Can I ask your opinion on XACTA Saw?

[Rick Gifford]

Jet tools doing a 10% dicount March 1st.

Anyway I was in my local Woodcraft and looking over the Jet 10" XACTA Saw JTAS-10XL50-1.

How good are these XACTA's?

Be nice to upgrade from my contractors saw and get more power and dust collection.

[keith ouellette]

I don't have a lot of experience in wood working but my jet exacta saw will give me thinner than a 1/32" strip off of a jointed piece of wood and I ca start it up with a penny sitting on edge and the penny won't move.

I Hear this is a good test of a saw.

I bought mine at a wood craft and I looked at a more expensive pm and a uni saw. The motors and all the parts were the same size. The trunions looked the same to me. When I asked the manager why I should spend more money on the delta or pm he said he couldn't give me a good reason. I spent about 2 hours walking back and forth between saws and i am happy with my choice.

[keith ouellette]

By the way. Mine is the jtas-10xl-1 left tilt 3hp with xact fence 2.

I don't know how the two saws will differ but I don't think it could be much.

[Dave Lehnert]

I own one and think it is a great saw.

[Jon Todd]

I have the Jet Xacta Saw 3 HP. Its the newer style With the Riving Knife and I love it. Plenty of power and easy as can be to get it square. I would definately buy it again

[Dave Falkenstein]

I have been happy with mine for quite a few years.

[Tom Veatch]

I have an older version (~7 yr) of that saw 3HP, Left tilt, 50in rails. If I had it to do over again, I have no reason whatsoever to get anything different.

[Joe Spear]

I've had one for two years. It's an excellent saw. However, I never did use the Premier Xacta Fence that came with it: I put an Incra on it. The Xacta Fence did seem to be a good solid one, though.

[Jim Becker]

Prior to buying my slider a year ago, I used a Jet LT XACTA saw since 2000. Excellent machine. No problems. Nearly complete satisfaction. And it held its value very well...sold it for much more than the typical 50 % of original cost to a local artist and she got a good machine in the deal.

[Cary Falk]

Rick, I don't know anything about the saw but I got a postcard in the mail that Woodcraft worth 10% anything including power tools on March 1st and 2nd. If your Woodcraft caries it, 20% off would be a nice deal. That's all I have to add.

[Rick Gifford]

Hey thanks everyone for giving me your opinions on that. I'll trust first hand experience over anything.

I'd have to have the mobile base, with a small shop there will be times I'll need to move it. Just wish the base was cheaper!

I'm going to go back tomorrow and look at the saw in more detail.

Once again thank you.

[Joe Spear]

You might want to check Amazon.com for a mobile base. They have an HTC. Compare their price to Woodcraft's. Amazon has free shipping. I got my saw from Amazon, and the Jet mobile base was part of the deal. The HTC looks like it may be better than the Jet one that I have. Amazon also has the new Jet with riving knife and 30" fence for $1600 and free shipping. Check to see how that compares with the Woodcraft deal.

[Rick Gifford]

Thanks Joe. I was looking at those bases. I like the 4 wheel swivel. Makes moving it so much easier.

The only thing I dont find is another option for the base that fits the 50" table. It has an extension that supports the table legs that the 30" doesnt need.

So far the Jet brand is the only one I saw.

Still looking around though.

I am calling Jet tomorrow. I have a couple questions. I want to know exactly what is the difference in the "deluxe" saw vs standard XACTA.

I can see it has the riving knife (newest model does) and a push button lock arbor, chrome colored crank wheels and a drawer. They charge an extra $200 for those extras. I wonder if there is anything I am missing.

I really would like to have the riving knife, but its not a deal breaker.

[Jay Yoder]

By my understanding, based on a conversation i had with the local Woodcraft is that it shares some features with the PM2000 (same company produces them both) which is a heck of a saw. I want to actually see one, but have not found one set up.

[Jon Todd]

I went and took some detailed pictures of mine.

Here it is the day I bought it:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Jet_saw_005.jpg

It has the mobile base on it from Jet.

Here is the stock Riving Knife.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Jet_saw_2-3-08_011.jpg


I bought the low profile version and use it now.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Riving_knife1.jpg


Here is my saw as it is today. I have added the Wixey Gauge and a router table. The Dust collection is pretty good on it. I have some dust in the cabinet but not much. I bought the saw in September and I really really like it.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Jet_saw_2-3-08_013.jpg



I took one of the inside of the cabinet. I havent cleaned it out since November. I did tape up some of the cracks to help with dust collection.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Jet_saw_2-3-08_007.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Rick, buy the Deluxe with the riving knife, blade shroud, etc. I really do suspect that it will supersede the previous version at some point because of the safety features, etc.

