Has anyone had any experience with King power tools. They are out of Quebec Canada and I assume rebadge imported Chinese tools. Anyway they have a 6" jointer at a local dealer for $399.00 Canadian. It uses a jack screw cutter head system and the table and fence are cast iron. They must be sold in the states under a different name. Here is a link
or search through their archives. No offense to the audience in this group, but the King tools are Canadian only, AFAIK, and there isn't a lot of experience with them in here.
My quick response is that they're approximately equivalent to the Grizzley tools in the US. Reasonable quality and value (depending on model), cheaper than the "big boys". They may not blow you away with their innovation or cutting edge stuff, but it will get the job done. If your local dealer is good, I'd say go for it.
I'm saying all this based on my investigation prior to buying a bandsaw or tablesaw, and comparing the King tools to Delta and GI. Personally, I ended up going for the "name" brands, but if I was more price sensitive at the time, I didn't see anything (or read anything) that really turned me off.
We have king bandsaw and planer. They seem to be just fine.
King seems to make considerable effort to specify a decent finish and appearance.
We have General, BusyBee and King importing Taiwanese and others.. King seems to be the nicest finished and best manuals of the lot.
Also got one of the inexpensive King routers for Christmas. It seems to be a Makita knock off. It is not up to the quality of the Makita - but at 1/3 the price I can put up with a couple of minor quirks. :-)
King can make a decent product - their 14" bandsaws give you a lot of bang for the buck. However, I find with King you have to be prepared to put up with issues some times:
- Missing parts or a part that didn't get machine properly. THey're big on this. A friend of mine has s store here in Hamilton, and many times he's been cursing the walls blue because of their quality control.
- Terrible manuals. The king stuff that I've seen has the worst manuals that I've seen. Sometimes they are nothing but a bad photocopy. Often, if there has been a design change to the tool, it's not reflected in the "manual". Or sometimes the manual will not mention an important feature like "make sure there's oil in the compressor".
- Common sense isn't always the rule with them - I bought my father-in-law a compressor for Christmas - good machine at a good price. WOuld you believe it was shipped with no oil in it? If he hadn't had the brains to check before starting it up, it would have been a problem.
King can make a good tool at a bargan price - their DJ15 & DJ20 Delta Jointer knock offs are an excellent value. Just make sure that if there are problems like I've mentioned, that your dealer will look after you and not make you drag the heavy unit back to the store.
I purchased a King Industrial bandsaw (#1433) and everything went smoothly. The manual is professionnally written. Only had a loose sheet because of a last minute change in the fence.
Again, stay away from regular King brand. Use King industrial if you want better quality. Or if you have more money, Delta :)
I have looked at King seriously and they seem to be good quality tools. I get the catalog every now and then too. Their new router seems to be great value, a 3 1/4 horse motor that does 1/4"/3/8"/1/2" bits is value at only $119 CDN. Craftsman's entry would cost you over $300. Where is there comparison? I liked their Sliding Comound Mitre Saw too! A 10" for under $200CDN seems to be good (but not the best) value for the dollar. Here in Victoria they seem to have social issues, go figure!
Tom ( snipped-for-privacy@islandtelecom.com) wrote: : Has anyone had any experience with King power tools. They are out of Quebec : Canada and I assume rebadge imported Chinese tools. Anyway they have a 6" : jointer at a local dealer for $399.00 Canadian. It uses a jack screw cutter : head system and the table and fence are cast iron. They must be sold in the : states under a different name. : Here is a link :
Thomas D. Ireland ( snipped-for-privacy@vtn1.victoria.tc.ca) wrote: : I have looked at King seriously and they seem to be good quality tools. I : get the catalog every now and then too. Their new router seems to be great : value, a 3 1/4 horse motor that does 1/4"/3/8"/1/2" bits is value at only : $119 CDN. Craftsman's entry would cost you over $300. Where is there : comparison? I liked their Sliding Comound Mitre Saw too! A 10" for under : $200CDN seems to be good (but not the best) value for the dollar. Here in : Victoria they seem to have social issues, go figure!
I should say here that a little rivalry is what I mean by social issues!:-) Sounds so serious! :-)
: Tom : : ( snipped-for-privacy@islandtelecom.com) wrote: : : Has anyone had any experience with King power tools. They are out of Quebec : : Canada and I assume rebadge imported Chinese tools. Anyway they have a 6" : : jointer at a local dealer for $399.00 Canadian. It uses a jack screw cutter : : head system and the table and fence are cast iron. They must be sold in the : : states under a different name. : : Here is a link : :
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