A reader wrote in with some insults and questions about the new Jet miter saw.
Robert wrote:
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Do you actually review tools or just socks, pencils, and food storage containers? Seems to be a pretty lightweight “tool” site. Since I’m in the market for one, where is there an actual side-by-side review/comparison of sliding compound miter saws? E.g., I came here looking for at least a review of the Jet 10-in. but only found the intro marketing language.
Do any of you have experience with the new Jet miter saw that you’d like to share with Robert?
I wrote a news post about the new Jet 10″ and 12″ sliding miter saws back in October. Sorry, Robert, but I don’t have any plans to review it.
We requested Jet tool review samples a few years ago, but they declined, basically saying they didn’t see the point of it, and I haven’t given any thought to fresh efforts.
To put it candidly, while I have purchased some Jet woodworking tools, I personally wouldn’t consider their miter saws, at least not ahead of more favored competing models.
On paper, the new Jet miter saws do sound competitive. But I have my personal brand preferences, and Jet isn’t on that list.
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$500 for the 10″ saw? $600 for the 12″? Dewalt’s flagship DWS780 12″ sliding miter saw is currently $580 via Amazon, and is occasionally bundled with a folding miter saw stand for free.
For a sliding 10″ miter saw, I’d perhaps look at Makita’s, which is currently $450 via Amazon, or Bosch’s axial-glide 10″ saw, which is $465 via Amazon.
The Jet saws do look to have some nice features, but not enough to upset my brand preferences. Bosch makes great miter saws. Dewalt makes great miter saws. I’ve been liking Milwaukee’s cordless 7-1/4″ miter saw. On a budget, I’d look at Metabo HPT’s lower-frills corded miter saws.
Heck, I’d even look at the Delta Cruzer sliding miter saws.
Jet has a good track record when it comes to [certain] woodworking and metalworking equipment, but benchtop power tools? From what I’ve seen every time I’ve looked at the brand when researching personal purchases, they don’t have the greatest reputation. Jet’s new miter saws would need to be of much greater reader/audience appeal before I’d give them any more personal or editorial attention.
Professionally, speaking as a tool editor/reviewer, I’d be open-minded towards experiencing loaners of some of their newer benchtop power tools, but there are much more interesting and asked-about tools on my list.
Speaking personally as a tool user, Jet’s miter saws are in a very crowded price level. Why spend the same on a Jet miter saw when I could spend the same on premium miter saws from market-leading brands, or less on lower featured models like the Dewalt DWS779 ($350 via Amazon)? If you can answer that question, then go for it, but I can’t.
Different people have different needs and wants, and I’m sure that Jet’s miter saw features will appeal to certain users.
I have limited time and a limited budget. “Actual side by side comparisons of sliding miter saws?” I don’t like comparisons, as it can be very difficult to discuss any data, interpretations, or conclusions around apples vs. oranges differences.
Testing miter saws require big commitments in regard to time and workshop space. Comparing miter saws – sure, that’s something I could do, but I’d rather not. I’m working on testing a couple of different miter saws right now, but they’re of very different styles and sizes, and so a side-by-side comparison wouldn’t make much sense.
I wish I could accommodate all tool review requests, but quite frankly, I’m hoping for 2020 to be a slightly lighter year so that I can catch up on personal projects and backlogged reviews.
It would take me quite a bit of convincing to spend money on a Jet miter saw for personal use (or editorial review). There’s nothing wrong with these miter saws that I can tell, but the marketing materials I’ve seen don’t make enough of a convincing case to appeal to my miter saw preferences, at least not at their current pricing.
Because of my past difficulty in requesting test samples from Jet, I’m going to save my efforts, at least until there is something I feel much more strongly about testing. There are a couple of retailers who I could try to convince to loan me a unit, but I haven’t seen strong enough interest in either of the new Jet miter saws to warrant it.
There’s also the fact that as I’ve been sick with different colds during maybe 5 out of the past 7 weeks. Before that, I was winding down from the holiday shopping season.
Jet’s miter saws don’t seem to be very popular, as I haven’t seen many user reviews, and I don’t think I’ve seen any editorial reviews. But, that’s to be expected. Consider Delta’s Cruzer miter saw, which came out last year. It’s a non-traditional design and there are distinctions that might bump it up on certain users’ shortlists.
My post about Jet’s miter saws was somewhat shallow, or at least less insightful than I usually like, because there’s not much distinction to talk about. I found the news release interesting, and am actually hopeful that Jet launches or updates more benchtop tools. But what’s special about these new Jet saws? Cool, it has a separate cut-line laser and an LED worklight, although personally I prefer LED shadow cut-line indicators. The saws have a 2-1/2″ dust port adapter, but there’s no mention of dust collection efficiency, and I can’t see a rubber dust chute in product photos.
