Originally Posted by
Shiraz Balolia
Obviously I know a lot more about this issue than probably anyone on this site, having been importing WW machines from Taiwan well before Jet, Powermatic, Baleigh, Laguna or most other current importers of machines have been. It is a misconception that you are getting a better machine because you are paying more. Most of the price difference comes from the fact that most of the companies are two stepping the product (selling through dealers) rather than selling direct, like Grizzly has always done.
Yes, we all specify our colors, switches, casters, nameplates etc. However, you do not get different bearings in WW machines, than the standard good bearings that the supplier uses. You do not get a certain type of casting - that is a ridiculous notion. Most of the companies source the castings from casting suppliers that have minimum runs and long lead times. Can you even imagine the "cluster" it would be if a company had special castings specified for 30 or so machines at a time, and how the factory would even keep track of something like that?
The main difference comes in the quality control. We have an office in Taiwan with our own QC engineers that go everyday to the factories and perform a variety of QC checks, usually several pages on the checklist, per model, to make sure that things that cropped up in the past are no longer repeated. We check the parts as they come in and during assembly and then after final assembly to make sure. We even check shipments when they arrive here to make sure there are no issues before we ship them to customers. Even then, once in a while, stuff might get by because of the sheer volume (we ship tens of thousands of pounds of machines every single day, and have sold more WW machines in USA than any other company in the last 30 years. The bottom line is that when buying a Grizzly machine, you get a really good value for the money, and all the experience behind us. We would not have grown if we sold junk - the society today, with all the social media access, is intolerant of bad quality and bad value. You will always have the naysayers and the elitists who are either stuck in the past, or look down upon anything not made in Europe.