Is JET a decent company for making bandsaws, or are they a cheap chinese knockoff company? Or heck are they a cheap American knockoff company.
I noticed on their webpage that they list themselves as JET Europe, so presumably they are European. Are they made in Europe or somewhere else?
The new (current} iss ue of Fine Woodworking has a comparison of 14 inch bandsaws. The Laguna took best overall and the Grizzly best value.
Dave in Houston wrote: ...
Slight correction -- one of the two Griz's took best value, the other was in the "also-ran" category w/ some defects (although w/o looking again I don't recall what specifically was the problem with it).
I do remember noting and being somewhat surprised that PM and Jet were two which rated worst on wheel alignment owing to being out and not having sufficient upper shaft length to compensate via shimming...
I always have a real problem in believing some of the details on these reviews like this, however--they take measurements of some such as runout and report it. But, there's absolutely no indication of reproducibility and no way to measure it so you could by the same model and have results better or worse by a significant amount...or, it could be identical, there's no way to know.
Caveat emptor...
They're the parent of Powermatic now. As w/ most other manufacturers, their products are mostly imports if not all. They made their mark as a Grizzly-type distributor before Griz became big -- a good value, lower price alternative when most of the import stuff really was pretty trashy.
In most reviews their stuff rates pretty well altho the particular model of bandsaw reviewed didn't fare so well in the FWW shootout...
dpb wrote: ...
A correction to the correction... :)
I don't mean "believe" here, bad choice. I meant relying on the single-point measurement as being a reliable ranking of all machines of the given vendor/model compared to the population of another...
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I bought one about a year ago. I went around all the shops in Auckland, NZ and looked at maybe 10-12 brands of saw. Most were made in Taiwan, except for a couple of Italians. Of all the Taiwan made saws, the 18" Jet I ended up buying had by far the best production standards. It was also the only saw that didn't try to judder itself off its pallet when turned on (didn't get the Italians started, they had no plugs, and they were twice the price). So far I am happy with the performance. But there are brands in the US that we don't get here, so you may be able to do better .... in any event, I can tell you that the one I've got isn't total crap ;-)
-P.
Thanks, actually I'm not necessarily interested in only US equipment, but rather equipment that ISN'T Chinese manufactured. After all I really want to buy an Audi Quattro - I don't expect it to be made in the US
I think you guys think I know more about this than I really do. I was asking about JET and the replies all mentioned Grizzly and Laguna. Since I don't read Fine Woodworking I don't really understand what you are referring to except maybe that JET makes the Grizzly line.
Sorry for the confusion, I'm a total woodworking noob and am just trying to familiarize myself with the vendors so that later when I can justify the purchases I can put a name with a face so to speak.
For now I'm looking at a joiner/planer for $450, a bandsaw is a long way aways for now.
I have their Jet 16" bandsaw, and, so far, it has done all that I've asked of it. I'm not displeased with it.
"Jet" is a brand name of the WMH Tool Group whose corporate offices are in Elgin, Illinois. WMH Tool Group is a subsidiary of Walter Meier Holding AG which is based in Zurich Switzerland. Other brands of WMH Tool Group include Wilton, Powermatic, Performax, Columbian, Polishmaster, and Waxmaster.
I believe that most if not all the Jet line is manufactured outside the USA, but I stand to be corrected on that.
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
Wrong!!
I have a Jet 14" 1 hp bandsaw. The FW article is B.S. I had to tune the saw, put an after market tension spring on it and shim the top wheel to get proper alignment. It does a great job resawing and it is adjusted to have no blade drift. I am completely happy with it. It will cut tenons quickly and there is no after work required on the tenon to make it fit. I use B.C saw blades from Canada. I had very poor luck with Timberwolf. The saw was made in Taiwan and the fit and finish are what Delta used to be. I also added the extension block to resaw 12" stock.
Perhaps, if you bought the magazine and read the article it might put some things in perspective.
Or don't.
JET is part of WMH Tools.
As mentioned, WMH tool company. JET began as Japan Engineering and Tools I believe. Before Taiwan. Most of their higher end stuff is still from there, but I imagine they'll be on the mainland soon. If they hold their partner to their standards, the product will be the same.
Only saw I was never able to get to perform consistently, including my old
12" Sears, was the Grizzly at school. Casting and machining was so bad that it couldn't be counted on repeat a setting. Most frustrating animal I ever encountered. Of course, the jointer we got was no prize, either.
No, what DJB posted was in fact printed and photo illustrated in said article.
I have a Delta X5 that I love. Did you see how well MY saw did? I will agree that if you use Delta's stamped blade tension scale, my example will return the same resaw result the test stated, but I totally disagree with other comments about my saw.
Remember, the testers get one example of each tool, just like the examples you and I own.
So much personal preference is involved in any too review that I just use them as feature reviews and listings of measurable stats. In many cases, personal methods of work can greatly tilt preferences.
I did not mean the op was wrong. I totally disagree with the article.
When I was shopping for my saw, I was biased toward Delta, but The Jet suited me and the fit and finish of the Delta tools had deteriorated to being un-acceptable.
Michael Fortune did a FW article about tuning a band saw. I don't remember if it was Michael or another writer that resaws happily with a 3/4 hp Rigid saw. It seems to me that a properly tuned bandsaw is a joy, but if you don't take time to figure it out, you will be miserable. Michael Fortune recommends using a 3tpi skip tooth blade fro BC Saw. I went to using that blade and the performance is great.
I might mention that I regularly apply Johnson's paste wax to the blade and there is no rust, which being in the Texas Gulf Coast area is remarkable.
Or looked at it online...I think they still have current articles available but their site is slow for dialup so I don't use it much...
Grizzly is independent importer
Jet is the parent of Powermatic besides the Jet line
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That wasn't OP, but me who commented on what the article said and your point might have been clarified a little... :)
I think it illustrates what I went on to say that a single-point sample may (or may not) be an accurate representation of a machine overall.
Then again, maybe the one machine out of a 1000 you happened to get is the one on the far extreme of the distribution that did just happen to have manufacturing tolerances come out right.
Or, is it sure that the machine you have is even the same model as the one in the FWW review article? Or have they introduced a "new and improved" version of the same model? Is it clear that the 1 hp motor on yours isn't actually stouter in performance than the 1-1/4 hp-rated one on the sample machine?
None of those are known so if you had the tested machine in your shop it's quite possible you would be badmouthing it, too, or had sent it back and gone to something else.
Too many variables and too much unknown to draw more than some general conclusions on various things such as a general "fit and finish" and the design features or lack thereof imo.
What I'd like to see would be a subsequent test where instead of 8 or 10 different manufacturers' machines they took a sample of (say) 5 each from two to make an actual assessment of variability. It would be ideal if these were procured over a period of at least a year or so and not all in one bulk purchase as well.
Eigenvector wrote: ...
Well, your choices then get somewhat limited from virtually all manufacturers of homeshop priced equipment.
Some are Taiwanese or other overseas but very little (if any) is actually US-made for stationary equipment any more owing to price structure and the competitiveness of the marketplace...
But, Chinese alone doesn't signify a bad piece of equipment a priori...
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Jet contracts with a Chinese company to make their equipment. Jet and Powermatic are divisions of the same company.
What you saw on the webpage was the address of the divsion of this company which distributes their products to Europe.
Since I don't own any kind of bandsaw, I have no opinion on the FWW article. However, the Grizzly model certainly seems attractive.
Jim
I didn't read the FWW article, don't know what they said, but your saw may be completely different from the saw that was tested with regard to the process control of the parts that result in appropriate function. A lot of water has gone under the bridge from then to now.
Frank
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