[Tom Veatch]

... I really do suspect that it will supersede the previous version at some point because of the safety features, etc.

Wouldn't surprise me, especially if the previous version doesn't contain the riving knife. Recently read that all new table saw models will have to contain a riving knife to retain UL listing. Don't recall exactly where I read it or when it's effective, but interested persons could probably Google up something about it. Doesn't really affect existing models, but I expect market pressure and parts commonality issues will see to their eventual demise.

[Fred Voorhees]

I poked around the Jet site and found that from January 1st through I believe the end of April, Jet is having a sale on all of their equipment and even bettering that with rebates and tossing in parallel clamps to boot. The Jet Xacta saw 10" 3HP with a 50" rip capacity #708675PK lists for $2,173.00. It's on sale for $1,699.99 and with an available $100 rebate, it brings it down to $1,599.99. On top of that, they are throwing in a pair of 31" Jet parallel clamps on the deal. I will be making a few calls tomorrow to confirm this and if true, I do believe that this is the unit that I will be purchasing shortly.

[Rick Gifford]

On the riving knife discussion, can the saw be upgraded to the riving knife? I really don't know how exactly its connected and if changing over is an issue. Seems to me if the new models have the riving knife, there should be an upgrade option for the others.

Concerning the rebates, I saw there are some going on. From what I can tell the $100 rebate only applies to XACTA Deluxe models, or the 5HP XACTA standard (non-exacta??).

Might be wrong on that. Those clamps are worth another hundred I would think. Nice clamps. Saw them at Woodcraft today.

[Joe Spear]

The way the riving knife is attached to the arbor mechanism, there is currently no practical way to convert the old-style splitter-equipped saws for riving knives. Maybe some day somebody will come up with a conversion kit, but for now, no.

[Jim Becker]

As Joe states, you'll need to buy the new version if you want the riving knife capability. It's physically "challenging" to retrofit something like this since the riving knife needs to move up and down with the blade, rather than just bevel with it.

[Dennis Peacock]

I have the left tilt cabinet saw and LOVE it. Been in use for about 4 years now and still working very well. :D

[Fred Voorhees]

Concerning the rebates, I saw there are some going on. From what I can tell the $100 rebate only applies to XACTA Deluxe models, or the 5HP XACTA standard (non-exacta??).

Might be wrong on that. Those clamps are worth another hundred I would think. Nice clamps. Saw them at Woodcraft today.

I checked back on their site and they are offering rebates in various monetary levels for different machines. I think they were quoting the clamp value of something in the seventies.

[Andrew Close]

Jon, and others with this saw:
how easy is it to swap out the riving knife? this saw is currently at the top of my list but i've never 'seen' it. my local Woodcraft doesn't have any on the floor. :(
interesting to hear that the Deluxe Xacta and PM are made on the same line. i have seen the PM2000, quite a saw. if the Jet Deluxe Xacta is somewhat comparable, i think i'd be quite happy with it. :)

[Shane Sura]

Where did you hear that Jet was having a sale on March 1st? I saw woodcrafts ad but I thought that excluded power tools. I have been highly considering a Jet Saw with the bonus this year but I find it devilishly hard to get any information on where to buy etc. My woodcraft has a horrible selection and there are no other stores nearby. Not to mention that Jet's website sucks.

Shane

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Hey thanks everyone for giving me your opinions on that. I'll trust first hand experience over anything.

I'd have to have the mobile base, with a small shop there will be times I'll need to move it. Just wish the base was cheaper!

I'm going to go back tomorrow and look at the saw in more detail.

Once again thank you.

Hi Rick, I love my 3hp, left tilt, 50 inch machine, excellent bang for the buck. Speaking of mobile bases, mine is on one, and during my recent move, the saw got used as a sort of mobile table in the garage. Between the hundreds of pounds of planes on it, and the "movers":o not being as gentle as they should have, it needed retuned. Took all of fifteen minutes. Nice and easy. I'd buy again.

