Sorry Graham, but it is rubbish, for a certain value of rubbish. The cut was great eventually, but it took a long time and a trip back to the workshop to sort it out. First of all the tracking was totally off, which ended up with me having to adjust the bottom wheel on the advice of one of their engineers. Not that big a deal, except the manual says don't touch the bottom wheel. Then the bottom bearings could not be adjusted properly and so they came and collected the machine, drilled out the bearing block and when it came back it was perfect, but it had been machined badly in the first place (around 5-10 mil off, which I think is huge on a machine like this). Apart from the fence guide which was damaged in transit and which they immediately replaced. After a few weeks it developed a knocking sound which, when I investigated, turned out to be the tyre on the lower wheel come loose.
Now, I used the saw perhaps 20-30 times in the 8 months I had it, but at nowhere near the cutting capacity and for less than a few minutes at a time. I expect something which costs that amount to be engineered right, straight from the factory and it clearly was not. It may be that I got a Friday afternoon special, but both the engineer and other people have said that there is a problem with that particular model.
Fair play to Axminster, they took it back for a full refund without any quibble at all and when I took the table off for transport, about twenty small metal shims fell out of various places, which shows that either Axminster or the factory had to correct lots of defects in the manufacture. I can't praise Axi highly enough for their customer service, but the quality control, certainly on that machine, was shocking. Personally, there is no way I would buy that model again, but I have a friend who has the 350 and she has had no problems at all with it in the year or so she has had it.
