Hi Jerry,
Yesterday I confirmed with Jennifer at woodworker supply that the rebates have been extended. The rebate on my 16" saw is only $50, it's $100 on the 14, 18, and 20" saws
but $50 is $50 so I'll take it. Just to be sure, I called Steel City customer service and they also confirmed the extension. Their website seemed to indicate the rebate was extended on only some of their tools but the woman there said it was all the rebates.
Steel City has some strong points and a couple of weak points.
The bandsaws, for example, look like improved and slightly beefed up versions of the Jet bandsaws. I'd guess they come out of the same factory. Steel City added set screws and adjustments to let you align the wheels without shims and used twin springs for blade tensioning and have a tension release that may actually work.
They also made it possible to adjust the guide that supports the blade guides (ball bearing). They say it means you can make sure it is at 90degrees to the blade. I honestly don't know how important a feature that is, because the companies is young, and hasn't worked out everything it did cause them one major problem.
But the Jet 16" uses a 123" blade that is stocked by a fair number of stores. The steel city 16" saw uses a 125" blade. No extra resaw over the 16" jet despite that.
Worse, they wrote 123" in their owners manual so even though Steel City sells 125" blades and list that on the website, all the owners who just look in their manual are going to order the wrong sized blade.
I got an email from Jim Box confirming 125" and suggested they send out a note to anyone who has registered their warranty. I realized afterwards that they should send the info with their rebate checks!
Also, the fact that I can align the blade guide support is nice, but the owners manual doesn't mention that or say how. :slap:
If you go read the FWW review of the saw you'll see what that mistake cost Steel City! It was a seriously crappy review, the guy actually measured the table alignment with the alignment pin out and clearly didn't call Steel City to ask why the blade support was out of alignment. It's Steel City's fault he didn't know it was adjustable, but I bet that if it had been a Powermatic (which has a ton of ads in FWW) he'd have called the company before writing a bad review. :roll: He also noted that the thumb screws on the blade guides were too small, but Steel City had already noticed that and ordered larger ones. They'll send the new version out to any customer who wants them. (They're sending me the larger ones
)
They're a neat company. It's few guys that used to work for Jet/Powermatic and Delta who got together, obtained private funding, and incorporate a bunch of the practical improvements they always wanted to put into the equipment but couldn't because their former companies were competing primarily on price. Steel City isn't going to be a bargain company! For the same price as my saw I could have bought a grizzly G0513X. The grizzly is clearly "more" saw with some cool features. I wasn't looking for more saw though, and I thought some of the SC features made it a slightly finer built and designed saw.
Anyway, with the current "sale" prices, 5yr warranty and rebate extension, they're probaby worth considering.
Todd
