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Steel City's Machinery Line Honored As One of Popular Woodworking's Best New Tools of 2006
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Steel City Tools Machinery Line
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We've never given a "Best New Tool" award to a company's entire line of
machinery, but this is an exceptional year, and these are exceptional
tools.
To be fair with you, we haven't gotten to build any furniture
with these tools yet, but after four editors inspected the tools at the
company's headquarters and at an August woodworking show, we were
impressed.
These tools are serious, as evidenced by the close look we gave
the company's table saws. The trunnions on the company's three styles
of cabinet saws look like the trunnions on older beefy machines we're
familiar with. The T-square-style fences on the saws glide smoothly
across the table —
thanks to some clever engineering. And what is also nice is what the
saws don't have: a lot of bells and whistles. Instead, the company's
engineers upgraded what was important, such as the optional titanium
nitrite coating for the top, which reduces galling and rust.
This was the same level of attention to detail throughout the
line. The 15" planer comes standard with a clever Wixey-brand digital
depth gauge —
the only upgrade a machine like this needs. The Steel City steel-frame
band saws (a 14" cast-iron saw is in the works) are thoughtfully
designed with a tensioning system that uses two springs. Plus, on the
band saw as well as all the other machines, many of the handles are
metal instead of the plastic we've come to expect.
And the prices? You'll be pleased. The machines aren't a low-price leader, but they do seem a lot of machine for the money.
Of course, the proof will be in how these machines perform, and
we're making plans to test several of the tools in the line. But after
inspecting the machines like a customer would in a store, I can
honestly say I was ready to get out my checkbook and plunk some serious
money down on these tools. And after 10 years of seeing more new tools
than I can count, that is saying something.
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POSTED: 4:45 PM EST, December 14, 2006
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