Unisaw, RIP

Jeff Horton

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Yesterday, November 5, 2008 at 2:30 PM the last "Old Style" Unisaw rolled off the line at Delta.

THE Unisaw.
1939 -2008

I guess if you can't improve it you redesign it.
 
69 years with the same basic design unchanged except for cosmetics and minor do-dads. That's pretty impressive. Dare say there isn't any value engineered machinery out there now that break this record.
 
I can't compare because I do not know anything about it. But if something works well why change it unless the new substitute brings some improvement on the existing one?.

In this days where the obsolescence of good products is dictated by marketing departments and fashion rather than by being new ones better than the old ones.

I hate when I've been buying a product for years because it is good and all of a sudden it dissapears from the market.

And the worst part is that we even tell to ourselves " Yeah... it was too good to last... that's why they stopped making it"

Where on earth remains that "brand loyalty" and " customer satisfaction" "ECR" and all that mumbo jambo that marketing departments use to justify their actions?

PS. No offence intended if any of you works in mkt. or is a mkt. manager.:)
 
In this days where the obsolescence of good products is dictated by marketing departments and fashion rather than by being new ones better than the old ones.

I hate when I've been buying a product for years because it is good and all of a sudden it dissapears from the market.

Where on earth remains that "brand loyalty" and " customer satisfaction" "ECR" and all that mumbo jambo that marketing departments use to justify their actions?

PS. No offence intended if any of you works in mkt. or is a mkt. manager.:)
Welcome to the MTV generation, home of the 30 second attention span. :(
 
I can't compare because I do not know anything about it. But if something works well why change it unless the new substitute brings some improvement on the existing one?.


One word ----> PROFIT

As for the Unisaw, I have my 1947 model and will not get rid of it. So this doesn't effect me. The only thing I see that would improve this saw was a riving knife. But a good splitter, while not as nice I admit, will do the job. Other than that, there was nothing inside the saw to improve on that I can see.

But of course I am being practical. :rolleyes:
 
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I do not know about the last uni-saws to be produced, but I would be willing to bet that that older ones were not made with good dust collection in mind, that is one area that most table saw makers could improve upon, and lots have.

The riving knife is a no brainer, too bad that the uni-saws in the last 10 years or so did not get that upgrade.

Does this mean that the new Delta saw has gone into production?

Cheers!
 
Maybe we'll soon see some really cheap prices on older Unisaws as the "GottaHaveIts" unload their old Unis and get in line for the new ones.

Perhaps the mythical $500 Unisaw will return...
 
No one has seen a production "new" Unisaw yet. So maybe it will be a worthy replacement. But....... let just say I am skeptical. History isn't on their side for making it truly better.

From the pix and description, it seems the riving knife will be a good thing - even though I personally prefer a splitter with anti-kickback pawls. The riving knife does allow use with a crosscut sled, though, but it's actually needed more for ripping than crosscutting, so that's really only a minor plus.

Having the tilt wheel up front doesn't do much for me. I'd think you'd get a bit better leverage on the wheel with it located on the side. Besides, on the side, it's a direct drive, and with it on the front they'll have to add some parts to change the drive direction by 90°. More opportunity for 'slop' in the mechanism, and more parts to (potentially) break.

If the tilt indicator is really accurate, that would be a plus.
 
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