So as we said last week, Jackson, TN just doesn’t seem to fit the bill for a major distribution hub. Naturally, there may be some who would disagree with me, and that’s fine. This series of articles are just MY opinion. They are written from one that lived through the time and recalls it very well. After all, this was MY company. One we had built pretty much from the scrap heap over 15 years. It wasn’t easy seeing corporate decisions being implemented that seemed to arise more from personal bias than any sense of best business practices.
Then there was another logistics issue. Delta International Machinery worked from 3 locations: Pittsburgh, PA was Delta HQ, with admin, engineering, finance, sales and HR on hand. Tupelo, MS was the factory where almost all of the ‘made in USA’ machines were built. Memphis, TN housed distribution, Customer Service and Technical Service. So now, due to the ‘merger’, the staffs of Pittsburgh and Memphis were headed for Jackson…or were they?
Granted, I am more familiar with the events that related to the Memphis operation, but I have enough friends in Pittsburgh that I have a pretty good grasp of what transpired. Maybe we’d best just put it like this: Out of over 100 people in the Pittsburgh facility, (and remember, these were the ‘brains of Delta’, the people who spearheaded the growth of the company and oversaw it’s becoming the powerhouse that it was by 1999) 8, yes E-I-G-H-T, people accepted positions in Jackson, with the new Pentair Tools Group. I have been told that there were 2 major factors involved that decimated the ‘brains of Delta’. First; those who were in control of assembling the Pentair Tools Group did not make any “serious offers” to those in Pittsburgh. What I mean by that is this for example. Let’s say that a person was the Director of Engineering at Delta Pittsburgh and they got an offer to relocate to Jackson and become the Engineering Manager reporting to the Director of Porter-Cable Engineering. This would not be considered a comparable offer in anyone’s book. The Second factor was that most ‘Pittsburghers’ simply did not want to leave Pittsburgh and move to Jackson, TN. In truth, that was the reason that Delta had not consolidated its operations in Memphis, or even Tupelo back in the Mid-80’s. The ‘Pittsburgh gang’ were mostly folks who had worked for the Rockwell Power Tool Division and it was based in Pittsburgh- so they had some deep roots there and we worked it out for them to stay there. At times, it was frustrating having our ‘honchos’ so far away, but we managed to make it work and made a ton of money with it that way, so it was OK.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Column #50 - The backstory of the downhill slide
So, here we are, along about 1984 in our story of how Delta became an ‘un-legend’. Just so that it’s clear, I will name no names in my stories and I’m really not going to fault any one individual, but I sure will tell what happened and dog-out the corporate mentality that allowed it happen. Also, please understand, I still have a LOT of Delta gray in my blood. Yes, the brand is still alive, but in MY humble opinion, it is a shell of it’s former self. I do wish it well in the future but it has a long way to go and it must get back to its roots.
1984. It was the first year back from the grave of a time-honored name- Delta. Once we got on our feet, the very next year we decided to create a Technical Service Department, of which, yours truly was a founding member.
As a whole, Delta was starting to regain its footing in the industry. Pentair gave us the financial backing to create new tools and helped us maintain a measure of stability. Other than that, they pretty much stayed out of our way. As a reward for that, Delta became an absolute cash cow for them for the next 15 years. Along about this time, Porter-Cable had risen to the top of the heap of the portable electric tool market and it too became a cash cow for Pentair. From 1984 thru 1999, both Delta and Porter-Cable were ‘strokin’. We introduced new tools, had numerous inventions and patents and basically had the markets by the tail…and oh yes, we were making Pentair a ton of money. And then came 1999…
1999. The announcement came that Delta and Porter-Cable were going to “merge” and move into a state-of-the-art 500,000 sq.ft. distribution and Group headquarters facility in Jackson, TN and henceforth be called “Pentair Tools Group”. Right away, we saw that someone had more than a reasonable amount of influence with the management at Pentair. Think about it… when one thinks of a distribution hub for America, Jackson, TN is not it. On the other hand, Memphis would qualify very well. The problem was that Porter-Cable was a ‘big fish’ in a small pond in Jackson and their management team had no desire to move to the Memphis area. Not that I can blame them- Jackson is like heaven when compared to Memphis. But still, the basic idea of having your corporate distribution efforts locked into Jackson, TN, which is about 80 miles from the rail yards and trucking hubs in Memphis (leading to untold amounts of extra shipping dollars) does not seem to make good sense.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
1984. It was the first year back from the grave of a time-honored name- Delta. Once we got on our feet, the very next year we decided to create a Technical Service Department, of which, yours truly was a founding member.