[Jon Todd]

Jon, and others with this saw:
how easy is it to swap out the riving knife? this saw is currently at the top of my list but i've never 'seen' it. my local Woodcraft doesn't have any on the floor. :(
interesting to hear that the Deluxe Xacta and PM are made on the same line. i have seen the PM2000, quite a saw. if the Jet Deluxe Xacta is somewhat comparable, i think i'd be quite happy with it. :)

It takes about 15 seconds, Maybe 20 seconds. Just flip the little silver lever and pull it out. Sorry for the bad picture.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Knife_002.jpg

[Rick Gifford]

I ordered the Deluxe Exacta 3HP 50" today. I decided I wanted the riving knife feature. Spoke with Jet, upgrading to a riving knife from the splitters is doable, but takes surgery (some drilling etc). Not an easy change over.

I misunderstood the March 1st Jet sale. It is a 10% off everything at Woodcraft for two days 1st and 2nd. So not just 10% on Jet.

They had no problems doing a pre-sale ringup. Bought the Wixey fence gauge too. Have a Wixey on the planer and man is that ever nice.

I ordered the mobile base. Small shop so I have to move it around at times.

Im confident this will be a solid saw. I'm looking forward to the upgrade.

[Andrew Close]

Where did you hear that Jet was having a sale on March 1st? I saw woodcrafts ad but I thought that excluded power tools. I have been highly considering a Jet Saw with the bonus this year but I find it devilishly hard to get any information on where to buy etc. My woodcraft has a horrible selection and there are no other stores nearby. Not to mention that Jet's website sucks.

Shane

Shane, Jet actually has a rebate event going on through April 1st: Jet Rebate Event (http://content.jettools.com/promotions/jet_w08.pdf)

The Woodcraft 10% off sale is only on Mar 1st. and if you look at both sides of that flyer carefully you'll see in fine print that all Power Tools are excluded, even though in big print on one side it says all Power Tools (excluding Festool, SawStop...) are included... kinda confusing.
if you can get Woodcraft to take another 10% off that Deluxe Xacta, the that would be one heck of a deal :D

[Shane Sura]

I went into the local Woodcraft yesterday to get the scoop on the Deluxe Xacta. Unfortunately they did not have one in the showroom but I did get all of the pricing information.

The Deluxe Jet Stock: 708675PK (left tile 50 inch) is being sold through March 1st at 1699.99 Then you get a $100.00 mail in rebate. So if you buy it from Woodcraft between now and march 1st you pay $1699.99.

Then as a special Woodcraft sale they are doing 10% off select power tools between now and March 1st. So when you pay 1699.99 you get 10% off which is $1529.99.

Then on top of the $1529.99 you get a $100 mail in rebate. So grand total is $1429.99.

If you add in the cost of the free clamps you get the saw for $1357.99 :D

Now I really have a decision to make. This is an incredible deal but like any other major purchase I feel I will regret it. I keep telling my wife that this really is a 20 year saw. What do you all think. Will this be the saw to last me?

Shane

[Dennis Parslow]

I just bought one too, the 30" fence, 3 hp, single phase. I've had a few issues, but so far Jet support has been working with me on them. I feel like they will take care of everything in the end based on my initial conversations.

[Shane Sura]

Dennis,
What has been your issues?


Shane

[Rick Gifford]

Well Shane I ordered mine. Woodcraft will ring the 10% off now as "pre-sale" no problem.

It looks like a great saw and many here are happy with their XACTA's.

Go get it. Not sure if the overall deal will be beat anytime soon.

I also ordered the mobile base. Heavy saw, its a must in my small shop to be able to move it.

You still here reading this? GO GO GO! Get that saw!

LOL :D

[Ryan Cianfarani]

Glad I saw this thread. I've been trying to pick a saw for a few weeks now. I don't need it until April really. But I was leaning towards a powermatic. But seeing how the Jet shares many of the features for a lot less, and with the woodcraft and rebate deals, + all of the good things said about it in this thread, I think I'll be buying today or tomorrow.

[Lars Thomas]

I've had mine for 6-7 years. No Problems - Great Saw. Mine arrived with damaged rails (crushed). Jet took care of sending new ones ASAP.

[Eric Haycraft]

Glad I saw this thread. I've been trying to pick a saw for a few weeks now. I don't need it until April really. But I was leaning towards a powermatic. But seeing how the Jet shares many of the features for a lot less, and with the woodcraft and rebate deals, + all of the good things said about it in this thread, I think I'll be buying today or tomorrow.

