Quite a bit has been said about how good old iron is and how bad the new stuff being made overseas is, etc. I think its time to try to set the record straight before more confusion takes more victoms. Time for some myth busting.

1). Old iron is better than new iron. This comes from the fact that everyone says "They Dont Build em like they used to". Well, this is true and false. I know there are some old iron guys who will not like me to say this but its the truth. There were slightly more than 300 companies making woodworking machines in this country. Some were excellent. Some made unique, speciality machines. For example, Definance made machines dedicated to the wooden wheel industry. Wagon wheels and model T ford wheels, etc. But for the most part, the majority of these companies made junk. It is the job of the old iron collector to study and understand what was made and what is out there. Opinions vary all over the board. I personally have a list of about 10 to 20 companies that made really excellent machines. One of the most notable of these was Oliver. But even Oliver was not everything to every model. Oliver made a much nicer shaper than did Porter but the Porter 300 is the finest US made jointer of all time. And Lou's Newman 60 is an absolutely awsome jointer as well. But please realize that you may be making a huge mistake by buying some old hunk of iron with a non discript name. This is one arena where you need to talk to folks and fliter out the gravy from the noise.

2). You Should Only Get Old Iron From Companies Who Are Still In Business. Many folks feel that this policy is a safty blanket. That if they need parts, parts are only a phone call away. Myth Busted. Of those companies still in business, the vast majority do not wish to support the older machines of yesterday. For example, Yates American hates to support old yates machines and are convinced that these are law suits looking for a place to happen. And when you do find a company that can provide replacement parts, they are often custom made and sold to you at a huge and I do mean HUUUGGGEEEE price. Here is the truth. The engineering drawings remain the property of these companies. Companies such as northfield or delta or oliver vis a vis eagle machinery & repair. So when Jon Q Public comes along and orders up a part, the company pulls the dusty, hand made drawing from the archives and makes a copy. The copy then goes to a local job shop who in turn makes this part under a non disclosure agreement. A job shop is a machine shop that does contract machine work for other entities. Throughout this process, everyone who touchs the part gets a cut of the action. So when you get the final bill, its for a huge amount of money for that part. Looks almost like those toilet seats made for the defense department a few years back. In fact, that is exactly what happened.

So, often its easier to find your own machine shop connections and just have the part reworked or remanufactured locally. But here again, be careful as a wrong turn can introduce you to the billing practices of the US machine shop industry. This can leave your nose bloody! I personally do all my own machine work so that changes the equation for me. And if spare time permits, I also do a part or two for close associates and buddies.

3). ALL PARTS CAN ONLY BE HAD THRU THE COMPANY. Once again, myth busted. This is esp. true for companies that no longer exist. But the reality is not that brutal. Woodworking machine companies have catered to a market that was always cheap and often that meant these companies were cheap. Whenever possible, parts were designed in that were over the counter parts from other industries. This was esp. true in regard to bearings. Bearings were used from several different industries and even bearings made by bearing companies who no longer exist are still available. For example, you will frequently find bearings by Norma. Norma has been out of business for years but their part numbers are cross referenced to about 25 current makers of bearings. I can get a cross reference bearing for a Norma part number made in the USA, Japan, Germany or even China. Thats right, I can replace the ball bearing of a vintage, macho made in the USA, super old iron woodworking machine with a ball bearing that was proudly imported into the US from China. Many internal parts fall into this category from bearings to pins to motor pulleys, etc.

4). THE OLDER THE MACHINE, THE BETTER THE MACHINE. Here we go again. Myth Busted. You ever hear of a bell curve? Well if you look at quality as a function of time, you will see that its a bell curve. From about 1850 to 1900, most machine tools were just beginning to be invented. There was lots to learn about bearings, design, concepts, metalurgy, machine work, etc. By 1900, the basic designs were established. We had our table saws and our jointers and our planers and our mortisers, etc. But the bearings were often babbit and the power supply was overhead belt drive with the ponies supplied by hit and miss engines or by water wheels, etc. Speeds were low and bearings needed to be oiled everyday. They also made quite a bit of flapping noise. As the induction motor came into use, the speeds and precision of these machines improved quite a bit. Many still had babbit bearings but the bearings were better made and scraped in for higher speeds. The quality of the castings improved and the finish work on these castings also improved. Now, companies were actually finishing the whole casting and paying attention to fit and finish.

