I was a power tool repairman for 10 years. One thing I can tell you: Don't buy any Craftsman power tools. If it needs repair, you won't find a tool repair shop that will touch them. Too hard to get parts. They're also homeowner-grade stuff for building birdhouses once ina while. Won't stand up to heavy use. Delta used to be a good tool, but their quality took a major nosedive. Those stationary belt sanders they sell are chock full of plastic parts. Ryobi is basically a homeowner-grade tool, in the same league with Craftsman power tools. Porter Cable used to have a good line-up of portable power tools, but I think they get their stationary line from Delta, as they were both owned by the same company back in the late 1990s when I was repairing them. Most "American" brand power tools are made in China and all coming from the same factory. They just ask what color they want the plastic housing (and have slight differences in the plastic housing between brands.)
Grizzly is, indeed, the best you're going to find. Yes, many of them are Chinese made but guess what? So is just about everything Milwaukee makes now including their Sawzalls, Portabands, Hole Hawgs, and everything else that used to be American made. I can guarantee Delta and Porter Cable are made in China, and made fairly cheaply at that. The advantage of Grizzly is their factories copied U.S. made industrial tools from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. If I had to buy a stationary power tool, based on what I know repairing them, I'd buy a Grizzly. There's some top-notch stationary power tools coming out of Germany, too, but you're going to pay top-notch prices for those----and rightfully so, as they're worth that kind of money.
If Grizzly is beyond your price range, the Porter Cable would be ok for a while. But pay attention to it. At the first squeel or howl or funny noise, shut it down and check your pulleys and see if they're loose (tighten the nut and might be left-hand threads) and check the bearings on the pulley shafts. The cheaper power tools are notorious for using bearings that are too small and, hence, wear faster. (Smaller bearings are cheaper.) Provided it uses ball bearings and not bronze bushings. If it uses bronze bushings, you must keep those oiled well. You have to baby it. Don't push it or bog it down. Bogging it is what will eventually burn up your motor (armature and field and those two parts are a couple hundred dollar repair.) The switches on these are weak links and like to break. Don't be shutting it on and off; get your work staged and do it all at one shot without turning it on/off/on/off. The switches are not expensive to replace, though. Never use a thin extension cord on these. Use a nice, thick extension cord. Thin extension cords are what burns up motors on tools drawing a lot of amps. Right off the bat, download and print a parts diagram and learn what parts are where and what the part numbers are. Learn how to fix the thing yourself. And many of them have funny little tricks invoved in disassembly, so pay attention to every detail as you take it apart. I can't count how many times I got in "tool-in-a-box" that someone took apart to fix and didn't remember how to put it back together. If you have a local tool repair shop with an older guy running it, it's better to use that shop for repairs and pay the guy what he asks. The newer power tool repairmen I've been seeing, well, to be honest, if I was not a power tool repairman, I'd still try doing it myself rather than going to them. I learned from "old timers" and a lot of the new guys haven't even heard of half the things I learned.
Good luck.
