Steel City Tool Works

[RayOK]

Any one hear how soon the new 8" jointers are coming along? Are they on schedule for July 2009? My Woodcraft retailer says many other tool orders are backlogged?

[SARGE..g-47]

It appears you aren't getting any replies on this one so I will note a few things. I am friends with the former President of Steel City and his brother who was over technical. But.. the company re-organized internally and moved the operation to CA. from Murfreesboro, Tn. That took about two months. Some didn't want to make the move so opted out.

There is a new president of the company who is one of the owners and headed the Canadian operation in Ontario. So... with that said.. give Steel City customer service a call and see if they can give you a tenative date when they will arrive. Things were in turmoil for almost two months and just beginning to get back to normal.

[Pappy]

I have one tool dealer that was carrying Steel City. He says he won't sell them again. Too many problems with returns/repairs. One particular cabinet saw has had motor failures 3 times, twice on the original and then once on the replacement. The last time he said not to bother fixing it for him. Just give back the money.

[final_t]

My experiance

The re-org has totally screwed the company up. It took SC a month to ship the saw, when it was sitting in the warehouse waiting for someone to slap a label on it.
I am *STILL* waiting for the WWII blade that was supposed to come with it (April special). I've called multiple, multiple times. First four times they had no record of the order nor the waybill. Then they had no record of me calling before. The last time was the shocker: they had actually put my request in the system, but had marked the amount to be shipped as zero. WTF?

I can totally see vendors not willing to deal with SC, and I fully see them going out of business within the next 6-8 months if they don't get their act together and quit jerking people around.

[SARGE..g-47]

Contrary to Pappy's report.. I have 3 Steel City machines and no problems with the exception of a start capacitor on my 18" BS. It was a 10 Amp and the machine will draw about 12-13 Amps on start up then level to under 10. They replaced the 10 Amp with a 15 A on latter models.

I got mine replaced within a day after calling customer service as I live within 300 miles of Murfressboro. Absolutely no problems since but... but... under the current circumstances as I do not know the new president or the direction they intend to take the company.... I would not purchase until I know that things have smoothed out or things take a turn for the worse as the economy is not good for any tool company and they were the new boys on the block so to speak.

So... exercise caution at this point of re-organization is the advice I would give if you had asked. You didn't but... I will say it anyway. I have their 8" joiner with black granite fence. Absolutely quiet machine and vibration free but.... under the circumstances. Well.. you get the picture.