Did your new Jet wet stone grinder stop running?

[george wilson]

Mine did. I have had dealers tell me they sometimes don't work right out of the box. Mine was in use about 4 hours. I found out why: Take the panel off the wetstone grinder,and look at the little press on wire connectors. They are as thin as a beer can. They are very delicate,and one of mine had cracked when the assembler pressed it on. I just soldered the break,and it works fine. Costs less than a Tormek,but you had better know this little secret.

[Jim Koepke]

This seems to be one of the problems with manufacturing today. In order to lower the cost of making a product, cheaper components are used. Manufacturing may be moved to take advantage of lower priced labor. The workers are not fully trained on the use of tools and some will figure if crimping a connector lightly is good, crimping it twice as hard is better. Eventually it causes a higher percentage of failures.
The makers who refuse to give in to this type of false economy for "savings" are often driven out of business because everyone is shopping for a "less expensive" solution.

Maybe it would be beneficial for product reviewers to dismantle the products they review to expose the quality, or lack of same, used in making these items.

jim

[george wilson]

Jim,crimping was not the real problem. The problem was that the connectors were LITERALLY as thin as a beer can. I didn't measure the thickness of my broken one,but I don't think it was more than .002" thick.That's way too thin to stand the stress of assembly. At least,it's easily fixed IF you know what to do. At first,I thought my printed circuit board had gone bad,and was taking the machine apart to replace it when I noticed the break in the connector.

[Luke Townsley]

Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

Maybe it would be beneficial for product reviewers to dismantle the products they review to expose the quality, or lack of same, used in making these items.

jim

Jim,

I nominate this for quote of the day. Comments about bushings vs. bearings, mount points, screw/bolt types and sizes, electrical connections, and other points could be quite enlightening although a bit subjective at times, but then isn't any review subjective by its nature?

[Dan Bertenthal]

George,
Thanks for the info. Mine has been going strong, but it's good to know some troubleshooting starting points if something like this comes up. (Just last weekend I had an issue with my table saw and remembered an old thread like this where someone had discussed the problem and fix and I was done and back to the project in 10 minutes.)
Thanks for the post,
Dan

[Joel Goodman]

+1 on Jim's comment about reviewers looking inside the guts. Long term durability is something we all want and a look at the machine dismantled is a least a partial indicator of build quality. Perhaps they could do this as a phase 2 part of the review -- weed out the stuff that doesn't perform up to snuff then look at the internals of the top choices?

[george wilson]

I must apologise. Being new to this forum,I forgot I was in the Hand Tool section.

[Gary Herrmann]

I just boxed up my original for UPS to pick up tomorrow (after replacing the motor and the potentiometer). The replacement is downstairs. It works. For now.

I got mine during that big sale last year. They were going for about $170. I forgot the adage about getting what you pay for.

Even the wife agrees (she likes wet grinders for her carving tools), if this one goes the same way, we'll probably get a Tormek.

[george wilson]

I think the Jet is o.k.,as long as you know the little glitch. I got mine brand new for $100.00 at a used tool dealer. He had 2 in a box. Jet didn't want to support mine when they found out I didn't get mine from a dealer. They just kept telling me I somehow cheated them (?) and how proud they were of their products. I didn't mean to cheat them,I just happened to be there when these 2 grinders came in. I didn't even know they made one,or the retail price. I still don't want to pay the Tormek price.Just don't see that it's worth that.

[Dave Anderson NH]

George, Don't worry about posting in the hand tools area when the post is about sharpening systems. This is done all the time and is quite appropriate.

[Jim Koepke]

Originally Posted by george wilson

I must apologise. Being new to this forum,I forgot I was in the Hand Tool section.

Hand Tool section? This is the neaner section. We have tailed tools, we just void the warrantees when we take them apart to make them more to our neanderthal liking.

LOL

jim

[Wilbur Pan]

Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

Maybe it would be beneficial for product reviewers to dismantle the products they review to expose the quality, or lack of same, used in making these items.

Even better would be to see how those products hold up over time.

I know this is the Neanderthal forum, so I apologize in advance for talking about powered jointers, but I find that the "measurements" used in your typical review have little to do with how well the tool holds up in actual use. For example, a review of 8" jointers in Fine Woodworking from a few years ago measured table flatness and alignment in their evaluation. I really don't care about table alignment so much. I know that these machines come with adjustments that allow you to align the tables, and that any misalignment from the factory can be fixed.

What I do care about is whether the alignment holds over time. I'd rather have a jointer that arrived with the tables out of alignment that once fixed, will stay in place, than a jointer that arrives perfectly aligned that I have to realign ever month.

[george wilson]

Wilbur,I am not sure where you are coming from. There is no way to fix out of alignment tables(tables not parallel to each other),except to jam shims,which don't stay put,into the dovetails that the tables rise and fall upon. You had better hope that your jointer has parallel tables,or you will be in a world of hurt. This includes having the cutterhead parallel with the tables. Many cutterheads are not adjustable. The Grizzly is. You can only raise and lower the tables,but that is not the same thing at all. All jointers can do that(except for a few old fixed outfeed table models,like the old Craftsman from the 50's and 60's. I am of course aware of the Fine Woodworking review of jointers.Their good evaluation of the Grizzly encouraged me to take a chance and try one. The trouble with Fine Woodworking evaluations is that sometimes they do an evaluation again,like wood chisels,and in the next evaluation,the results of the same chisels changes. My Pfiell chisels didn't do too well in the first go round,but were among the very best in the second. Therefore,I proceeded with caution in trying the Grizzly jointer. Being a machinist also,I had the necessary special straight edge,and dial indicators to accurately check table alignment,and get real figures for parallelism. As for the length of service you can expect from a machine like the jointer,I think the only problem you might ever encounter with this imported machine is to have to change the motor at some time,maybe never. I have had to change a motor on a Taiwan machine once years ago. It arced across the bearings. For the low cost of the jointer in question,I'd gladly pay for an American motor for such a perfectly aligned machine.I am sorry to put this in this hand tool column,but do not know how to otherwise respond to this posting.

[Tom Stovell]

Originally Posted by george wilson

Mine did. Mine was in use about 4 hours.

So did mine and at about that same use level. I took it back to the local dealer for warranted repairs although I should have check into this myself. It's been in their shop since before Thanksgiving.

Tom

[Wilbur Pan]

I was talking about using shims. I've had good luck with them in using them to align jointer tables that were not in perfect alignment, and haven't had issues with them moving.

Again, my point was not whether the jointer works well out of the box. I'd rather know that the jointer would hold its alignment, once set, over time.

Since this is the Neanderthal forum, I better use a different analogy. It's no good if a #4 plane can take a 0.001" shaving out of the box, if you have to keep disassembling it to reposition the frog every few days.