There simply wasn’t a lot to talk about in the news release. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as there are no glaring “gotchas,” but there’s also not a lot to inspire a review. What do these Jet saws do differently than competing saws?
At best, they perform on-par with other 10″ and 12″ sliding miter saws and are either accurate out of the box or easy to just. At worst?
If there’s interest in a review, I might put it on my list of test samples to work on acquiring.
In the meantime, if any of you have used these new Jet saws, would you recommend them to Robert?
As for me, I’m going to work on my next series of pencil, socks, and food container reviews. And also, photography of some hand tools I’ve been using and sitting on (figuratively), a batch of Milwaukee M12 tools, and the new Packout tool box that just came in.
See Also:
- The ONE Reason You Shouldn’t Buy These Socks (a Personal Favorite)
- Ohto Sharp Pencil, a Wood-Bodied Mechanical Pencil for Under $6
- Rubbermaid Food Storage Containers
Also, please don’t get on Robert’s case for his somewhat jerky comment. It might come across as rude, but at least he dug deep enough into the site to take notice of some of the off-topic headlines.
Separately, I’m working on the next series of knife reviews. There have been as many “when will you review more pocket knives?!” requests in the past couple of months as “please, less knives!” complaints after the last high-frequency series.
Jason S.
The only Jet tool I own is a bench grinder that I’ve had for about 10 years. It’s a beast and still going strong. I agree with Stuart that I wouldn’t even consider Jet branded miter saws, but I’m a biased Dewalt guy.
Chris I
Putting Robert on BLAST!!!!!!
Love it. I would have deleted his email and blocked him on the site. What an a**.
Lance
Yep, x2
Soup
I bought the new 12″ JET over the Dewalt in the Black Friday sales. They were essentially the same price (~$400), though the JET came without a stand, which I didn’t want.
The laser works well and I don’t think it will move out of alignment easily, but I do prefer the shadow line off the saw, which I will probably add to this saw.
As for the dust chute, the little black bag on the back is attached to the dust chute .
skfarmer
i can see getting a jet if you want something different but other than that…………..hmmmm……..nope can’s see a reason.
it may be a fine saw and it may perform well but i highly doubt that it does anything better than any of the more common brands do a cheaper price. someday i may replace my old 12 inch single bevel dewalt but in all truth it does everything i really need and has been through hell and back. it looks good and still cuts true.
as far as the comments. pretty rude and and insulting to a guy that seems to be a straight shooter. maybe i need to pay more attention as i think i missed the food container and sock discussion. the pen and pencil posts? they may not be my thing but i can appreciate the value and i surely don’t think they distract.
Louie Orama
Stuart, I just want to say that that was an excellent response and very well said. Albeit, you drew your boundary, you also were as informing as you can be. I might also add that as a person who gets more attention than your average joe would get considering your site, we tend to shy away from saying what we really feel with the intent of not offending anyone or scaring away future normals on the site. You are absolutely right about Robert for being the one to go that deep into the site and being the person to ask the question as this topic would’ve never happened with him.
Just figured I’d throw that out there.
Stuart
Thanks!
It’s hard to tell when someone is trolling and intending to elicit an emotional response, or when they’re simply being candid. I’ve found that first-time commenters sometimes troll, while regulars speaking their mind do so for the sake of constructive criticism.
With critical, hostile, or even rude comments or emails, I default to a “reply to a wider audience” practice, which helps avoid personal offense.
If I weren’t interested in seeing how popular the Jet miter saws actually were with readers, or if they’re of sufficient interest for me to pursue more insights or even hands-on experience, I would have ignored their email outright.
Regulars can be defensive of me and ToolGuyd (thank you!), and so I added that comment about the emailer in an attempt to avoid feelings of offense on my/ToolGuyd’s behalf.
Gordon
Robert should take the lack of review to mean something. It’s not just this site, there aren’t any reviews at all. Remove the Jet marketing video and “top 10” autocomplete videos and you won’t find one person that has one. Unless I could see it in person, I wouldn’t buy one. Makita has the really nice forward facing rails, Bosch and Delta have robot arms (thought I hear Bosch has an issue with bushings wearing out), and the DeWalt is frequently on crazy sale.
Soup
Not one person that has one… except the person that posted above you that has one?
Gordon
Sorry I misspoke. I meant not one person (youtuber) has a review. I could have worded that better.
