Customer Reviews

JET 708663MBK JTAS-10SXL50 10-Inch Left Tilt 3 Horsepower Cabinet Saw with 50-Inch Xacta II Fence, Mobile Base, 2 Cast Iron Extension Wings, Table Board, and Legs, 230-Volt 1 Phase

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've used the 10" Jet cabinet saw at work for about 5 years,(we also have a delta) and have been happy with it, so I recently bought this package for my home shop.
While the saw itself is as I expected, I have reservations about the new style fence. It is bulkier, the plastic liners are retained using a hidden key slot and welded studs instead of through-bolts causing it to be more difficult to use as a foundation for jigs, featherboards etc as the old style. The micro adjusting knob is a good idea, but the action is sloppy so it is frustrating to use. My biggest problem with this package though, is the base. It is flimsy, the extension table support in particular flexes drastically- in fact, the box indicates it is for use on the lighter contractor saws.
There are no leveling feet at all, that is, the saw is supported by the casters alone even when in use. Against my better judgment, I assembled the saw upon this base, but I will be replacing it soon. The base is way inappropriate for a saw of this caliber.
My peeves with the saw itself, both the older one I use at work, and the one I bought last week, are the transluscent fence surface makes it difficult to judge whether stock is fully contacting it, and the floor of the cabinet is not optimally contoured for dust collection. In fact, the floor of the cabinet is about 1" shy of two walls which I have duct taped on both saws. Vents on the motor cover are another source of vacuum leaks. Since our Delta Unisaw cover has no such vents, I taped over them too.

4/19/05.... Since I wrote the last review, I e-mailed amazon about replacing the provided mobile base whose extension base is inadequate for this saw. In fact, calling Jet, I found out the included base extension is intended for the lighter contractor saw. Amazon refused to exchange the base only, I would have to return the whole TS package (675.00 shipping). So I went to Harbor Freight and bought 4 clamps for 1.99 each. These are simple edge clamps that are intended to attach to bar clamps to force glueups flat while being clamped. I welded 2 of these to the base extention and 2 next to the swivel wheels on the mobile base itself creating adjustable leveling feet.
Now, I can level the saw, and its weight is evenly distributed by the levelers. It is worlds more stable. Luckily for me this was a quick, cheap and easy fix.

My saw arrived in good shape. The instructions were clear and the setup was uneventful. I mounted a new Oldham blade in the saw and made some test cuts. I was disappointed with the results and concluded that the alignment was off. I checked everything and found no problems with aligment. I changed to a used, dull Freud blade and got better results.

I'm writing this review after I've used the saw for about six months. I have since switched to a Forrest WWII blade. This saw has been a pleasure to use. It has plenty of power. It is relatively quiet with no vibration. The fence is rock-solid with no deflection.

I am a woodworking hobbyist. People have asked me why I need a tablesaw that costs so much money. I don't... However, this saw is such a pleasure to use, I don't regret spending the money.

There are several reasons I didn't give it 5 stars.

1) As mentioned by another reviewer, the mobile base included with this package is pretty weak.

2) There is too much space between the magnified cursor and the scale on the Xacta fence. Because of this distance, it was difficult to determine whether the fence was exactly where you wanted it to be. I fixed this by getting some longer screws and a few washers to use as spacers. Now the cursor is very close to the scale on the fence and I can tell at a glance whether the fence is positioned properly.

3) The paint job on the fence tube was poor. It looked like it had been dunked in a vat of paint rather than being sprayed or powder coated. I had to sand down some runs and sags in the paint and coat it with wax before the fence would run smoothly.

4) It has the same crappy blade guard and splitter that my Jet contractor saw had. For this much $$$, you would think they could provide something better. Consequently, it is never on the saw.

I just purchased this table saw and wanted to report that everything went perfectly, and assembled perfectly. Some comments:

This is one heavy package and my workshop is upstairs above the garage. I think I abused a friendship getting the thing upstairs.

The dust collection port for the left-tilt is on the left (short) side. For some reason, I thought it would be on the right (long) side since the saw was left-tilt. Therefore, I had to do some minor re-routing when it arrived.

The cast iron wings on my table were pretty well aligned and planar. The wooden extension was very difficult to get aligned. Alignment is important for various reasons, one of which is that it helps for the fence to slide evenly.

I wish that Jet would build in an automatic dust collection port that opened and closed in response to the electrical power of the saw. I know that you can buy these aftermarket, but it seems like it would be a pretty simple solution for Jet and it would be another nice "feature" to differentiate their product from some competitor's.

I know my title says that everything was perfect, but the mellamine extension table did have a knicked corner. But it is small and I don't care.

I have to resist not making the extension table an extension of my workbench. It's just so handy that things seem to pile up there.

