Roy,

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 19:47:29 GMT, Bill Schwab
wrote:
snip

[**] Sorry for the Jet bashing, but I can't be fair to you w/o
mentioning Jet, as they were part of the process. A lot has happened
since then, and I am very unlikely to buy from them again.


Thanks for the run down on the Ridgid Table saw. Now all I have to do
is find one to put my eyeballs on and check it out.....

Happy hunting. I think you'll like what you see.


I am like you ...no more JET anything. I got burned big time on a
GHB1340 lathe by both JET and their dealer (BLue Ridge MAchinery) and
afater some serious arguing with JET they finally did agree to do what
they could do to make things right with the machine I got.......but
hindsight is 20/20 and I should really have had it sent back and went
shopping elsewhere
[snip]
fighting ensued, and finally JET sent me a gal of their paint and a
gal of their primer, and a check for labor for all the work I had to
do....on a brand new in the crate machine.

Most of that sounds cosmetic to me. Were they covering genuine metal
defects, or was it just a lousy coat of paint? Not that the paint
should be lousy, but I figure the non-precision surfaces are pretty much
negotiable as long as they are painted or oily.

My concerns with Jet are at the design level. There is a difference
between disagreeing with a customer and (vacantly) arguing with them.
Jet did the latter when I pointed out things like a cheesey sheet metal
contact that is not long enough to reach the switch it is intended to
throw. Further, that said cheesey metal contact is supported at only
one point, so that it would likely to rotate out of position even if it
were long enough to do its job, etc. Their tenoning jig isn't much
better, though it is not actively dangerous (other than the blade
spinning inches from the user's hands, but that goes with the territory).

Your financial struggle sounds similar to mine. However, I was not
seeking a full refund because I frankly didn't deserve it. I _should_
have told the salesman to answer all of my questions or find a
convenvient place to stick the saw. I failed to do that for various
reasons. After some haggling with Jet and the retailer, the retailer
finally dropped the price to more or less their cost, so I ended up with
un ungainly but efficient stand in for a metal chop saw for not a whole
lot of money. The real payload on that order was the mill, and that
turned out very well.


I don;t remember the count on the individual items that had to be
replaced on that lathe, but I wound up with 2 or 3 6" 3 jaw chucks, a
couple of faceplates, 2 sets of tumbler gear changers and pyramid
gears, a box full of tail stock quills, and feed screws, a compound
slide, 2 motors, a new lead screw and a bunch of other odds and ends.
Most times replacemenmt parts were as bad as or worse than original
lathe parts......PITYFUL stuff.

Back to your lathe. The above does _not_ sound cosmetic.


Sorry about my rant and hijacking your thread......

That's ok, I was pretty much done with it anyay

Bill