New Tool Company

[Jeffrey Schronce]

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/r...cles_766.shtml

Very interesting. Basically former Delta employees started Orion to market well thought out tools to third party vendors, namely Sears. Orion makes the zip code saws, the well regarded grinders, etc.
Seems that Orion is now marketing their own tools under the Steel City Tool company brand.
Their distribution model is through select independent retailers. No big box. Their product depth is very shallow, but very strong. Unlike say a Grizzly that has 14 drill presses, Steel City has exactly 1. They put every thing they thought was necessary for a serious hobbiest/ like production unit. That seems to be an excellent market.
Their entry level saw is the 22124 in different colors. The BS and Jointer look pretty standard but well thought out. The pricing is supposed to be right in there with Delta and Jet. The planner looks awesome with digital depth control and the mortiser has some really neat features I wish my Delta had.

[brooks]

Thanks for this link, it was very interesting. What do you think of that titanium coated saw table? That sounds interesting, especially for people near coasts. Salt water atmosphere can be a big drag on tools.

[drumpriest]

I say again, as I did in the other thread about these guys. Why for the love of Pete are tool companies releasing new table saws WITHOUT RIVING KNIVES?!?

I know the answer, they don't want to retool factories for the new type of guard, costs too much, but gee, it's not THAT much and it's a huge step up in my opinion for a very small part.

My BT ever dies, it'll be 3k$ for a Laguna.

[dwolsten]

I say again, as I did in the other thread about these guys. Why for the love of Pete are tool companies releasing new table saws WITHOUT RIVING KNIVES?!?

I know the answer, they don't want to retool factories for the new type of guard, costs too much, but gee, it's not THAT much and it's a huge step up in my opinion for a very small part.

According to posts on other forums I've read, there's supposedly a patent minefield involving riving knives, and that's why they didn't put in a riving knife. That sounds fishy to me, though, since our "lowly" BT3100 for $250-300 has a riving knife, so unless TTI (owner of Ryobi) owns the necessary patent(s), then obviously the license fee can't be very much.

[davidtu]

According to posts on other forums I've read, there's supposedly a patent minefield involving riving knives, and that's why they didn't put in a riving knife. That sounds fishy to me, though, since our "lowly" BT3100 for $250-300 has a riving knife, so unless TTI (owner of Ryobi) owns the necessary patent(s), then obviously the license fee can't be very much.

There's a third option: TTI probably owns a bunch of *other* patents--ones that the riving knife people have interest in--and in cases like these, companies will simply exchange patent rights and not necessarily money.

Or they can afford to research and step around the patent which a smaller company cannot afford to do so they simply skip it altogether.