Customer Reviews

Jet 708436K 10-Inch Tilting Arbor Cabinet Table Saw

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

 

 

I bought this saw in December, and has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. But I'll start with the summary and then the details. This is a nice saw. It's powerful, accurate, and priced on the mark.

Let me first say I did not buy this saw from amazon, but from a local retailer. He beat their price and gave me more order options. I ended up getting the Xacta micro adjust fence over the one that come standard from amazon. Very nice fence allows you to "dial-in" fine rip measurments to 1/32 easily. No tapping back and forth. I believe it's made by HTC, and is made in USA. So is the table board. Unfortunately this fence delay shipment 2 months. The local guy also helped me get it from his store to my garage. Big help for something that weighs 350lbs.

Second a word of caution. It does not come with a blade. This is another way they are able to get the price down. My dealer also did not realize and felt bad so he gave me a 60T Amana blade with the saw. His word were you spend a grand on a tool you should be able to use it.

The other recommendation I would have is get the 50" fence. I got the 30 inch, because I was space limited. But I have kicked myself on several occasions when I need a 32" or better sheet cut and it's just shy. I see now the extra 20" in size would not be much extra space and would increase it's versitility.

I read several flames on this saw from others and I experieced no problems over the last several months. I put a dial indicator on the blade when first got it and set it up and it was parallel to .001; set up ez (you do have to drill the table for the fence..silly production problem); and it cuts great. Jet recommends no greater than 6" dado head (not sure why) but it pulls 8" just fine. Even cut full depth dado's (3" deep slots really) at a 45 in 4x4 redwood with no hesitation. I've built several projects including 16 feet of cabinets, a rolling miter saw station (NYW plans), rolling sheet good storage, couple of jewelry boxes, and a work bench. And the cabinet feature is great. I have my hooked via the dust port to an Oneida air system. Try that with a contractor saw. I also put it on an HTC base and stuck in 50lb sand bag under the angled dust pan. It solid as a rock but rolls around when I want it to. You'll also want some zero clearance inserts too.

Sure I'd rather a Unisaw, but with the difference in price I bought a 14" delta bandsaw too.

After using a Craftsman 1.5hp table saw for the past few years, you can imagine what I might expect from a "cabinet saw". I went with the smaller horsepower because I never had that much trouble with the Craftsman as far as cutting the various materials-you just feed a little slower.
When I started the Jet up, I got a very solid "whirr" from the blade, with no vibration to speak of. It sounds really nice. Moving the blade up and down is very rapid and having the locking nut as part of the adjustment wheel is very handy; the wheels are easily accessed as well.
The extension table allows you to cut up to 52" of material against the fence. The fence rail is a very heavy steel tube that will not distort under any circumstance. The fence itself is strictly manual move but moves so easily that you can locate it at the precise dimension you wish to cut. And, once you tune the alignment and dimensions, the cuts are very precise and repeatable. I did have to align the blade with the table slots, which is what the installation instructions tell you to align the fence with. My first cut started to bind and that is when I found that the blade was a little out of parallel with the slot. Silly me, I assumed that the blade came pre-aligned. There is no instruction on how to align the blade but the trunion bolts are readily accessible and tuning the blade is relatively easy. I am using an Oldham Planer Combination blade to make cuts in soft maple 1x and red oak 2x. The soft maple cuts easily at a "regular" feed rate. The red oak cuts very nicely but the feed rate is reduced; I have the time. The cuts are so nice that I rarely have to go to the edger anymore. Yeah, I'm happy with this saw. I think you will be too.

Jet says this saw is a cabinet saw. My neighbor bought this same saw and has had major trunnion problems. He sent it back. I bought the saw thinking that I was getting a saw that was capable of accepting jigs for making cabinets...both my neighbor and I found out we were WRONG!!! The "T" track on these saws is milled differently than any other cabinet saw (Delta, Jet, DeWalt, etc.)and will not accept Jet's own tenoning jig without loosening the bushing on the jig. This could be a potential safety hazard. When I called Jet I was told that I would have to live with this until modifications to the jig were made. No other jig will work with this product without having modifications made to it. They also told me that this is "not a cabinet saw, but a contractor's saw with a cabinet". That is not what the saw's description implies. They then told me that the store in which the item was purchased "mis-represented the item". I was then told that there was nothing else they would do for me. I will never buy another Jet product again. Hopefully this will keep someone else from making the same mistake as my neighbor and I have made.

Although this is not a true cabinet/arbor saw, you still get most of the benefits. With the enclosed cabinet, you get great dust control. It has the weight for stability, lots of table area, and a great fence system. It doesn't have the same horsepower, but also doesn't require a 230v connection. Unless you are going to cut very thick hardwood, you will never notice. There is a problem with the miter slot, as the tenoning jig will bind. It is easily taken care of by adding an additional washer that is not wider than the miter track between the T washer and the Jig. This will put the T track washer low enough in the track so as not to bind.

