Unreasonable expectations??

[WellsWood]

Mark,

I really do like the way that the fence stays in place.

How is it now that you have put it right?

Cheers

Mike

Yeah, I like it too, it was a major draw for me - every little helps when your workspace is as crowded as mine.
Haven't had chance to use it in anger yet. If I can shoehorn in a start date before my holiday, the next job is a "real" wood one instead of the horrid MDF thing I'm finishing off at the mo' so I'll let you know.......
Then I suppose I'll be looking for a quiet minute when I can attack those brackets.

Mark

 

[Jake]

Jake and Mike, (and anyone else who's interested)
just for your info, the fence assembly remains in place on the Jet when changing modes. The whole lot rides on the flat tops of the castings that form the hinges.

That's excellent. I'm always tripping over mine, and it is a right pain to have to lift it on and off. Maybe they are scared of the weight of a cast-iron fence with that arrangement, thought - would be quite a strain on the brackets.

 

[Jake]

By the way what is the FS32?

FS35, my mistake, just a joke about a serious big p/t with long tables, and width, and a cast iron fence (I imagine) and so on, and an industrial price tag to go with it - http://www.thesawcentre.co.uk/store/pro ... 1&featured

 

[Mike.C]

Jake,

FS35, my mistake, just a joke about a serious big p/t with long tables, and width, and a cast iron fence (I imagine) and so on, and an industrial price tag to go with it - http://www.thesawcentre.co.uk/store/pro ... 1&featured

Thanks Jake, I with you now. Don't you hate when an advertisement states "Price On Application" You just know that it's going to be way out of your price range.

Cheers

Mike

 

[pewe]

I have read with interest the various above comments about price, materials and quality and have to say that in my experience a low price tag does not mean low quality.

Some years ago I bought an Electra Beckum planer. They are now part of Metabo, but still sell the same unit - this one

Althought it has an alloy bed which is removed as opposed to being tilted to access thickness mode, the fence is 100%.

It is made from aluminium extrusion, but the design of the profile is such that the face is perfectly flat, and is at right angles to the edge, so as long as the edge is flat on the table the fence is a perfect right angle to the bed.

Having read this thread I thought I may have just been lucky, so I contacted a few other folks I know who have the same unit, and theirs are the same.

I also have a number of other tools and accessories made from alloy or aluminium which are just as accurate

So if Electa could design and manufacture a unit at half the price of the Jet one, I can't see why the Jet engineers can't come up with a more accurate fence without any increase in cost (apart for the charge for retooling a new extrusion mould).

 

[JPEC]

Thanks Pewe and welcome to the forum,

My Charnwood p/t is a copy of the electra that you have, but sadly (as previously mentioned) my fence is not so accurate.
I guess some people are lucky, some aren't

Cheers
Julian

 

[pewe]

Really?

I thought that with 4 out of 4 of the EB units having good fences that they had cracked the problem, but if yours is not right maybe I am wrong.

I am working on some new accessories for my new workshop (when I finish building it) and have some ideas about simple but hopefully effective tooling ideas I have seen which look good but are either very expensive to buy, or expensive to have shipped from places like the states which seem to have a lot more accessories available than we do in the UK.

The problem is that some of them ideally would require specific aluminium extrusions to be done to save a lot of 'patching'. (Although 'patching' is OK for prototypes.)

Aluminium extrusions are not expensive, but the intial cost of the extrusion mould can be.

Maybe we should start a new thread to get feedback from other woodworkers to see what would be in sufficient demand to maybe club together and have what is needed made - then sell them to other members of the woodworking fraternity to recoupe the initial costs of tooling.

Just a thought. :-k

 

[andycktm]

Hi pewe,
Look's a little bit like quality control to me,or maybe what the company is prepared to sell :x .I bought a sip compressor, put the wheel's on and the tire's rub on the tank!!!.There's only one way to put them on so they must all be the same.Obviously no one bother's to check them now and again.My mate bought a record router table and after 2 new fence's sent it back.Might have been unlucky :roll: .

 

[engineer one]

the sad thing is that with so much cheap labour manufacturing
these days, quality control really is not cost effective for the
end seller.

often the cost of inspection individual items would make the overall
costs go sky high.

although for instance ikea light bulbs or light fittings are so cheap
to buy, and meet a standard, but are never tested over here,
it is cheaper to throw away, and replace either as a warranty,
or because it breaks quickly.

sadly i think the same applies to many machines particularly
but not exclusively at the lower end, and sadly it seems to be
spreading to some machines made in europe too.

glad i don't have to stock the replacement parts for the
warranty claims. :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[Jake]

My Charnwood p/t is a copy of the electra that you have, but sadly (as previously mentioned) my fence is not so accurate.
I guess some people are lucky, some aren't

It is a clone, so it may just be a matter of the manufacturers having a different specification or level of quality control.

 

[Nick.]

Hello all,

'Power to the people' 8)

I had an e-mail today from Jet's chief engineer saying that they are taking user feedback from this forum seriously, and are currently looking into various ways that the fence can possibly be improved.

*Edit - sorry, original post now edited due to potential confidentiality issues.

Hi Mark, their engineer also had the following comment to yourself ;

I also have seen the retrofit solution by Mark….my compliments to him…good engineering!

Mark, I will call you tomorrow - apologies, I was abroad last time we spoke as you know, and I know you then went on holiday - I haven't forgotten, the person who I said will call you has been away too - August is never the best time to get in touch with people. Hope to speak to you tomorrow.

PS - ref. some previous replies - acceptable tolerance of 0.3mm means that over 0.3 will get binned in the factory, but the average should be around 0.15 - some more, some less - 0.3 tolerance doesn't mean it is built to that specification.

Cheers all,

Nick

 

[WellsWood]

Thats really good news Nick, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back! =D> =D> \/

Now all you have to do is sort those brackets, go on - I dare you to machine those flat as well - go on, you know you want to really

Mark

p.s. seriously though,

really well done!

 

[Nick.]

Thats really good news Nick,

Hi Mark, I've had a call from them again this morning - seems I may have been a bit too hasty posting that last mail - - despite what the last mail said, they confirmed that they are currently working on the viability of machining the fence - although it hasn't actually gone into production yet, as there have been technical issues that still need to be solved. They are working on it though, as we speak.

Ref. the comments too about using the cast iron fence from the 60a jointer - that was Jet's initial idea, but as has been mentioned, the weight was just too much for it to work with a twin lift bed design.

I'll keep you updated.
Best regards.
Nick.