JET 708315LSB JBTS-10LS-2 15 Amp Benchtop 10-Inch Table Saw with Fixed Stand and Storage Shelf

by Jet

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

An inexpensive, quality tool. Belt driven for smooth operation. Trim carpenters will appreciate this saw for its portability; it can be moved from room to room following the work. This is a great table saw for those weekend projects. It’s light enough, so it can moved out of the garage or storage to be used for a day project and returned to its home at night. This is also a great starter table saw for those just getting into woodworking. Comes standard with a 2-inch dust port for attaching to a shop vacuum or dust collection system. -- Gabriel Shantara Ford

Product Description

10" table saw has 15A Smooth Speed belt drive transmission with poly-V belt to eliminate blade vibration and extend the life of the motor along with providing quieter operation and better transfer of power. Precision-Rule measurement system has cutting capacity up to 24-1/2". 5/8" arbor. Cuts up to 3" at 90 and 2-1/2" at 45. 5000 RPM. Includes: Leg stand, steel shelf, miter gauge, 2 rapid wing extension, and rear outfeed support.

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 36 x 24 x 17 inches
• Shipping Weight: 81.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000CFH3AI
• Item model number: 708315SLB
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,570 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)
  • #48 in Home Improvement > Power & Hand Tools > Power Tools > Saws > Table Saws

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great saw for the price, August 16, 2006

By 

dave h (The Arizona desert) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: JET 708315LSB JBTS-10LS-2 15 Amp Benchtop 10-Inch Table Saw with Fixed Stand and Storage Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement)

The LSB version includes the stand w/ shelf, dust shroud, rear extension, and both left and right side extensions. With the left and right extensions, you get a whopping 39" wide by 18" deep table that can extend to 55" wide.

Pros:
The main feature that makes this saw truly standout is the belt drive system. Other portable table saws - even some double the price - use noisy direct-drive or geared motors that are little more than upside-down circular saws.

Saw startup is very smooth, and the table has virtually no vibration while running. The blade arbor uses large sealed ball bearings and has no measurable lateral movement (run out).
(Update: after several months of regular use, I used a dial indicator to measure the run out. Total run out was .002" one inch in from the cutting tips. Impressive! Now I know why my ripped edges are so smooth.)

The construction quality overall is very good to excellent. It feels solid, yet at around 75 lbs, I can pick it up and move it by myself. The blade tilt rack and pinion gears are metal. Blade height adjustment is smooth at 6 turns per inch. It has built-in cord and accessory storage.

(Update: like many other saws, there isn't a blade height lock, so like another reviewer mentioned, I had to bungee my height crank handle when using a stack dado. Good tip!)

The included stand legs were easy to assemble, but do reduce the overall "portability" of the saw since they are not a "quick attach" design. The dust shroud can connect to both 2 ½" shop vac and 4" dust collector hoses.

It has a 5-year warranty and JET has fantastic customer service.

Cons:
The arbor pulley limits the cutting height to 3". If you need to rip 4x dimensional lumber, this is the wrong saw, but then again, any saw under $500 is probably ill-suited for that.

The single rail fence is OK, but not amazing. Out-of-the-box, my fence would "pull" off-square 1/16" front-to-back when clamped. But once I adjusted it, it clamps down square. (Update: I saw other reviewers struggle with the fence. I was able to figure out how to adjust it based on experience w/ other saws, but the instruction manual lacks the info. If you can't get it adjusted square and tight, call JET tech support.)

The miter slots are not standard 3/4" but are 5/8" T-slots. In order to use a Rockler feather board, I have to use T-bolts ("toilet bolts") for the hold-down screws instead of the standard attachment bars.

The miter gauge is terrible w/o some tweaking. The slider bar is so undersized it can move around in the slot a few degrees of play. I built it up with some UHMW Poly glide tape to eliminate the slop. The narrow T-slots limit your replacement choices.

The blade guard is hard to adjust. It took me several attempts. Of course, once it's adjusted, you shouldn't need to mess with it until you change blades.

In Summary (updated):
This is a pretty darn good saw for the price. Sure, it could be improved, but it blows away all other saws in its price range mainly due to the incredible belt drive design. I'm giving it 4 stars because the miter gauge is such poor quality and the slots aren't standard to allow for an easy upgrade. I noticed other people taking off 2-3 stars for flaws that are common in every saw under 300 bucks. Get real people; a high quality dual-rail fence system alone costs more than this saw does. To be portable, the table top needs to be aluminum, and no aluminum top will every be perfectly flat over a range of temperatures. This one is cast then machined, and is about as good as an aluminum table gets. The bottom line is, this saw provides the best quality cut for under 300 bucks, and is fairly quiet and portable. If you need help (with the fence or whatever), JET's tech support is very helpful. And if something is damaged upon arrival, they send you the replacement parts w/o any hassle. A lot of other companies will make you send the whole saw back in that situation. Having dealt with several of the big name brands, I can tell you that JET customer support is far and away the best. And their warranty is the best: 5 years, and no hassles. If you buy JET from Amazon, your saw is automatically registered in JET's support database so you never need to send proof of purchase or any of the ususal nonsense. If you have a problem, just call. For example, I had trouble adjusting the 45 degree stop per the manual - the allen bolt wouldn't turn and I didn't want to strip the head. A quick call to JET solved the problem (the manual neglects to tell you that you might need to loosen the lock nuts on the underside of the table on the stop bolts).