I bought this saw in December and have since been impressed with the quality. The fit and finish was perfect. The blade was parallel to the miter slot. I had to re-adjust other saws from the factory in the past. The Xacta fence is very well built.

I recently purchsed this saw to help in my ongoing quest to control dust in my home / garage workshop. I use one side of my garage to park my car in and back it out for larger projects. This saw is what I have been looking for, all the weight, power, and mobility advantages of a contractor saw with the stability and dust control of a cabinet saw. I have a complete woodshop now, and most of my tools are mobile so I can easily expand into the parking space when necessary. Getting a cabinet saw that runs on standard house current fits all of my mobility needs. I sold my Jet Contractor saw to buy this saw, both are great saws, but this one is a step up! Most of my shop activity is making furniture using hardwoods and exotics. As with some of the other reviewers, my saw came with the micro adjustable fence and a free mobile base. I made my own extension table from wood and laminate that looks more like it was designed for the saw than the one Jet makes. No saw blade included? Most cabinet saws do not include the blade, as the specific use for the saw is not usually as clearly known as with contractor style saws. I also got this saw for a GREAT price! I can only see one improvement to make - but not an urgent one, I plan to replace both belts with link belts for an even better ride. If your needs resemble mine, this saw has all the power and performance that you will ever need in most home shops. I give it 100% of 5 stars!

I did not purchase this saw from Amazon. I bought it from Rockler for a price that was too incredible to pass up - especially when you add in the free mobile base and stool they gave me. The saw also had an upgraded fence. It went together easily. No gobs of grease to remove like Grizzly products. Lots of power to spare. HEAVY machine and solid, well finished castings. Much better deal than contractor saws.

I gave this four stars for two reasons: It did not come with a saw blade and the right table board was not included on my saw. If not for that, I would give it 5 stars.

Do yourself a favor and buy this saw.

Perhaps my experience is an anomoly, but I had major trouble running this off a 20 amp, 120 volt circuit. I had to replace two shut off switches, and today the motor died.... I was happy with the other details, though the 30" fence is frustratingly small. My other complaint is that the phone reps, although initially responsive, blamed me for the failure of the saw. I've never had any other problems like this, and babied the thing... I'm replacing this with the unisaw...

Shortly after purchasing my saw the blade would not tilt beyond 20 degrees and the blade would collapse onto the table insert. Jet sent out a repairman promptly to repair the problem. It was determined that the problem was that a trunnion was bad due to a faulty casting. That was this past winter, I was beginning a major home remodel in the spring and would put it to the test then.

I began my project a couple of months later and began to notice difficulty in using jigs and fixtures in the miter slot. I even had mishaps with sliding jigs locking up and I cut the tip of a finger off.

I soon had a need to make some mortise and tenon joints so I invested in Jet's tennoning jig. The jig would lock so bad that I could actually drag the saw around my shop trying to pull it back out. So, I contacted Jets customer service to find out what the problem might be and was told that they didn't think that a tennoning jig could be used on that model saw but to hold for a moment and they would find out. Now, I don't know about you, but I had over $1500 invested in this saw with options and I [...] sure ought to be able to slide a jig on it!

The rep came back on the line and informed me that the problem was with the jig and they would send me out a different miter track which would solve the problem. After more than 2 weeks the new track arrives and thier solution was to remove the t-track washer from the front of ther track ????

I immediatley was back on the phone with Jet and was told that there was something wrong and I should get my money back for the jig ???? I still wanted a tennoning jig, so back to my retailer I went. While at the store we tried the Delta Jig with worse results. We then took a measure and tried to find the problem. We compared numerous saws on display and discovered that only this saw has a mitre slot that the t-track at the bottom of the slot is milled to a height of approx. 3.5 millimeters and all other saws are milled to a height of 4.5 millimeters. In other words the tops are milled unlike any other stationary table saw and any device made to work in a STANDARD t-slot mitre guage will probably have a problem.

I no longer wanted the saw once I learned this fact and my retailer upgraded me to the 3hp commercial model for his difference in cost.

The icing on the cake is, that went I went home to dismantle the saw in order to take delivery of the new one, I titlted my blade to clean out the saw dust and guess what, THE TRUNNION WAS BROKEN AGAIN.

I own many jet tools and I have always been pleased with them. However they have a problem here and the best thing for them to do is own up to it. I urge anyone considering purchasing this saw to buy the 3hp model instead for it is a very good product and anyone who already owns this saw should run out to thier shop and tilt the blade to see if it works OK, but you can forget about sliding t-slot miter jigs.

Thanks for your time and patience