Just contrast that with a review of pretty much any other brand’s saw and you’ll see at least a few.
Soup
Doesn’t really mean much. You can’t just go to Home Depot/Lowes and get one and if JET won’t let Stu review it for his blog, they probably aren’t passing out products to influencers. They likely need to get with the times with that, but whatever.
I’ve seen Adam Savage use all Dewalt then use all Milwaukee. David Picciuto told us how SawStop gave him the big 3HP cabinet saw when he moved.
Because it is going to be a lower production number item, it wouldn’t make sense for Youtubers to buy one to review and if JET doesn’t give out products or hire reviewers to review their stuff, it is unlikely to be seen. Most things you see reviewed are going to be things that you can get quickly and easily. What is going to generate revenue for YouTubers are reviews on products that people are actively searching for, which wouldn’t include a low-production miter saw, no matter how good it is.
Stuart
I *could* buy one – ToolGuyd has an editorial budget for review samples of strong interest, and we do have friendly relationships with some retailers/suppliers who might be open to supplying a review sample or loaner.
But let’s be real – how many readers are going to be interested enough in a review of either Jet saw to justify the time, cost, and effort?
DRT
Just for the record, I really like the non-traditional (I don’t know what else to call it) reviews like knives, pencils and socks. I get more ideas of neat stuff from ToolGuyd than anywhere else.
Craig
Yea I agree. I’ve bought quite a few tools based on recommendations on this site; both Stuart and other users’. It’s also because of this site i was introduced to these retractable tip pencils that don’t rip my pockets. I didn’t know they existed since i’m not a big stationary store browser. It’s happened on more than one occasion that I’ve had a pencil or coins fall out the bottom of my pant leg due to a hole in my pocket caused from a pencil’s wear over time. The Mora knives made fantastic stocking stuffers this year. Again, inexpensive yet quality products i didn’t know about. I haven’t yet but will definitely try out Stuart’s sock recommendations when i decide to pony up more cash on socks. If something is of no interest to me i would just ignore it if it bothered me that much though i read everything here because I like to know a little bit about as much as possible.
As far as the $500 Jet saw, no thanks. When it’s time to upgrade i will go with the tried and true for much less money.
Thanks for everything and keep it up Stuart!
OhioHead
:medal & 100% agree.
Skye A Cohen
Wow jet threw you some shade huh? They don’t see the point.. I guess as long as they’re selling like hot cakes.. (they definitely are not selling like hot cakes)
Skye A Cohen
Also just to state the obvious: Robert, maybe work on your tact my brother your email sounded a little rude. It’s better to be respectful to people
Stuart
Some brands only supply product samples to large woodworking magazines or huge mega-name YouTubers they sponsor. That’s just the way it is. I didn’t take it personally. If I have limited experience with a brand, in personal or editorial sense, I’ll always explain why.
It wasn’t shade; different brands have different approaches towards test and review samples.
Bob
Dang it! I missed the tupperwear review lol.
The only hint of a Jet chop saw review was several years back on a Wood Whisperer (Mark Spagnolo) video. He was talking about doing a review but I don’t think he ever did. I thought it was larger than a 12” saw and way more expensive??? Im kinda fuzy on details. It was a few years back,
Anyway what ever it was maybe it sucked, other reviews took priority, not enough payola haha nah he seems like a streight shooter.
In short Rob the Jet is a me too. Buy something else.
Id say try not to be a *ick when asking for a favor (review of jet saw) but I did get a chuckle out of the ball breaking. Stuey has reviewed pens, socks and (my favorite) a makita coffe maker. (Still not sure what the food container one was tho???) Yes they are all relevant but the fact that the tornado pen keeps comming up in “toolguyd’s top tool picks” below deserves a liitlle ball busting. Haha.
Anyway check out the site for a good chop saw. Im gonna pick up a Bosch slider one of these days.
Ridgeback Woodworks
I looked at it at my local wood working store and was not impressed. From the start I thought I was looking at a cloned miter saw painted in white! A closer look showed nothing to brag about. I own several Jet tools with no complaints. My questions are, why do the manufacturers keep installing Lazer vs shadow line? Why are we not seeing more forward rails? Why aren’t more saws corded vs battery? Or integrated? Of course they want you to buy their batteries but let’s think about this. Most miter saws in the 10″-12″ size are large and heavy. I believe that the majority of these are sitting stationary in ones shop. I’ve worked many a job and rarely is there a problem with access to electricity. It would be nice to finally see an ad for a saw that would have those features! As for the Jet, just another clone!