Like I said, this saw isn't perfect, but it's the best in it's price class (even better if you wait for Amazon's free shipping on tools specials). If you want "better", you'll need to spend more - a lot more. If you only need "semi-portability", you should look at the JET 708100. Another fairly new JET saw that's also best for it's price.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A sow's ear..., October 16, 2006

By 

W. Dart (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JET 708315LSB JBTS-10LS-2 15 Amp Benchtop 10-Inch Table Saw with Fixed Stand and Storage Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement)

A silk purse...?

Having to sell my large table saw when moving to a smaller home, could I really make one of these portable saws into a reasonable replacement for a full size table saw? I looked at them all and the Jet was the best bang for the buck. With belt drive, two side extensions plus outfeed and legs this saw is beginning to really grow on me after much tweaking and accessory building. I took the advice from another saw review and purchased my 708315LSB from my local home center. It was on sale for less than USD200 and they receive them in pallet loads that help preclude shipping damage that happens to singly shipped saws. The box was undamaged, the saw was well packed and came out in perfect condition.

The 90° and 45° stops were right on but I adjusted them back and forth to check that they operated OK. The blade was parallel to the miter slots as well as a straight and parallel fence rail. There was no measurable runout on the arbor shaft both radially and axially. Jet states the arbor shaft rotates at 5000 RPM. The motor pulley is larger than the shaft pulley so the motor is at a lower RPM than the shaft which is one reason this saw is so quiet. The motor has no data plate but one could measure the pulley diameters and come up with the RPM.

Jet must have received complaints as the miter gauge is now cast aluminum with raised numbers, but still slops in the slots. Building up the slide bar with UHMW tape took care of that. The nonstandard slots creates a few problems with standard accessories. However, making your own slide bars is not a problem. At least they are T-slots so I ground down the heads on some ¼-20 bolts until I could slide them in with a washer and install other accessories such as a feather board.

Made from thin aluminum the fence leaves something to be desired as it is very flimsy compared to some other portable saw fences. When installing a sacrificial fence you will cave in the back side of the fence unless you add some support on that side also.

The table is where Jet let this saw down. The sides outside the miter slots drop several thousandths of an inch and the side extensions drop even further. This means the work is supported only by the center 10" of the table. I am still trying to find a way to level the table while keeping in mind that this is a portable saw and not a cast iron top table saw.

While I was doing this I ordered a backup belt from Jet and was pleased with their customer service. The rep knew exactly what I wanted and the belt was received in less than a week.

Zero clearance inserts are another pain with these saws but it can be done. The support flanges are close to the table surface so making an insert is very labor intensive. I cut some ¼" melamine stock to the size of the opening and with a small router gouged out the proper places to make them fit. I replaced the factory blade with a carbide 60 tooth and it cuts smooth as glass with little or no vibration.

Another tip: Buy a cinder block, wrap it in duct tape (to keep grit away from the saw) and place it on the lower shelf. This gives the saw the needed "heavy" feel and cuts down on what little noise and vibration there is. I substituted all the nuts that hold the legs and shelf with wing nuts which makes the saw store nicely under my workbench but can be put together in minutes when needed.

I would recommend this saw if you are willing to do a little extra work to make it right (as with all these saws). But it does make smooth, accurate, quiet, vibration free cuts and the belt drive lets the blade slide through a 2x4 with a barely noticeable drop in speed. The flimsy fence, table flatness and miter slots prevent me from giving this saw a higher rating.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good starter saw for the price, February 11, 2007

By 

K. Goodson (Norman, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JET 708315LSB JBTS-10LS-2 15 Amp Benchtop 10-Inch Table Saw with Fixed Stand and Storage Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement)

I've used a lot of table saws and this one certainly isn't the best. However, it's pretty darned good. Assembly and setup was a piece of cake, the manual was clear and concise and sensible in recommending smart safety practices.

The fence was a little out of square coming out of the box. Having managed a shipping department for 10 years, I can assure you that should be no surprise. The knocks that the average box takes in shipping will, no matter how well packed, cause some things to shift in transit.

I'm not thrilled with how sloppy the miter gauge slots are, but some of the other reviews mention an easy way of correcting the problem. I just used a miter gauge I happened to have on hand from my band saw, so it wasn't an issue for me.

Cuts are smooth, the arbor has very little wobble and the motor is considerably quieter than I expected. The height adjustment DOES creep down when performing any cutting operation where the blade doesn't cut completely through the workpiece, as when dado-ing, notching, etc. Expect to use some method of stabilizing the knob if you perform such operations at all.

This is a good saw for the beginning woodworker, but expect to spend a little bit of money on a narrow kerf blade. That's an issue with almost any benchtop saw. Horsepower is horsepower and every bit of horsepower you can save will help the saw be more efficient. Not only will the narrow kerf blade save horsepower, but it will save wood, leave a cleaner cut edge and reduce sawdust. Expect to build or make a zero clearance throat plate, featherboards, an auxillary fence, an outfeed table and jigs to make it more useful. Yes, you can use it as is, but having those shop-made extras will make the saw safer, more accurate and just generally more useful. The throat plate is a little non standard, but it is trivial to make a replacement.

This saw is a very good buy for the price and is probably the best buy in it's price class, especially if you catch Amazon's free shipping offer when it's available.