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What People Are Saying About Us!
They don’t make radial arm industrial saws like they used to! That’s according to several contractors in charge of metal cutting work who are choosing refurbished 20-year-old DeWalt saws over new brands. Now a defunct line, DeWalt saws were originally owned by Black and Decker. "I think the old (DeWalt saws) are better than today’s new ones and they are definitely a lot cheaper—by 50 percent," says Dave Farley of CECO, a division of United Dominion International. "Think about anything that you buy today. Are you going to rely on it lasting another twenty years? Probably not," Farley says. The largest hollow metal company in the U.S., CECO recommends buying used DeWalts over new saws to its distributors nationwide. This year, Farley says three more CECO dealers are purchasing used DeWalts from Wolfe Machinery Company, an Iowa-based firm which has carved great success for itself out of recycling this defunct line of industrial radial arm saws. No longer manufactured, DeWalt saws are still commonly referred to as the Cadillac or workhorse of the industrial and manufacturing saw industries. But Black & Decker sold the line of saws in the late 1980s to two of its former executives who founded Lancaster Machinery. Not long afterwards, Lancaster went bankrupt. "The reasons we went to Wolfe to purchase a used DeWalt instead of buying new brands are many," he says. They include: (1) lower cost, (2) ability to trade in old saws which eliminated disposal hassles, and (3) ability to get the very DeWalt (model) needed to fit into McDonald Douglas’ existing work station. "I did a little checking before I got a hold of Wolfe. We were looking not only for replacement saws, but also something that would fit into the same work envelope." In purchasing refurbished DeWalts, the company wouldn’t have to change the material-handling structure around the old saws, such as a large vacuum system which collects chips and the support tables around the saws. Pleased with the DeWalt purchases, Henderson believes the refurbished saws from Wolfe Machinery will last another 15 or 20 years. "We had a long life with the originals which I think were 20 years old and we hadn’t had any problems with them," he says. However, Harry Knorr, plant manager for Skytech Systems, a Pennsylvania skylight and solarium manufacturer, says buying a brand new radial arm industrial saw could have posed serious problems for his plant. "I bought this for its turn-tilt capabilities," Knorr says of the DeWalt he purchased from Wolfe Machinery three months ago. It would be ridiculous to invest in a brand new saw when the DeWalt is the only one I could find with this capability. It goes beyond the 45 degree turn-tilt. We’ve already had it turn 70 degrees and tilt 45 degrees. It was a wild cut." Knorr says he discovered new saws today are capable of only 45 degree turns and 45 degree tilts, unless all the safety guards are removed. "With this rebuilt DeWalt, we only had to modify the blade guard. The new ones are totally enclosed." However, Knorr says he considered putting a new arm on an existing saw to increase its turn and tilt capabilities. "But the price of a new arm is just as much as a reconditioned DeWalt," says Knorr. Skytech Systems is a nine million dollar company serving customers world-wide. It uses the old DeWalts mainly for cutting aluminum rafter bars. "We have not had any problems with the ones we have," Knorr boasts. Sometimes price is not the only reason for purchasing used instead of new saws in the metal processing industries. Knorr maintains: "Some of the equipment made back in the earlier times is holding up a lot better than the things built now. Sometimes the high-tech things are too temperamental and won’t even work well just because of the humidity." Matt Deutscher of Deutscher & Daughters, a hollow metal door and frame supplier in Jamaica, Queens agrees. He purchased a used DeWalt this Spring in an effort to realize huge savings by doing in-house mitering work. "Instead of buying materials in the exact length, we can buy stick material at a cheaper price and cut it down to what we need. Before we bought it premitered. The entire cost of switching over to doing our own cutting and mitering was about $7,000 (including the new saw and renovations) but we’ll save that much on our first job alone. The savings will be huge." Deutscher says when he began looking for a good industrial radial arm saw for this work, his company’s main supplier, CECO, of course, recommended we buy DeWalts from Wolfe Machinery. "There’s a strong market for used DeWalt saws due to price and quality of the machine. Plus DeWalt owners are so happy to find someone manufacturing and selling parts for—and servicing—them." For more information about Wolfe Machinery Co., call 800-345-6659. *Reprinted with permission of Maggie Connors
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