Have had my new saw for two weeks now and what a delight. After years of using "home workshop" or DIY saws and contractors saws this is awesome. Delivery was great, fortunetly the truck had a lift gate and the driver had a hand jack. Setup was intense but rewarding in the end. By the time you get the saw set up and adjusted you are comfortable that you can maintain it in the future. Overall it was close to dead on in terms of adjustment, the fence needed some minor alignment, the table wings are heavy and not easy to align but I finally "horsed" them in place and got them aligned. The fence rail was something that I suggest you get help to mount, it is heavy and awkard but once in place it was dead on. I had no problem with the extension table, just follow the directions. Getting the mobile base together and on the saw was a trip in and of itself. I put the main base under the saw first (in my enthusiasm)but you need to assemble the base and extension all at one time, the extension mount needs to go on one side of the base first. The Jet base is great (I bought three more for other tools)it goes together really easy. Having read some reviews I made sure I put the stationary wheels at the left end of the saw base and not the back so as to avoid movement problems and it is rock solid. I was finally ready to power up and Oh My what a hum. I spent time cuting 4/4 oak and ripping oak and measuring cuts and making sure my alignment was OK. With the Forrest WW2 blade this saw makes the big jointer I just got seem useless, but I don't mind. In my opinion this saw is as fine a saw for the money as you can get. Get one now!!!

I'm from a family that has a long history of wooodworking. One of my brothers, a very adept woodworker, owns a Powermatic 66. Two other brothers own Delta X5 cabinet saws, and now I've stepped up from a contractor saw to this very nice Jet.

Granted, the Powermatic is the best of the breed, but my brothers and I agree that the fit and finish of this Jet is equivalent to their Deltas. Given that the price is several hundred less, it is the better deal.

It arrived on a pallet and I managed to wrestle it down to my walkout basement with the help of my son. It is quite heavy and cumbersome...shipping receipt said 438lbs for the base saw.

I had some trepidation before ordering, due to the fact that this saw was coming from Taiwan, but my fears were quelled once I started bolting things together. It went together easily. Everything fit precisely, contrary to some of the reviews I've read. The instructions could use some proof reading, but most mechanically adept folks can manage.

The mobile base is not as beefy as my brother's Powermatic, but it is adequate. I had to drill an extra hole in the adjustment bars for the extension table to get it to fit perfectly. My only issue with this saw, which I would not have even noticed had I not recently purchased a dial caliper, is that the removable fence face is not exactly flat. I ran my dial caliper along the length of the fence in the miter slot and it wavered between +- 0.005. You have to pop off the plastic face and align the fence with the metal fence base to assure proper alignment. I plan on building several faces in the future for various operations, so it's not a big deal to me. Plus, it's wood we are machining here, not aircraft parts.

I popped in a Forrest WWII blade and it was aligned perfectly, beyond the precision of my caliper. The motor doesn't even change pitch when pushing the wood through, a joy only appreciated by those who have previously owned a contractor type saw. This is the last saw I plan on owning and I am definitely satisfied with my purchase.

12/22/05 After using the saw for a couple of months, I could never get used to the magnified, double lined indicator on the fence. I replaced this with my own indicator made from a piece of leftover 3/8" plexiglass. Using a razor blade and permanent marker to mark a very thin, single indicator on the side closest to the ruler makes it so much easier to set the width. I also ran the fence faces through my planer to lower the above mentioned waver. It helped but didn't get rid of it completely. I'm still happy with the purchase, regardless of these issues.

I just took delivery of this saw last week. I am disappointed with Jet's quality control and customer service.

I agree with other reviewers, that the mobile base for this saw is totally inadequate, but I also have a few other issues with Jet's quality control. I was just starting to mount the guide rail for the fence to the front rail (big piece of angle iron) of the saw when I discovered that the pre-drilled holes in the front rail were not drilled parallel to the face of the rail. There was a 1/2" difference from the furthest left hole to the furthest right hole in the rail. This made it impossible to align the guide rail parallel with the front edge of the saw. I also noticed a dent and several deep scratches in the guide rail (shipping damage), and that the stick-on measuring tape wasn't pre-installed on the guide rail as is shown in the fence assembly instructions.

Next, the instruction manual for the saw tells you to jam a scrap piece of wood between the saw and the blade to keep it from moving when you tighten the arbor nut. I noticed on my saw that there are flat spots already machined on the arbor shaft to facilitate use of the arbor wrench provided with the saw, but you need two of them, one to hold the arbor shaft and one to tighten the arbor nut.

I put my saw together on a Saturday afternoon, so of course, I had to wait until Monday to call Jet's customer service department. The lady with whom I spoke to at Jet on Monday morning was quite helpful in getting some new parts (guide rail, front rail and an arbor wrench) in the mail to me. I received the replacement guide rail and arbor wrench in the mail on Wednesday (these two parts came from Tennessee) and but I am still waiting for the front rail, which had to come from Washington state.

