My husband is slowly upping his woodworking game. He has pretty much every other saw besides a good table saw. He has been looking at a Jet. Which I know are supposed to be great saws. Question is ... He missed out on this saw on CL once, and now I found it for $75 cheaper elsewhere. $375. Is this a GOOD beginning saw? Is it worth $375? What questions should I be asking? I'm looking to do this for Father's Day, and I DESPERATELY need help!!!! Thank you!!!!

wrote:
My husband is slowly upping his woodworking game. He has pretty much every other saw besides a good table saw. He has been looking at a Jet. Which I know are supposed to be great saws. Question is ... He missed out on this saw on CL once, and now I found it for $75 cheaper elsewhere. $375. Is this a GOOD beginning saw? Is it worth $375? What questions should I be asking? I'm looking to do this for Father's Day, and I DESPERATELY need help!!!! Thank you!!!!

Seriously, you should point the saw out to your husband and ask him if
it is what he was looking for. Then, perhaps, you can go look at it
together (so sweet :-) ), and if he likes it you can buy it for him.
If it's not what he was looking for (it's a "contractor's saw"--you
could possibly ask him if he was looking for one of those?), then you
will have saved a great deal of time and aggravation. I don't have an
opinion on the price of this saw (I'm sure you could search craigslist
at cities across the country, and in your area, to get a good ballpark
estimate). As you said, this one was $75 less than the other one, so
it's probably reasonable. Maybe you can tell what sort of life the saw
has had by looking at it? You should probably check the main bearing
(does the blade have any wobble in it?). Ask for a demonstration, and
make sure it comes with the "fence". Don't be afraid to ask about
"extra blades" the seller may no longer have use for. Good luck!

Bill

On Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 2:18:22 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Is it worth $375?

Will the saw fit hubby's uses, proposed uses?

As Bill says, a personal inspection would help, a lot. Bring a 2X stock, 6' long, and rip it... see if the saw is affected (under-performs) by that sort of cutting. *A dull blade may give a false (poor) performance grade. Bring a good straight edge, lay it across the table top in different directions, to make sure it's level (no warping of the iron).

For that saw, $375 seems to be fairly inexpensive, possibly a very good deal. I might, otherwise, suspect something might be wrong with it, hence a good inspection. If it's in good overall shape, you might snap it up, before someone else buys it.

Yep, have hubby go with you. You don't want to just ask questions, but do some hands on evaluations.

Sonny

On 6/16/2016 2:18 AM, wrote:
My husband is slowly upping his woodworking game. He has pretty much every other saw besides a good table saw. He has been looking at a Jet. Which I know are supposed to be great saws. Question is ... He missed out on this saw on CL once, and now I found it for $75 cheaper elsewhere. $375. Is this a GOOD beginning saw? Is it worth $375? What questions should I be asking? I'm looking to do this for Father's Day, and I DESPERATELY need help!!!! Thank you!!!!

It should be a good saw if he needs to use it on occasion.
If he uses it often he will likely replace it with a larger capacity saw
with more HP.

Jet builds good equipment but only your husband will know if this saw is
enough saw for his table saw needs.

I have owned a Jet 3hp cabinet saw and built countless pieces of
furniture with it. BUT that saw was upper end and I paid $1,300 for it
in 1999.

If safety is an issue consider SawStop, the brand I have now. Much more
expensive than what you are looking at but it is designed to not cut the
operator.

http://www.sawstop.com/

On 6/16/16 2:18 AM, wrote:
My husband is slowly upping his woodworking game. He has pretty much
every other saw besides a good table saw. He has been looking at a
Jet. Which I know are supposed to be great saws. Question is ... He
missed out on this saw on CL once, and now I found it for $75 cheaper
elsewhere. $375. Is this a GOOD beginning saw? Is it worth $375?
What questions should I be asking? I'm looking to do this for
Father's Day, and I DESPERATELY need help!!!! Thank you!!!!


Depends on the year and the shape it's in.
I think there were 2 versions of that model number. One was all stamped
metal with a weaker motor. The other had more cast parts and a stronger
motor. A little googling tells you that they could be had for about
$800, new, around 10 years ago.

I would say $375 is a high asking price unless it's pristine. If it's
in great shape, it will be a really good saw that he can do a lot with.
I would offer something like $275-300 and see if they bite. If it has a
lot of rust and dents on the legs or case, I would probably steer clear
and look for another. Saws like that are all about set-up of the table
to the trunnion to the miter slot, etc. If they've been banged around a
lot-- i.e.: tossed in and out of a pick-up bed to and from job sites--
that can make them darn near impossible to true-up all those settings.
If all the metal looks good and doesn't have a bunch of dents and
scratches, chances are it sat on a shop floor its whole life and can be
adjusted.


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