Popular Woodworking 2000-01 № 112, страница 29

1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1968 1970 1971 1972

Berlin Wall constructed; Alan Shepard first American in space; first cordless drill introduced by Black & Decker

John Glenn circles Earth in space craft; first minicomputer

JKF assassinated Martin Luther by gunman; King "I have a

cassette tapes invented

dream!" speech celebrates passage of Civil Rights Act; BASIC computer language invented

Continuous bombing of North Vietnam ordered by Lyndon B. Johnson; first word processor

Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinated; TET offensive results in heavy casualties

Makita enters the U.S. market

Black & Decker introduces the first Workmate

Watergate break-in sets off chain reaction; digital watch invented

amateur users.

Manufacturers with a fresh perspective and fewer preconceived notions did better. In 1919, Harvey Tautz started the Delta Specialty Co. and housed it in the garage of his Milwaukee home. Over the next 30 years, Delta developed a range of small woodworking machines that, in many ways, set the standard for quality in home shop machinery. Though small, these machines were not toys. Like their industrial counterparts, they were accurately machined from generous amounts of cast iron.

Delta's first tool, the hand-crank-powered "American Boy Scroll Saw," appeared in 1923 and was followed in 1928 by the more substantial "Delta Hand-Shop." It comprised a 9" lathe, 8" disc sander and 6" table saw, all driven directly by an electric motor. A 12" American Giant Scroll Saw completed the outfit,which sold for $99.50. In 1937, the company introduced its most famous machine, a 10" floor model table saw called the "Unisaw." The first saw of its size to have a tilting arbor, rather than a tilting table, the Unisaw sold for $89.50 in 1939; to date 640,000 have been sold. The photo of the 1937 version looks exactly like the 1960s-vintage machine I owned in my first shop and not much different from the Unisaw sold today. The Unisaw hasn't

changed much because it's been hard to improve on the design — almost every 10" stationary table saw on the market today is a virtual clone.

Delta wasn't the only fledgling manufacturer hoping to capture the home-shop market, but surprisingly few survive today. In a market dominated by inexpensive import machines, Delta still holds its own (in part by selling machines it imports). Today Delta's customers include factories and small commercial shops as well as amateurs at

One of the early cordless drills. Cordless drills have banished tangled cords from many shops (courtesy of Makita).

the top end of a vast home-shop market that exceeds, I imagine, even the wildest dreams of Harvey Tautz.

Occupying the middle and lower end of that market, selling to folks perhaps a bit less passionate about woodworking or less able to bankroll their passion, was (and is) Sears. With catalog sales and retail stores reaching into every corner of the country, Sears has long had a finger on the pulse of the American consumer. And as a retailer, rather than a manufacturer, Sears responded to new trends and opportunities better than traditional machinery manufacturers.

Sears Started Small

Sears offered its first

power tools for the home

market in 1928 — sev-Tool catalogs and magazines helped generate a desire to build and a lust for tools (courtesy of Dana Batory).

eral table saws, "bench drills" and bench grinders. The same year marked the introduction of the now-familiar Craftsman brand name, which designated the top-of-the-line equipment in the company's good-better-best tiered marketing. As with other goods sold under various Sears brand names, woodworking machines (and hand tools) were manufactured by outside firms according to Sears specifications. Emerson, a St. Louis firm whose rotating fans cooled hot summer evenings in my childhood home, manufactured many of Sears stationary and benchtop tools from the 1950s until recently. Sometimes, manufacturers worked closely with Sears to design tools produced only for Sears. Other tools came from existing lines. Near as I can tell from my well-worn machine, Sears changed only the name plate on the 12" Parks thickness planer sold under the Craftsman label in the 1950s. While Sears' tools weren't always the top-quality machines on the market, they were dependable (the company has long subjected its products to rigorous in-house testing) and a good value for money. In 1930, for instance, Sears sold a 7" bench saw for $16.75.

Home-shop versions of stationary or benchtop machines — table saws, jointers,

40 XXIX Popular Woodworking January 2000