Shop Fox vs Jet

[Bill Webber]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a mill/drill combination tool. I'm trying to find out what significant differences exist between the Shop Fox M1007 and the Jet MJD-18. There is about $500 difference in the street price for the two units. They seem to be comparable in specifications. I can not find a place to look at either of them. So, is there an inherent difference between Shop Fox and Jet in general quality, reliability, cosmetic details?

Thanks...

[brian barnum]

If you have room leave them in China and buy a used Bridgeport with dro's. you wont be sorry and you only need a little more floor space. They are for sale in my neck of the woods all the time for $1500-$2000

[Cary Falk]

I have Jet and Shop Fox equipment but not the ones you are asking. From my experience the quality is about the same on the woodworking equipment side.

[Bill Webber]

If you have room leave them in China and buy a used Bridgeport with dro's. you wont be sorry and you only need a little more floor space. They are for sale in my neck of the woods all the time for $1500-$2000

Hhmmm, I haven't seen any like that. What's your neck of the woods and are these worn out wrecks that need $$ and years to make acceptably operational? Tell me more...

[brian barnum]

Hhmmm, I haven't seen any like that. What's your neck of the woods and are these worn out wrecks that need $$ and years to make acceptably operational? Tell me more...
I have a J head variable speed with Anilam Wizzard dro's. Is it brand new? No The center of the X axis is about.002 low in the center of the table Y and Z are fine. Came with Bridgeport boring head, phase converter Kurt vice with swivel base, two sets of collets and a bunch of other stuff for $1500.00 As long as your ways are decent yao can work around backlash in the feed screws or run the dro's and it dont matter anyhow. Check Craigslist using Search Tempest you can cover a lot of ground fast looking.

[kenneth kayser]

Check what Enco has. It may be about as good at lower price. I think buying any low-priced machine tool has to be a crap shoot.

[brian barnum]

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/tls/1644292291.html Here you go, there out there.

[Bill Webber]

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/tls/1644292291.html Here you go, there out there.

Thanks, Brian. I've done well handling some pretty heavy tools. But I don't see getting a behemoth like that into my basement.

I want to try some light milling work (infill planes) and I've been wanting a better drill press for years. I was leaning towards the Shop Fox or Jet mill/drill and I'd priced them out pretty well. I figured I'd just wait till a bargain came along. Funny how that happens. Amazon and all the others wanted $2077 for the Jet JMD-18 with stand including shipping. When Tools-plus.com offered it today-only for $1825 I had to jump on it. I hate buying stuff sight unseen, but that's all I wanted to pay and the reviews are pretty good. I'll let ya'll know what it's like when I get it.

[george wilson]

My 3rd. mill was a Wholesale Tool Mill Drill from the late 70's. Generally,I don't recommend NEW MADE WT tools.

The basic problem with ANY round column mill drill is that you cannot keep them trammed. That means you can't keep the spindle exactly square to the table. The higher you raise the HEAVY head,the more the column BENDS.

Can you at least spring for a Turret lathe with a proper knee? Grizzly sells them.

[Bill Webber]

I was leaning towards the Jet JMD-18. I was figuring I might buy one 'someday'. I was surfing on March 14th and what comes up but some double-down sale that gives me a net 15% off current advertised sale prices with no shipping charges. So, what was I to do? Anyway, I ordered the tool from Tolls-Plus on Sunday. They promised a tracking number in five days. I never got a tracking number, but the tool showed up on the following Friday. The only bad part is the stand is back ordered for a month!

The tool looks quite nice. The tables are nicely polished. It comes with a pretty cheesy vise and light duty drill chuck. I checked the run out on the spindle and it is less that .001 as is the table travel over-all. There was quite a bit of vibration from the supplied lumpy belts. I replaced them with power twist belts and the vibration disappeared.

I had a little fun getting the mill/drill off the pallet. I've had a come-along hanging out back for years. I removed a couple ceiling tiles in the shop to find the I-beam. I hooked the come-along to the I-beam and jacked it up. I pulled the pallet jack out from under it and that's when I ran into a problem. I'd forgotten how to back up the come-along. The handle has to go way past the hang point and I didn't have enough room to swing the handle to release it . Fortunately I was able to simply put the pallet jack back under the mill/drill and jack it up enough to reposition the come-along to a more advantageous point. No big deal. What would have been a big deal, if I had jacked the come-along up 30-inches to put it on the stand and then found I couldn't jack it down!

I think this thing will be a good drill press upgrade and I should be a passable mill for the work I want to try doing.