews into the end. It's really just the design of the rollers. I think you'd probably get snipe even if you made your own full-length table flush with the input.

With 12" boards, snipe was not very noticeable, whereas with 4" boards, it was always very noticeable.

Blade Lifespan
The blades that came with it do well, but it's only 2 blades. It goes through them fairly quickly. Newer wood is fine. I made several passes on both sides of rough hewn cedar. All was well. I sent through some 12" rough cedar with 25 year crusty paint, and it wasn't really happy with that.

It's 2mm per turn and on 12" stock with fresh blades you can do that. When you get to 1/3 turn and it still drops the RPMs significantly, you're past the life of the blades.

I got to this point after removing 3/16ths from each side of 40 feet of 4" wide cedar, and about 1/8th from each side of a 6' long 12" piece of paint encrusted cedar. It seems that the wider board heats the blades more, especially the old, rubbery paint, and once they heat up, the edge fades MUCH more rapidly.

Signs your planer blades are dull
The machine emits dust and not curls.
The machine leaves roller rubber on the workpiece.
The wood peels along the grain in very thin strip.
The motor slows down, but there is no output.
The rollers stop feeding.
The workpiece becomes polished, even glassy.
The workpiece is noticeably warm to the touch.
Running the workpiece through a second time at the same setting till slows the motor.

Blade Replacements
I'm thinking I'll see if I can design the same at http://www.emachineshop.com out of something harder under heat, but you know, since I don't REALLY have the skill for that, I picked up a couple sets of spare blades when I got the planer. The spares were $26/set and made of "High Speed Steel". I don't know the specific grade, but truly, they went south REALLY quickly on the wider, painted boards.

Blade Swap procedures
The swap is fairly easy, though they are initially installed with an impact wrench. Breaking the screws the first time gave off sparks on three. Freaky. Anyway, you access the six screws by:
A) Unplug the machine. Yes, UNPLUG IT. Switches have been known to fail in this universe. Don't risk it.
B) remove the two thumbscrews on the top.
C) Remove the dust chute
D) Turn the head with "the tool" such that you an access one side of the head. Adjust the machine height, or rotate the head such that the tool clears the handle/rollerbar.
E) Loosten the screws such that the black plate ALMOST comes loose. Test one screw for proper sizing. I think this is about a 16th of an inch.
F) Use the little split magnet tool to scoop under the blade, lift up off of the retaining pins, and pull out.
WARNING The blade may be hot if it's recently been used, especially if it's really dull.
G) spin the blade.
WARNING The sharp side of the blade is SHARP! I know this seems like an idiot thing to say, but if you aren't careful, I will mock you for your bloodletting experience. Yes, I'm secretly watching you.
H) Slid in, align such that it drops down properly (ie, the retaining pins are in the holes).
I) Tighten the screws, starting with the ends and working your way in. In generaly, thumb-tighten all of them, then torque them down afterward to make sure alignment is good.
J) Repeat for the other side of the head. (ie. always swap/replace BOTH blades at the same time).

Miscellaneous
Check your belt shroud, a burgundy curve of plastic on the top right of the machine. Mine had too much flashing in the channels and didn't seat properly. I didn't notice until it had been carved/sanded away severely.

The deck plate is polished steel. You can see the cutter head and rollers clearly in it. It's really cool, and might come in handy should something jam or clog. REMEMBER NOT TO TOUCH THE HEAD WITH YOUR FINGERS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE CUT.

Yes, I used first and second person in a review.

Despite the warning that this is not a toy, etc., it's VERY fun, or at least satisfying, to see what a machine like this can do.

SUMMARY
This is cheap. Snipe will happen. Rollers, an assistant, or a full-sized and aligned table are greatly helpful. Blades dull quickly on older wood with old rubbery paint.

light weight portable planers with power. Easiest one I've ever had to change blades on (only takes about 10 minutes)nice feed rate and no chatter.

Hi Guys,

I just spent a good long time researching a tool purchase. I was looking for a small planer and there are some really cool looking tools out there. I even purchased a planer, a delta 400, and ran through a set of blades testing it.

What I found out is that any planer that relies on a set of disposable blades is going to put a big hole in my budget if I actually intend to use it. And almost every small planer on the market these days has gone to disposable blades.

A disposable item is something that can be thrown away without having to pay much heed to the cost. If disposable planer blades sold for a dollar a piece, one could regard this as a fairly good deal. But the sets sell for $30-50 dollars!! And this just isn't good economy for cheap high speed steel construction that chips and dulls so easily in this application. And if the truth be told about it, they do cost only a few pennies to make, and package, and ship all the way from China.

When something is as public domain as a knife, and the complexity of manufacture less than that of a happy meal toy, and it can be turned out on a machine by the thousands per hour, there is something very wrong with charging $30-$40 dollars for it. And calling it disposable is just plane ridiculouse.

There are two big common threads in all of the reviews for small planers and they are: The blades go dull too fast, and the planer doesn't feed the wood like it should. Well this is really the same problem because when the blades go dull, the cutter head starts giving more resistance to the rollers and the boards stop feeding properly.

The way I want to use my planer, I could easily go through a couple of sets of blades a day.

So this unit is a definite pass. They have got so many reasons that a board can dull a blade they never get pinned down to making a blade that's tough enough for the job. I took my Delta back to the retailer and he graciously returned it to his vendor for reasons of customer satisfaction.

As it turns out, I'll be buying a planer with resharpenable blades (that cost less than disposable blades by the way), and a rather robust and expensive blade sharpening machine, ALL for less than the price of one of these glitzy little name brand jobs.

They didn't have a no star rating, but this one deserves it. All of the disposable blade units do. It's just plane stupid to buy a planer that uses these "disposable" blades. And it's a very simple fix for the industry to make this technology more viable. Simply ship the planers with a dozen sets of blades and offer free knife replacement for the life of the unit. Thirty dollars a dozen would be more in line with the performance of these disposable blades.

I have had this planer for two years. It is very easy to change the blades and they are two sided and can flip them around when one side dulls. It works great. I wished I had the money to buy a 15" model with an induction motor. This tool is very loud and does get hot to the touch. It does a great job and snipe is minimal. It comes with an infeed and outfeed table. This is extra on the Dewalt model. I highly recommend getting the 4" dust chute. I wished the chip/dust chute was angled to the side. This would help tremendously with guiding my 4" dust hose away from the exiting stock.

This planer delivered an even better performance than I expected.
Very smooth operation and results. Very quiet.

The disk on this sander had a total runout of .025 and after Delta sent me 2 more disks I got one down to about .005. One of the tricks is to remove the disk and clean the paint off of the disk were it butts up onto bearing. This should have been done during assembly. The table slot also had a machined tapered from .770 on the left to .790 on the right. I received new one from Delta with a .760 striaght slot. All replacement parts from Delta were delivered within 5 days after I called in my problems. You can expect these problems on their Chinese made machines, but I ask, why can't they have better quality conrol?

I am pleased with this sander. While I would like it to be a bit more powerful (will do whatever I want as long as I take my time and don't push it) it gets the job done for a very low price.

Also, the "positive" stops at 90 and 45 degrees could be better designed and more accurate, but again, if I take my time and set it up carefully each time they work well.

The castings are not perfect, but the table is very flat and I have little runnout...so the casting defects are cosmetic. Again, for the price a nice machine.

While it's not going to win any awards for fit and finish, Delta put the money where it counts. Disk is smooth, table is nice, and dust collection is decent. I think the Delta is a best buy, as the Harbor Freight units have poor build quality, and the Jet unit is $100 more.