As a whole, Delta was starting to regain its footing in the industry. Pentair gave us the financial backing to create new tools and helped us maintain a measure of stability. Other than that, they pretty much stayed out of our way. As a reward for that, Delta became an absolute cash cow for them for the next 15 years. Along about this time, Porter-Cable had risen to the top of the heap of the portable electric tool market and it too became a cash cow for Pentair. From 1984 thru 1999, both Delta and Porter-Cable were ‘strokin’. We introduced new tools, had numerous inventions and patents and basically had the markets by the tail…and oh yes, we were making Pentair a ton of money. And then came 1999…
1999. The announcement came that Delta and Porter-Cable were going to “merge” and move into a state-of-the-art 500,000 sq.ft. distribution and Group headquarters facility in Jackson, TN and henceforth be called “Pentair Tools Group”. Right away, we saw that someone had more than a reasonable amount of influence with the management at Pentair. Think about it… when one thinks of a distribution hub for America, Jackson, TN is not it. On the other hand, Memphis would qualify very well. The problem was that Porter-Cable was a ‘big fish’ in a small pond in Jackson and their management team had no desire to move to the Memphis area. Not that I can blame them- Jackson is like heaven when compared to Memphis. But still, the basic idea of having your corporate distribution efforts locked into Jackson, TN, which is about 80 miles from the rail yards and trucking hubs in Memphis (leading to untold amounts of extra shipping dollars) does not seem to make good sense.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Column #49 - My, how things do keep changing
Last week we discussed how to get a flat, unbowed piece of stock ready for “thicknessing” in our planer. That method needs to be used on any stock you send thru your planer. Sure, you can send a warped or bowed piece thru. I’ve seen it done hundreds of times, but 99.75 times out of 100, the piece will come out with the bow or twist intact. I cannot stress it more; planers are just designed to make an item the same thickness – not flat.
Now, how does this fit with my column header? Well, it doesn’t. But here’s what does. Just yesterday, Jan 7, I learned that my old company, Delta, has been agreed to be sold to a company in Anderson, SC. The Delta brand has been owned by Black & Decker since October of 2004. That purchase was one of the major factors in me leaving them with over 23 years of service. Early last year, Black & Decker was bought by Stanley. The new company name was Stanley Black & Decker/DeWalt/Delta/Porter-Cable, etc, etc. It was kind of sad looking.
The story of how Delta became such a liability is one of classic corporate mis-management. (It reminds me a lot of what Harley-Davidson went through) Delta has a long history since being founded in a garage in 1919. It went thru the war years and became THE leader in the woodworking machine industry through its involvement with governments and schools. I think more students, during the 1940-1990 years, were introduced to woodworking by virtue of their school having Delta machines, than any other brand.
At one point, Delta was bought by Rockwell and absorbed into their Power Tool Division, which contained another iconic tool brand, Porter-Cable. Porter-Cable was started in 1906 and was a portable electric tool company.
Rockwell controlled the purse strings and because of a lot of cost-cutting measures in the late 1970’s, the machines just weren’t quite as good as they had been.
Along about 1982, a company out of MN, Pentair, bought the portable tool part of Rockwell’s Power Tool Division, resurrected the old Porter-Cable name and headquartered it at their factory in Jackson, TN. (I had started work with Rockwell in mid-1981, and about 8 months later got to watch half of the Memphis warehouse get emptied) It was not a pretty time for those of us who were experts on the stationary machines. Well lo & behold, 2 years later, Pentair came back and bought the rest of Rockwell’s Power Tool Division. They resurrected the old Delta name…and we’ll tell you more next week.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
Now, how does this fit with my column header? Well, it doesn’t. But here’s what does. Just yesterday, Jan 7, I learned that my old company, Delta, has been agreed to be sold to a company in Anderson, SC. The Delta brand has been owned by Black & Decker since October of 2004. That purchase was one of the major factors in me leaving them with over 23 years of service. Early last year, Black & Decker was bought by Stanley. The new company name was Stanley Black & Decker/DeWalt/Delta/Porter-Cable, etc, etc. It was kind of sad looking.
The story of how Delta became such a liability is one of classic corporate mis-management. (It reminds me a lot of what Harley-Davidson went through) Delta has a long history since being founded in a garage in 1919. It went thru the war years and became THE leader in the woodworking machine industry through its involvement with governments and schools. I think more students, during the 1940-1990 years, were introduced to woodworking by virtue of their school having Delta machines, than any other brand.
At one point, Delta was bought by Rockwell and absorbed into their Power Tool Division, which contained another iconic tool brand, Porter-Cable. Porter-Cable was started in 1906 and was a portable electric tool company.
