Customer Reviews

JET 710750 JWBS-18X 18-Inch 1-3/4-Horsepower Resaw Woodworking Bandsaw with Roller Guides, 115/230-Volt 1-Phase

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my third bandsaw. One a Shopsmith and another a 14" Delta. Still have them all. So, I needed a resaw bandsaw and bought the jet. No problems except one. I think that the maker of tools should be made to use them for a week, or two. They should also be forced to change the blades over and over again. The problem is it's almost imposible to losen and tighten the back bottom screw to adjust the bearings. When I first got it I had to take the table off to align the blade. The simple sloution is to drill a small 1/4" hole on the table top directly over the screw. Then with a long hex wrench you can easly get to the screw. now why didn't they think about that at the factory?

I have had several Jet tools and have liked all of them, so
when I sold my blue Jet "14" bandsaw and decided to move up
in size to one of the new "18" saw's, Jet was the first thing
that came to my mind. I read several reviews of the current
Jet "18" saw with "10" resaw capacity, at the same time I
realized that Jet had come out with an upgrade to this saw
to fix alot of the complaints with the regular "18" saw.

With the "18X" they added "12" of resaw height and beefed
up the trunions under the table and added more HP. After
I got the "18X" home I found there was so many bad points
to this saw that I took it back to woodcraft and swapped
it for a Delta "18" and did not like it either and took
it back also. Now I am looking again!

Pros:

1. 1 3/4 hp motor

2. "12" resaw

3. Ball bearing guides

Cons:

1. Build quality sucks...trunion mounting plate that was welded
to frame was bent severly

2. Top of saw felt weak (thin gauge metal)

3. Table was nowhere near flat

4. I could not get table square to blade even after "1/4" of
shims under the table

5. The cast iron wheels were poorly made and caused the whole
machine to shake with vibration and I could not correct it

6. And the icing on the cake was the lower blade guides, you
have to remove the table to change a blade and make any
adjustments to the lower guides

Conclusion:
If you want to spend hours upon hours trying to get this
saw tuned enough to cut something then buy this saw. This
saw isnot the same quality that my Jet "14" bandsaw and
my Jet tablesaw were made to. Even if Jet could replace
most of the parts that where poorly made to start with,
the efforts that you have to go thru just to change a
blade and adjust the lowerguides is not worth it to me.

Maybe I just got the lemon of the first few they made,
time will tell.

Some good things:
- cost - good
- build - built solidly
- motor can power through thick oak.

Some not so good things
- Adjusting the blade guides is a total pain - to move the lower guides requies tipping the table up and jamming your hand underneath to loosen the hex bolts.
- Raising the cutting height, even 2-3 ", causes you to need to readjust all the guides.
- Tightening the guides changes their settings - need to guess to get it right.

I bought this bandsaw at my local Woodcraft and am in general very pleased. The saw unpacked and cleaned up easily (use lamp oil to clean up the table, then finish cleaning with alcohol), and fit's nicely in my shop space. It has so far done every task I've asked of it easily. Blades can be changed without removing the table, and the bottom guides are easy enough to set, so I'm not sure what the other reviewers were thinking.

Problems:
Well, problems are minor, and customer service was more than willing to work with me. A piece was missing from the fence, so it doesn't lock, and one of the upper guide bearings needs replaced. Jet said they'll send out replacements today.

On the whole, a very solid and useful tool. Quickly becoming the favorite tool in my workshop.

This bandsaw is absolutely incredible! When I ordered the bandsaw at first, the product came to me damaged. I contacted Amazon through the return process and they sent out another one right away. You couldn't ask for any better. When I received my new bandsaw I was impressed with how heavy duty everything was. The guide bearings are great and easy to adjust. I read other reviews and was a bit skeptical at first but found it to be a breeze to adjust. I sawed a two inch wide piece of curly maple at about a hundred thousandths with no problem. I also sawed a 11" piece of redwood. The blade tracked perfectly straight and I was able to remove a piece of redwood less than 1/8" thick with a consistent thickness. I look forward to using this product for many years. By the way, I contacted the manufacturer's technical support to verify a couple of things, and they were more than willing to support their product and I didn't have to wait too long.

This bandsaw will do everything you want and more. The main thing that could make it better is add a 3 hp motor for serious resaw work. The quality of the resaw work that I have done using cedar so far is perfect tracking with very little drift and plenty of power. However, I suspect if I resawed oak the saw may lack the power to saw a an economical pace. ( I'll edit this after I actually resaw some oak.)
The reason I only voted 4 stars is because the plastic insert at the rail opposite the locking cam on the fence fell out after a few uses. That could be fixed if they used an alternate method to attach it instead of the self adhesive.

I have the older model 18" jet and i love it.I really dont know what all the complaining is about.All i can think of is that the time wasnt taken at initial setup to make it run smoothly.Jets improvement on this saw could only have turned a great bandsaw into an awesome one you will spend at least twice the money to get anything better.

I purchased the earlier version of this saw about 4 years ago. I use it in cabinet shop for everything - small tight curves, cutting mulitple stacked pieces, resawing small logs, etc. Considering the overall uses, the motor is well sized. For resawing of dry walnut logs (10" dia.) the motor is fine. I need to convert to 230V and use shorter cords due to the circuit breakers kicking out if the motor starts to slow down. If you plan to do serious resawing then a 3HP motor is the choice. For occaisional work 1.75HP is fine. On small work, there is no problem. 14" saws with the riser blocks cannot compete with this machine. It does take up space. I mounted mine on a rolling platform for storage when not being used. Blade tensioning is good and easy to use. I have learned to trust the indicator. Small 1/4" and 1/8" blades work fine. I have several 1.5" 1.2tpi for resawing. They are difficult to install and remove. Practice has gotten this down to 15 min. and gloves are important. Lower blade guides are hard to access and to keep clean. Tension on the ball-bearing guides is simple to adjust and blade tracking is dead on straight. You can use the factory fence. Not like a 14" saw with 5 to 10 degrees of eccentricity. Keeping the saw tuned up is important for good operation. I have learned how to keep it humming and coasting. While there are better saws on the market - ie: Laguna and their more expensive brothers, if you want a good all-purpose bandsaw - this is a good choice for less than $2K. It is even better when you compare it to a Delta with the same motor size. Final piece of wisdom - don't confuse the quality of the saw with the quality of the blade. Cheap blades can make a good machine look bad.

I love my Jet 18" band saw. The only problem is that Amazon recommends the wrong blade. A 133" is recommended, but 18" saw needs a 137" blade.
This is the part # needed. JET 710041 Premium Bandsaw Blade 1/2-Inchx137-Inch 6 TPI.
The blade was easy to change. I was concerned because someone said it was hard. I found quite the opposite.

heavy, but it is large enough to do all a person needs. like the power options that came with it. should not buy any smaller piece of equipment, unless you are making tinker toys.