The replacement guide rail I received looked as if it had been spray painted to cover up scratches it had in it (which I could still see). The finish was very rough and as if they had spray painted it in a dusty environment. The guide rail that came with my saw originally had a very smooth powder coated finish (except in the places that were damaged, of course). I called Jet's Technical Service department this time, because I wanted to ensure that they had sent me the correct guide rail (my original one had seven pre-drilled mounting holes and the replacement only had six). I told the gentleman at Jet about the finish on the replacement part I received and he told me they had switched manufacturers for that particular item and that the replacement guide rail I had received had probably been repaired before it was sent to me, hence the spray painted finish. I explained to him that I paid for a "new" saw and I wanted a "new" guide rail with the proper powder coated finish on it (like the rest of the saw). He said, "OK, but you need to send me back the other two guide rails." I asked him who was going to pay for the shipping, and he told me that I would have to pay to send them back and Jet would pay the shipping to send the second replacement one to me. These things are heavy and would cost me a small fortune to ship. I told him I was not going to pay to shipping, especially when I didn't damage them. I told him I would speak with Customer Relations.

The lady at Customer Relations is sending me another guide rail (although, when I told her about my conversation with the man in their Technical Service department, she also started to tell me I would have to send them the other two rails back at my own expense. After explaining the situation a few times, she finally backed-off from that notion). I asked her to make sure the replacement is inspected prior to mailing and that it be packaged a little better than the last two had been. We'll see.

I am just getting started with woodworking and this was my first major tool purchase. I had been told that Jet was a good product, but after this experience, I think I will be looking to another brand to outfit the rest of my shop.

I order this saw about a month ago, and am very happy with it. When the truck showed up, I had my tractor with loader ready to unload it. Things went smoothly, other than bending my loader forks quite a bit. Brought the saw and related peices into the shop, and started unpacking it.

After a thourough inspection, the only thing I found wrong was that one of the fence faces had the brackets strip out of it. A quick call to Jet, and a new set of fence faces were on their way. I was very pleased with their response to this issue.

Set up was straight forward, but does require some heavy lifting. I found I was able to prop up one side at a time to get the mobile base under it. Once the whole saw is on the mobile base, the base is pretty warped. I only set it on it temporarily until I have the shop layout determined. Once that is done, the saw will come back off the base as it is just not sturdy enough.

Other than that, I assembled everything, wired it up and made a couple of test cuts. The fence was spot on, the blade was perfectly aligned with the miter slots, everything just works.

Over all, I am very impressed with the saw. I would have given it a perfect rating, if it weren't for the cheap mobile base. As I said, this was not a concern to me, but should be pointed out before someone pays extra for it.

This is a great saw. I have been using it for about 6 months now. It was an upgrade form a Craftsman. Nice and heavy, quite, little vibration, and lots of power. I can slice through 8/4 oak with no hesitation. I use a Freud thin kerf 40T blade.

Two drawbacks. The fence seems a little tight to the rail. I looks like it would have slide fine, until it was powder coated and the pait built up just a little to much. The second is that I wish the blade would lower a little more. When making zero insert blade inserts the blade does not lower enough to set the insert in firmly and raise into the insert. I may just need to adjust something.

All in all it is a fantastic saw.

I'm an amatuer woodworker and this is my first serious cabinet saw. So read this review with a grain of salt.

This beauty arrived today and I'm very happy with its appearance. I've used them in others' shop and look forward to using it in my own. So far I've not had the chance to use it since I'm still wiring up the shop. Next weekend.

The saw was very easy to assemble and getting a table perfectly flat with a quality straight edge was quite easy. However, the table had rust on it when it arrived. Plastic sheets lined with oil were set over the table during shipping to protect it from rust. Some parts of the plastic were dry with no oil on them. Under this some rust had built up. The rust cleaned up with a bit of elbow grease; but, I expected a pristine table to arrive.

I'll add more to the review when the shop is wired and I can actually use the saw.

I've been using this saw for about two years now (bought it form Amazon due to free shipping). I agree with all the prior reviews about getting help with moving this beast and with assembly. I did it all by myself but it would have been easier with my power lifting sons. I have only three complaints: 1- I don't like the Xacta fence. It does not micro adjust well and the indicator is difficult to read. I'm going to take an earlier reviewers advice and make my own. 2- I find the switch difficult to operate due to it's position. 3- positive stops for 90 deg on the blade are not trustworthy. I have to check the blade every time I take it out of 90 and bring it back. When I'm doing production work, I use two bench saws and leave one at 90 deg so this problem won't slow me down.

I've owned or used a lot of cabinet saws (semi professional woodworker). This one definitely beats any Delta I've used and ranks equally with Powermatic. I love the left tilt. Almost no large tool is perfect out of the crate, but this one was pretty close needing only minor adjustments and modifications.