Where to find historic list of Delta's table saw rankings?

[John W Henderson]

I've been looking at a lot of old Delta models on Craigslist and it's difficult to know what all the variations were. I can look up drawings, but their contractor design seems pretty much the same from saw to saw. In searching for one, the 36-444, I ran across this quote (source: http://www.craftkb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/woodworking/7286/Delta-36-444-or-36-680):


Delta has the 680 rated 2 table saws below the 444 on their performance scale.

I'm assuming there is some way to look and see a ranking of tools? Has anyone heard of this or does anyone know how to identify the better/worseness of various saw models which are no longer manufactured?


Thanks,
John

[Rick Lizek]

I would have to say you are over thinking this. As a former independent Delta tech and having worked on Delta saws from many vintages the parts are pretty much the same. Just find one at a price that works for you and buy it...

[John W Henderson]

I would have to say you are over thinking this. As a former independent Delta tech and having worked on Delta saws from many vintages the parts are pretty much the same. Just find one at a price that works for you and buy it...

Fair enough. I was just curious. Are you saying that the above quote is bunk? In other words, that there either 1) was no saw "two steps down" from any other (at least in the contractor line, not saying that a contractor was equivalent to cabinet) or that 2) the saws were all the same and the model numbers just indicated things like table type, wing type, fence type, and included gadgets?

[Myk Rian]

or that 2) the saws were all the same and the model numbers just indicated things like table type, wing type, fence type, and included gadgets?
Just like band saws. One little change, another model number.

Hang around OWWM.org for a while. You can learn a lot just by reading the threads. vintagemachinery.org has all the catalogs, picture history, etc.