John
We have this miter saw in our store at woodcraft. it was a holdover item from my Black Friday sale we just had and we couldn’t move the song to save our life and we had it on sale for roughly around 350.00.
Since my boss took his festival back home we actually use this bladder saw as the shop saw what we need to cut down boards for customers here is my review. The blade that comes with it is actually really nice and the saw has a lot of power The only issue I have is too big issues The sliders tend to get clogged with dust that come from cutting wood and the best collection is probably the worst dust collection I’ve seen on any kind of saw. I still have a old harbor freight miter saw that I’ve had for years and it still has better dust collection than the jet so with that being said positive are great power accurate cuts and the LED line is a pretty decent feature. Negative is dust collection and nothing stands out from other powerhouses on the market.
Paul
You all laugh about the food storage containers joke but…
I just finished making several pull out shelves for the kitchen pantry. The pantry has a 15″ opening and is 24(ish)” deep so it is a pain to reach the back. The shelves are just open draw boxes using 3 1/2″ x 5/8″ poplar built to accommodate 21″ Blummotion slides. For added fun since I have the jig, the front and back are joined with half-blind dovetails which my wife really likes the look of. I built the drawers to fit the cabinets and maximize surface area. Every food storage container I have found is too short lengthwise for single stacking or too long for side by side stacking in the 13″ width of the drawer and just inefficient. We’ll figure it out when I actually install them this weekend.
Andreas
I’m really interested in a review of the new Ticonderoga HB#2
Stuart
It’s a good economically-priced pencil.
I like Staedtler Norica these days, which can be found at Amazon or office supply stores for ~$15 for 36. I think Office Depot has the best price – $10 for 36, but they show a blue pencil instead of the typical black.
schill
I haven’t used the Ticonderoga’s for a while but I wasn’t very happy with them.
These days, I’m partial to the US General Cedar Pointes:
https://www.amazon.com/General-Pencil-Company-ANG333-2-12-pack/dp/B00314DBPI/
Rafe
Jet has good quality shop tools. Their chop saw doesn’t appear to have integrated some of the newer chop saw tech besides the forward bevel release. Doesn’t appear that it would collect dust as well as Makita or Festool, doesn’t have forward facing rails or similar system, is standard weight… just doesn’t appear to have anything special about it. In a crowded market place I can’t see why anyone would pay a premium for this.
Ridgeback Woodworks
Curious as to why my email was not posted. I would like to hear any comments or thoughts about how I felt. Good or bad!
Stuart
This one? https://toolguyd.com/comparison-reviews-new-jet-miter-saw-reader-question/#comment-1280763
First-time commentors, or when a previous commentor changed their email address or name, go to moderation where I have to check an approval box. This has greatly cut down on spam, but it does mean that it sometimes takes time for such comments to be published on the site.
Your first comment was approved sometime between 9am and 10:30am today, otherwise this second comment wouldn’t have been auto-published. It’s possible I approved the first comment while you were typing up this second one.
RCWARD
I have had a Jet bench drill press for 6 or 7 years and it’s been fine for my limited needs. Still works great. I agree I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a miter saw that is close to the same price as a market leader. I have nothing against Jet though.
Andrew
Jet tools are way overpriced. I bought a 12″ Craftsman professional, dual bevel, sliding compound miter saw about 8 years ago for around $450. The EXACT same miter saw, but with Jet branding on it sold for $650. It’s a great saw, but not worth $650 When the time comes for me to buy a new miter saw, I’ll be getting a Bosch.
ARae
Jet tools are way overpriced. I bought a 12″ Craftsman professional, dual bevel, sliding compound miter saw about 8 years ago for around $450. The EXACT same miter saw, but with Jet branding on it sold for $650. It’s a great saw, but not worth $650 When the time comes for me to buy a new miter saw, I’ll be getting a Bosch.
Andreas
Why spend more for less? Jet mitre saws are junk, plain and simple. Buy Bosch or DeWalt if you want a good saw with lots of features.
Grady
My only experience with Jet is my 12″ lathe. It does what it’s supposed to. The model i have has been replaced a couple of times.
On the original product review of miter saws, my old craftsman is barely hanging on. Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on the Ridgid R4210 10″ sliding compound miter saw? Currently I’m a hobbyist with the occasional heavy duty need.
Thanks!
Steve Goodman
While jet has made some decent table saws over the years I can’t see buying one of these over a dewalt, Makita or Bosch (or Milwaukee after you’ve tuned the miter lock).
Sergei
I Wish Dewald 10” sliding would be available
Nothing can replace that saw
Mike Becker
I just bought the Delta Cruzer still too early to tell how good it is