Customer Reviews

JET 708315BTC JBTS-10BT-3 15 Amp Benchtop Table Saw

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

As a home-business owner, I have some pretty big concerns in my budget and do my research for tools. I owned a $100 tablesaw I bought from the hardware store, and have had problems with the blades / spindle not cutting accurately. After going to all the hardware stores in the area, I found the problem was the same with all saws in the class. The direct-drive saws present issues keeping the blades rigid. This tablesaw from Jet was the only one with a belt-drive, that took the tension off the motor spindle allowing it to remain rigid and reduce viabration. It is also supported by all the accessories that Jet sells that are compatible with it. For the price, in its class - it is the best, simply because it uses the v-belt design on the spindle.

I've always heard great things about Jet table saws: quality manufacturing, quiet, reliable equipment, top-of-the-line tools that will provide years of service. How much of that would transfer to Jet's new 10" benchtop saw (Amazon price about $200) was the operative question for me.

I'm kind of an average weekend-do-it-yourselfer when it comes to woodworking and working with power tools like a table saw. I've owned a Delta 10" benchtop in the recent past, so I have some basis for comparison, though I have worked with similar, but professional grade equipment from time-to-time as well.

SET UP and SAW CALIBRATION
Setting up the Jet saw really wasn't very difficult; a precision square and a hex wrench to make adjustments had my blade square and parallel in no time; setting the 45-degree stop was more complicated and required a bit of muscle to wrestle the blade to the proper angle, but once done, everything was true as can be. Overall ease of set-up on a scale of 1 to 10, probably about an 8. Right out of the the box, the 45 degree stop was nowhere close; calibrating the parallel and vertical blade positions was a snap.

There isn't a whole lot to assemble, so I'd rate that aspect about 9 on my scale. Any questions, just read the manual, which is nicely illustrated (exploded diagrams and photos) and detailed.

PERFORMANCE
In my humble opinion, this saw really hums. It's powerful enough to smoothly and easily cut the kind of material I will be using; the included blade, while not a precision, fine-tuned instrument, seems to have done a very nice job with all the operations I've subjected it to so far; it will be interesting to see what kind of results I get with a really nice blade. But for out-of-the-box, the blade is versatile, sharp, and produces nice cuts.

This benchtop saw is not as quiet as one would expect from a professional grade machine, but the belt drive does make it quieter than direct drive saws. Compared to my old Delta, the noise levels seem to have dropped about 25 percent. That's a real plus in any shop.

QUALITY AND PRECISION
For a Jet tool, I'm a little disappointed in the quality of the mitre gauge and rip fence. These are hardly precision instruments and do more to compound your work than help it. While I didn't expect laser-cut, ultra-smooth, precisely manufactured equipment, neither did I expect something on the exact opposite of the scale, which is what Jet seems to have packaged with this saw. Expecting to position the rip fence parallel to the blade is almost wishful thinking; likewise, the mitre gauge is almost too toy-like to be of much use. Both the mitre gauge and rip fence (and associated scale) are prime candidates for replacement with aftermarket tools.

MISCELLANEOUS
Save for the mitre gauge and rip fence, Jet appears to have done a commendable job with this saw's design; the only operation gliche I've encountered is the occasional interference of the rip fence and the handwheel used to raise and lower the blade. The construction is sturdy, though not heavy, there is plenty of opportunity to add extension wings and a table surround, plus the relative light weight offers a lot of portability. I've mounted my saw on my own purpose-built stand with casters, yielding a surface height of 34.5 inches -- ideal for me. The saw is attached to the stand with four hex bolts, easily removed when I need to take the saw somewhere.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Pressed (or not-so-pressed as the case may be) to rate this saw, I think I'd give it an 8 out of 10, dropping the two points because of the disappointing mitre gauge and rip fence. Beyond that, Jet has produced pretty much what I expected for a $200 weekend project tool. It's at least on par with comparably priced (and even higher priced) equipment, likely better than most. If you feel up to replacing the two aforementioned components (mitre saw and rip fence), you should have the foundation for a very nice, versatile piece of equipment that will serve you well.

This saw is great for a bunch of things.
Ripping accurately is not one of them.
See, the fence is designed very cheaply, and unlike the fence on a Ridgid or Bosch or Dewalt tablesaw, does not stay square to the table.
In fact, it will happily clamp itself very misaligned (by about 3/8ths of an inch either way).

In addition, the miter gauges on this saw are non-standard. Mostly because everything in this saw appears to have been sized metricly (the arbor lock nut, for example, is 24mm, the adjustment nuts are 10mm, etc).
Most miter gauges are 3/8 by 3/4. The one on this saw is 10mm by 16mm.
You will not be able to find any aftermarket miter gauges or jigs that will work in these slots.

All this said, Jet's support is amazing. At first i figured the fence was just damaged in shipping. I called Jet, and they fedex'd me one without any questions (saturday delivery no less!). Sadly, the fence had the same problem (does not square to table, happily clamps misaligned).

Jet makes great contractor and cabinet saws. They have great support. I wish they had made a great benchtop saw, but unless your needs are very simple, this is not it.

If you want a cheap saw to rip flooring or something, this saw is fine.
If you plan to do any fine work at all, step up and buy something else.

For dollars spent, this table saw is the most bang for the buck. After researching on the web for a month and looking at many brands in stores, I came back to Amazon and got this Jet saw. It is well built, has many nice extras for large pieces of wood and directions are actually in English. I pared it with the Bosch base for a nice combo unit; however the Bosch base needs to be modified with two cross members for the Jet to fit it. Takes some time but works fine. Even though I have not used the saw extensively, I can say at this point, this saw is a fantastic buy. I will update this review in the future if experience with it tells me something else than my preliminary impressions after assembly and trial runs.