Rockwell controlled the purse strings and because of a lot of cost-cutting measures in the late 1970’s, the machines just weren’t quite as good as they had been.
Along about 1982, a company out of MN, Pentair, bought the portable tool part of Rockwell’s Power Tool Division, resurrected the old Porter-Cable name and headquartered it at their factory in Jackson, TN. (I had started work with Rockwell in mid-1981, and about 8 months later got to watch half of the Memphis warehouse get emptied) It was not a pretty time for those of us who were experts on the stationary machines. Well lo & behold, 2 years later, Pentair came back and bought the rest of Rockwell’s Power Tool Division. They resurrected the old Delta name…and we’ll tell you more next week.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Column #48 - Straightening Warped & Bowed Stock
2011…well, here we are. Now, can we get back to where we were? We were talking about Industrial Planers (IP’s for short) and snipeing, but there is so much more to them than just snipe. Perhaps we had better start at the beginning. Some of this stuff is going to be good info for ALL planers.
So, we’ve discussed that planers are really ‘thicknessers’ and to let them do the best job they can, they need a flat board to start with. Let’s talk about shop setup. I’ve often been asked ‘when I’m putting a shop together, what are the first machines I should buy?’ It does depend on what your shop’s purpose will be, but just for this week, let’s say that the goal is a decent little Woodshop.
Your shop’s heart is the Table Saw. You really can’t get anywhere without one of those and a 10-inch Table Saw will be fine for all but the largest projects. I believe the next purchase is a good Jointer. The bigger, the better if you will be doing larger projects. Naturally, if you intend to build model airplanes, a 4-inch jointer would be fine. After that, it’s the Planer. Again, you’ll need to choose an appropriate size. Follow this up with a good Drill Press and then perhaps a good Bandsaw. Most projects can be done with this group. Sanders, Shapers, Lathes and Hand Power Tools are also part of a complete Woodshop.
Alright, so you now have a basic woodshop and have this board you need to make flat, so you can run it through your planer. First, use your Jointer and surface one side of it. “Surface” is the technique of flattening one of the wide ‘faces’ until it is smooth and flat. Once you’ve done that, place your surfaced face against the fence and make passes until one edge has been jointed. At this point, you will have two parts of the board flat and smooth, and they will be 90degrees to each other.
Now, take your piece to your Table Saw, place the surfaced face on the table, and the jointed edge against your fence. Rip the board to the width you need. Now you have a board with 3 flat and straight surfaces. Now you are ready to place the surfaced face on the Planer’s bed, set your thickness adjustment and run the stock through the Planer.
You now have a straight board, that is flat and the proper thickness. All that remains is to cut it to the proper length. Remember, measure twice, cut once.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
So, we’ve discussed that planers are really ‘thicknessers’ and to let them do the best job they can, they need a flat board to start with. Let’s talk about shop setup. I’ve often been asked ‘when I’m putting a shop together, what are the first machines I should buy?’ It does depend on what your shop’s purpose will be, but just for this week, let’s say that the goal is a decent little Woodshop.
Your shop’s heart is the Table Saw. You really can’t get anywhere without one of those and a 10-inch Table Saw will be fine for all but the largest projects. I believe the next purchase is a good Jointer. The bigger, the better if you will be doing larger projects. Naturally, if you intend to build model airplanes, a 4-inch jointer would be fine. After that, it’s the Planer. Again, you’ll need to choose an appropriate size. Follow this up with a good Drill Press and then perhaps a good Bandsaw. Most projects can be done with this group. Sanders, Shapers, Lathes and Hand Power Tools are also part of a complete Woodshop.
Alright, so you now have a basic woodshop and have this board you need to make flat, so you can run it through your planer. First, use your Jointer and surface one side of it. “Surface” is the technique of flattening one of the wide ‘faces’ until it is smooth and flat. Once you’ve done that, place your surfaced face against the fence and make passes until one edge has been jointed. At this point, you will have two parts of the board flat and smooth, and they will be 90degrees to each other.
Now, take your piece to your Table Saw, place the surfaced face on the table, and the jointed edge against your fence. Rip the board to the width you need. Now you have a board with 3 flat and straight surfaces. Now you are ready to place the surfaced face on the Planer’s bed, set your thickness adjustment and run the stock through the Planer.
You now have a straight board, that is flat and the proper thickness. All that remains is to cut it to the proper length. Remember, measure twice, cut once.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
_______________________________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this newspaper. Neither the author, nor this newspaper, accepts any liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
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