I talked to the Jet & Powermatic reps at 7Corners a week ago to find out the differences and ordered a Deluxe XACTA 5HP 30". Basically, there weren't any major differences and it the PM cost more because PM is a more expensive brand. When I told them that i wanted the low profile riving knife, they pulled out the PM2000 catalog and ordered it from there. The PM2000 and XACTA Deluxe are made in the same factory and the only differences that I know of are:
Arbor lock differs
Cabinet differs - Jet has a drawer, PM has built in retractable casters
On off switch. PM has a much larger stop button
Jet i$ cheaper

[Robert Brownell]

First off, I am new to this forum, it looks like a great place to exchange information and I look forward to learning from everyone's experiences and sharing some of mine.
I recently bought the Xacta deluxe from WoodCraft (they honored the 10% prior to March 1st). I got the saw home and pretty much had it assembled when I saw on the Inspection Report that was packed with the saw (this is the quality control checklist that shows they checked everything) that the Run-Out of arbor flange has an allowed tollerance of .0008 inches and the test results on my saw were measured at .0031 inches - this is CLEARLY out of spec. Also the minimum blade height should be 3 inches and mine is 3.03 inches - this one isn't a big deal to me, but again is out of spec. So why would Jet ship a saw that is this far out of spec? I emailed Jet and included a scanned copy of the report. Their response was that they don't think the arbor flange is that far out of alignment - instead they think that because these saws are manufactured over seas and the staff in the assembly area is used to metric numbers, so maybe they dropped a zero. So if the QC person dropped a zero, then what they are telling me is I can't rely on the other numbers that looked so good (didn't NASA have an issue with a metric to imperial mix-up???). So the solution is to have a tech come out to look at the saw - the problem is Jet never faxed to work order to the tech, so they never contacted me to make an appointment. Once I called Jet and got nasty with them, they faxed the work order and the tech will be here on March 5th - So I have had a saw for a couple weeks not that may be out of spec, but we aren't sure since the people over seas aren't used to working in inches. I guess I could go back to WoodCraft and buy a dial guage and check this out for my self, but then what do I do if it is out of spec?
I also bought the Jet mobile base with the extension kit for the 50 inch table - man, what a piece of junk this thing is! They use a piece of flat metal to go from the saw base out to the support of the extension table. They should have use agle iron - the flat stock bends way, way too easily. When turning the saw base the 'T' that supports the extension tables often gets bent back if it hits ANYTHING on the garage floor.The table legs are threaded for srew-in adjustable height feet - I think I may drill a hole in the metal 'T' that the legs rest on and put a bolt from the bottom of the support into the legs - that way the whimpy support can't bend back out of the way when moving the saw (seems odd to have the tables legs support the thing that is supposed to be supporting them!). I would also like to figure out a way to weld agle iron from the area near the wheels on the saw base to near the wheels on the extesion so I can put an MDF shelf down there and store my miter saw and dove tail jig... OK, enough about my complaints - I just wanted to give a heads up about Jet's quality control before you purchase a new saw.

[Jon Todd]

I talked to the Jet & Powermatic reps at 7Corners a week ago to find out the differences and ordered a Deluxe XACTA 5HP 30". Basically, there weren't any major differences and it the PM cost more because PM is a more expensive brand. When I told them that i wanted the low profile riving knife, they pulled out the PM2000 catalog and ordered it from there. The PM2000 and XACTA Deluxe are made in the same factory and the only differences that I know of are:
Arbor lock differs
Cabinet differs - Jet has a drawer, PM has built in retractable casters
On off switch. PM has a much larger stop button
Jet i$ cheaper

Thr riving knives dont swap out.

[Eric Haycraft]

Thr riving knives dont swap out.

Source?? AFAIK, there isn't a low profile one for the Jet, and yet others on here have a low profile knife for it..it had to come from somewhere and the Jet & PM people assured me that they were the same. Hell, the guards are definitely the same, so I can't imagine the knife being different.

[Jon Todd]

http://www.osolnikmachinery.com/index.asp

Call and talk to Joe. It is different according to WMH Tool group. Joe got me mone and it was only 20 dollars shipped. Jet does make the low profile version. I know because I have it.

[Eric Haycraft]

arggg. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I was fed bad info. Thanks for giving me the heads up. I'll cancel the knife that I have on order.