I just received this today (just ordered 2 days ago!). Unpacked and was ripping within 10 minutes. This unit has a belt drive as opposed to 99% of portable table saws which have direct drive. It makes a difference. It is relatively quiet and with very little vibration. Comes complete with side and back extensions and onboard blade, miter, wrench and cord stowage. It is normal weight for this "portables"...i'd guess 55-60 lbs. The amazing thing is the price: $250 shipped to your door. And it's not a cheap Delta or Ryobi (sorry, but they are junk). It's a Jet, which is known for heavier duty shop equipment. This kind of quality runs normally $350-$500 easy. Highly recommended machine.

Ok, I was trying to save a little money. Lets be honest, how good of a saw with a 24" rip capacity can you buy for $ 220.00. The answer: not much! I'll give Jet 2 stars for trying. I'm keeping the other 3 stars to gradify my frustration. Heres my story. I get the saw set up with no real issues, keeping in mind that I saved about half of the money I would of spent on my next choose. I read the reviews about the fence and thought: I can deal with that. It couldn't be any worse than my old Makita. So I make sure that the blade is parallel to the fence and to the miter slots. I make my first test cut using the 36t blade supplied with the saw and the cut looks so bad that it would take 1/8" pass through the jointer to clean it up. Ok, recheck the fence and its ok. So I figure the blade is probably junk. So I start to take the blade off and notice that with a little moderate side pressure on the blade it will deflect as much as 1/8"!! Somethings gotta be loose, Right? So I turn the saw over and inspect all it's workings and I can't find anything loose. So I call Jet's tech. support and speak to a very nice gentleman who says, " Somthings gotta be loose". Back to the saw to take another look. As far as I can see The whole trunion assembly pivots on a rod attacthed to the bottom of the table. Where the rod goes throuh the flanges is enough slop to allow the whole assembly to move. You get what you pay for!

Where else are you going to get 60 lbs of tool shipped to your doorstep, without tax costs for under $200? This saw is a steal and should be purchased before the price goes up.

I was pleasantly surprised with what arrived. Well packaged, good fit and finish, with optional table extensions both at side and outfeed. Saw is reasonably heavy but light enough to pick up. If cost was the same, I'd buy the Bosch - but frankly, at 1/2 the cost, the Jet wins hands down. Put a good blade on it and you're ready to do some damage.

I was in the market for a portable 10" table saw that had the ability to rip up to 24 inches. I have used a Makita and Bosch portable table saws and I knew that Bosch was hard to beat but it cost alot more then I wanted to spend on a "job site" saw. I found this Jet here on Amazon and read the reviews...some great, some bad...I decided for the price and the features it offered I would give it a try and I am glad I did. While I still think the Bosch is a more accuate and faster table saw to use the Jet is lighter, has a smaller footprint and cost half as much. I got mine in two days from Amazon and put it together. It went together easy but I did require that I do some adjustments to get everything square. Some of the locations of the set/lock screws for the adjustments could have been located better but I was able to get it done in a resonable amount of time.

Rip Fence.

Out of the box it is not that great...sloppy and hard to keep in square. The sides of the fence are not straight either, they have a bow to them height wise. I was able to tune up my fence by using a SLIGHT amount of JB Weld to tighten up tolerances and I made an aux. fence out of hard wood that I bolted to the side of the rip fence. I tuned that to sit square to the table and all it well. Spray down the table and underside of the fence with Silicone and everything slides super nice.

Blade/Motor.

The blade and motor assemble seem pretty good...plenty of power, smooth running and I didn't notice much run out...but I didn't but a dial indicator on it either. I tuned mine a little further by putting small 3 1/2 blade stablizers by Frued I bought from Amazon.

Miter Gauge.
I have a Sliding Compound Miter saw....I don't do much cross cutting on the table saw...I set the miter gauge that came with the table saw to square and I am happy with it. It does what I need it to do which isn't much.

Table.

The table is flat and has a decent amount of lead before the blade as far as portable table saws go. The area behind the blade is small but b/c the table saw comes with an outfeed support I don't have any problems. In fact I like it b/c it makes the table saw smaller and lighter. The extension wing instaled flush with the table right out of the box and does it job. It uses to "thumb screws" to lock the rods in place that it slides on which is not a nice as the Bosch but at the same time it does its job with no other side effects besides it a little slower to do.

All in all if you are not doing production trim work and are willing to tune up the saw a little bit this is a great value....

I have been using this saw for DIY projects for the past six months. Since I am a regular user of good quality woodworking tools, I feel comfortable with my five-star rating. It is really quiet compared to a direct drive unit with less blade wobble and plenty of power. It almost sounds like a 'soft start' unit.

No, it does not have an expensive and real accurate miter gauge or rip fence, but it is sufficient to do the majority of a homeowner's DIY projects. Most DIY folks should be able to tinker with the adjustments until they are really close.

The outfeed extension was damaged during shipment by UPS (as if that is a big surprise) but Jet's customer support sent a new one to me without charge the day I called them for a replacement.

You simply cannot go wrong with this saw at this price.

Received the saw about 2 weeks ago - very pleased and impressed. The blade and fence were "true" out of the box. It cuts very well with minimal vibration. The only thing I am going to change is put a good Freud thin kerf blade on it. Hey, for under $200, delivered to my door, it is a deal you can't beat!