Last night my wife came back from Billings with the Belt Sander from Lowes Home Improvement store. I dutifully unloaded the truck of all the soap products and paper plates and debris until the only box left was my belt sander.
A 4X36 with 6" sanding wheel and a variable speed 4.5 amp motor. On the net Lowe's own polls showed the product had mediocre reviews. When I talked to the sales staff over the phone it seemed pretty much a copy of the Delta, but with a bigger motor and the Variable speed, who could go wrong?
The first thing I noticed, the very first thing, was the brightly colored red and yellow knobs on the machine. I was very surprised and amused. It was the kind of joke I appreciate.
I called my wife. "Come here," I said, "I want to show you something."
"What?"
"Just follow me." You see that? I pointed out the knobs on a music learn and go machine on the floor.
"Yes.
"And that?" I pointed to the controls on a firetruck.
"Yes. What is this about?"
"I'll show you, just wait. You see that down there?"
"Yes, I see it. So what? It's a little toy stove."
"Uh huh. Now, look at this belt grinder; what do you see? "
"Oh my gosh," she said, "It has the same control knobs as the oven."
Yeppers, my 3/4 horse power serious sander had the same control bank as infants toys. "No wonder they aren't selling many of these." I tell her. "Men want serious stuff. The Delta looks like a tool. It's going to be hard to keep the two year old away from the Tradesman."
Sunday I assemble it. Wasn't much to it. With the Delta you put the components on the common frame. ON the Tradesman all you had to do was add the shelf and the dust outlets. I admired the bright red flower knob of the miter.
I turned it on and it hesitated for a second or two and then ran. I turned it off. I repeated this a couple times, then adjusted the belt. As I did this I noticed the belt was a tad wobbly. Was it the belt or rollers/caster being slightly less than concentric or aligned? There was a high pitched note. I slowed the speed to minium and the note got loud. A continious Cricket. I shut her down and looked for a source of sound. I could find none. When I went to turn it on again it rolled briefly, and stopped. I couldn't believe it. It never ran again.
We're on the honor system you know. If I put a review into Lowe's in- house poll on the internet now I'd seriously skew the product line downwards.
Quality of operation? None. The worst.
Ease of operation? Time consuming to move by hand.
Power level? The weakest in the field, really, no better than by hand.
Would you reccomend this to a friend? Yes, The kind I no longer speak to.
There was a desperate plea on the box, both in Spanish and English: Don't return to store! Call us at --- - ---
I called the store.
"The overload switch; did you try the overload switch?"
"No; where is it?"
"On the front somewhere...'
I looked. No switch. I tried to take the panel off. I was wondering if the drive belt was off or jammed or something. My Delta worked immediately and didn't hesitate either. The screws resisted serious effort at removal. If I took the plate off, they'd get buggered, and they'd know I was in there, poking around.
There was nothing in the directions about any of this. A little section in maintenance- you know-those things you do to a machine after you've run it for a hundred hours? Showed a belt adjustment.
Screw it. A neighbor is going back to Billings on Thursday. I called her and she said she'd do it. Wait until she tries and lift it...and her old man has ruptured disks. Sure. Wipe them all out. Leave the the couple in the parkinglot writhing in pain, and the worst is she dropped the box and smashed it; the warrenty is void. Well, that didn't happen. Ask the Clerk to bring it in. They can take their own dead and bury them.
Would I recomend a Tradesman to anyone? Well, our job is to consume. I remind you this baby has more power than the competition. With those fixtures, it'll undergo a redesign sometime next year and all of you should be able to pick the old model up cheap on close-out. American Men will not buy Real Tools with baby handles. As for the rest; we'll put a little more heat into the atmosphere, a little more global warming, and I'll get a replacement unit.
Just make another, throw that onto the backs of Coolie labor.
I'll finish this in a second. I gotta cut some pizza.
Ok, I'm back. What do I think?
I don't know my friends. The only thing that lasts I own are a few reputable brands of firearms and my Himalayan Imports Khukuris. Everything else is subject to wearing out shortly after the warrenty expires, is disposable, or requires two or three tries before achieving a functional rendition.
There was a chance the 1 800 staff could talk me through a restart of the product. Well send a new motor, new chassis, replace the knobs, only in God's name don't return it to the store!" I could end up with a box full of spare parts, keep this sucker going until I was a grandfather, pass it down to future heirs... I once ended up owning four or five extra humidifyer tanks like that.
I don't really want to fix it. The engine was hot from this brief encounter. I ran downstairs and turned the Delta on just to be reassured something worked in my house. After three minutes of mindlessly sanding a stick, the motor wasn't even warm.
No, I'll do the American birth rite and get a new one.