Finally, from about 1935 to about 1968, we saw the hey day of american woodworking machine tools. This is the window where some of the finest machines made were actually made. Here you find high speed, super precision ball bearings. The fit and finish was out of this world. The electrics evolved into industry standards by Allan Bradley, Furnas and Square D. Blades were of the finest HSS with elegant gib fitting. Rotating parts were dynamic balanced. The cold war was hot and so was the woodworking machine industry. Pattern shops were making all sorts of items for both the military and the consumer alike. The TV was full of vietnam protests and kennedy wanted to walk on the moon. And Dusten Hoffman starred in The Graduate which ironically was the bell wetter to the down fall of US woodworking machinery. Plastics is the Future... remember?

The seventies brought on the Volkswagan and the Honda cycle. It also introduced us to the concept of Value Engineering and Cost Reduction. The sales dropped off and companies like Oliver were not immune. Entire product lines were redesigned for the changing times and that meant cutting back on lots of quality items. Bearings grades were reduced. Machine work precision was relaxed. Castings were not finished as well. Stamped and welded parts were exchanged for previsiously cast ones. So machines like the Oliver 299 came out in the type 3 mode. Still good machines but not as good as those made during the late 60s. Eventually, none of this was enough. It was only a delay for the inevitable. The companies began closing doors one after another. Today, there are virtually no woodworking machines made in the US. There are some exceptions to this statement such as the northfield machines and a few odd ball machines by ritter and the William and Hussey Moulder up in New Hampshire. But for the most part, the bulk of woodworking machines comes from either german speaking europe or taiwan or china. The germans focused on super high end and the rest focused on super cheap for the consumer market. That is what their manufacturing system is geared for. It is not meant as a negative remark. I dont go to grizzly to buy one martin shaper, I go there to buy 20 grizz shapers for the same price.

5). ANY OLD MACHINE IS AS GOOD AS ITS BROTHER. Given two machines made by the same maker in the same year on the same line with the same model number, they are both identical in the used market. Myth Busted. One may have been in a pattern shop or high school and the other was in a southern furniture factory. One is going to be pristine and the other is in need of everything (i.e. total rebuild). As Lou calls it... whoooped. When hunting down the model your after, its important to know what kind of service life this machine has had. It may be the difference of just rolling it in and hooking up the wires or spending the next 6 months rebuilding every freakin detail on the box!

I have bought some real dogs and some cream puffs. Overall, I am personally comfortable with the spectrum from which I select stuff. But I also know that its not just possible but enivitable that I will spend time doing machine shop work on lathes and milling machines and metal shapers to bring back some of the dogs. This goes with the territory. And also bear in mind that companies like walker turner and delta and powermatic never really changed much. They were always lighter duty machines and the older machines are basicly the same ones on the new dealers floor today. So when you get one of these and rebuild it, sure, you may not be happy in comparing your work with a new model of the samo samo. In a perfect world, both are more or less identical. One has been a tremendous amount of work and the other was a credit card signature. Its hard to put a value statement on this type of comparision. That is why I stick to names like oliver, porter, onsrud, dewalt and martin in the used market. The sweat equity return for the work involved is greater.

I hope this diatribe helps some of you figure out the truths and myths of about old iron in the woodworking realm. There is lots to love and lots to hate and even more to learn. You wind up an expert on machine design and contruction, a machinst, a woodworker, a technical historian, and a guardian of the olde ways. Kinda like a walking museum. Many hats to wear and many questions to ask of many folks.