What a world. No wonder Conan's father told him to trust nothing but steel.
munk
A 4X36 with 6" sanding wheel and a variable speed 4.5 amp motor. On the net Lowe's own polls showed the product had mediocre reviews. When I talked to the sales staff over the phone it seemed pretty much a copy of the Delta, but with a bigger motor and the Variable speed, who could go wrong?
The first thing I noticed, the very first thing, was the brightly colored red and yellow knobs on the machine. I was very surprised and amused. It was the kind of joke I appreciate.
I called my wife. "Come here," I said, "I want to show you something."
"What?"
"Just follow me." You see that? I pointed out the knobs on a music learn and go machine on the floor.
"Yes.
"And that?" I pointed to the controls on a firetruck.
"Yes. What is this about?"
"I'll show you, just wait. You see that down there?"
"Yes, I see it. So what? It's a little toy stove."
"Uh huh. Now, look at this belt grinder; what do you see? "
"Oh my gosh," she said, "It has the same control knobs as the oven."
Yeppers, my 3/4 horse power serious sander had the same control bank as infants toys. "No wonder they aren't selling many of these." I tell her. "Men want serious stuff. The Delta looks like a tool. It's going to be hard to keep the two year old away from the Tradesman."
Sunday I assemble it. Wasn't much to it. With the Delta you put the components on the common frame. ON the Tradesman all you had to do was add the shelf and the dust outlets. I admired the bright red flower knob of the miter.
I turned it on and it hesitated for a second or two and then ran. I turned it off. I repeated this a couple times, then adjusted the belt. As I did this I noticed the belt was a tad wobbly. Was it the belt or rollers/caster being slightly less than concentric or aligned? There was a high pitched note. I slowed the speed to minium and the note got loud. A continious Cricket. I shut her down and looked for a source of sound. I could find none. When I went to turn it on again it rolled briefly, and stopped. I couldn't believe it. It never ran again.
We're on the honor system you know. If I put a review into Lowe's in- house poll on the internet now I'd seriously skew the product line downwards.
Quality of operation? None. The worst.
Ease of operation? Time consuming to move by hand.
Power level? The weakest in the field, really, no better than by hand.
Would you reccomend this to a friend? Yes, The kind I no longer speak to.
There was a desperate plea on the box, both in Spanish and English: Don't return to store! Call us at --- - ---
I called the store.
"The overload switch; did you try the overload switch?"
"No; where is it?"
"On the front somewhere...'
I looked. No switch. I tried to take the panel off. I was wondering if the drive belt was off or jammed or something. My Delta worked immediately and didn't hesitate either. The screws resisted serious effort at removal. If I took the plate off, they'd get buggered, and they'd know I was in there, poking around.
There was nothing in the directions about any of this. A little section in maintenance- you know-those things you do to a machine after you've run it for a hundred hours? Showed a belt adjustment.
Screw it. A neighbor is going back to Billings on Thursday. I called her and she said she'd do it. Wait until she tries and lift it...and her old man has ruptured disks. Sure. Wipe them all out. Leave the the couple in the parkinglot writhing in pain, and the worst is she dropped the box and smashed it; the warrenty is void. Well, that didn't happen. Ask the Clerk to bring it in. They can take their own dead and bury them.
Would I recomend a Tradesman to anyone? Well, our job is to consume. I remind you this baby has more power than the competition. With those fixtures, it'll undergo a redesign sometime next year and all of you should be able to pick the old model up cheap on close-out. American Men will not buy Real Tools with baby handles. As for the rest; we'll put a little more heat into the atmosphere, a little more global warming, and I'll get a replacement unit.
Just make another, throw that onto the backs of Coolie labor.
I'll finish this in a second. I gotta cut some pizza.
Ok, I'm back. What do I think?
I don't know my friends. The only thing that lasts I own are a few reputable brands of firearms and my Himalayan Imports Khukuris. Everything else is subject to wearing out shortly after the warrenty expires, is disposable, or requires two or three tries before achieving a functional rendition.
There was a chance the 1 800 staff could talk me through a restart of the product. Well send a new motor, new chassis, replace the knobs, only in God's name don't return it to the store!" I could end up with a box full of spare parts, keep this sucker going until I was a grandfather, pass it down to future heirs... I once ended up owning four or five extra humidifyer tanks like that.
I don't really want to fix it. The engine was hot from this brief encounter. I ran downstairs and turned the Delta on just to be reassured something worked in my house. After three minutes of mindlessly sanding a stick, the motor wasn't even warm.
No, I'll do the American birth rite and get a new one.
What a world. No wonder Conan's father told him to trust nothing but steel.
munk
