Give me your opinion

Paul Douglass

Member
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4,984
Location
S E Washington State
I have two tools I would like to upgrade. I need a better drill press and I have been looking at the Jet. This one:

http://www.cpojettools.com/jet-3541...4173,default,pd.html&xsell=jet-woodworking--1

I have never purchased from this company. Any comments?

And I would like to upgrade my bandsaw and this is the one I have been looking at:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/14-Extreme-Series-Bandsaw/G0555X

Any comments on this one?

I do not work on large projects. I enjoy small furnisher or building things like the organ which is a lot of small pieces. I also have a small shop so I can't increase the size of the tools I am replacing. I just have an old harbor freight band saw, been using it for 30 years and a Rigid bandsaw that is not mine I've been "storing" for my son. If I get an new one I will sell the rigid for the storage fees he owes......
 
Nice bandsaw, top notch 14" I believe. The drill press looks nice, only thing I don't see listed is quill travel. 5-6" quill travel is nice, but not mandatory. Depends on what you do, but it can save moving the table some.

No experience with cpo on large tools. I've always had good luck with grizzly, amazon, and acmetools.com though.
 
another vote for the grizzley many folks have got this one paul and the HP is good on it.. as for the drill press i have bought a fair amount of small tools from CPO and they all have been fine, i would second jebs thoughts on quill travel.
 
Hi Paul,

I have the Griz G0513-x2. I have had a 14" Delta for years; in fact I still have it. The Delta is a great old saw (late 40's or early 50's). It still works like new. The Griz is a fabulous 17" saw. I do not build furniture. I (well, we --- well actually mostly Glenn) build my shop cabinets. All I was trying to say is I mainly build smaller things. HOWEVER, I find that I can do so much more with the 17. I use it a lot more than I used to use a BS. I can set the fence and rip a board knowing it will be true. I do not have to compensate for drift. I do keep a 1/4" blade on the Delta for doing curvy stuff. I did purchase the Griz on sale so the price was less. I have not heard or seen anything written that was bad about the Griz BS you indicated. I still would NOT want to go back to a 14"!!!

I have the Delta 17 959 L drill press. Glenn checked. He said they class it as the low end of the commercial drill presses. Glenn has the one just below it; classified as the top of the home/hobby drill presses. There are several obvious differences. Mainly my column is larger diameter. The machine is quite a bit heavier than the next one down the totem pole. Quill travel is 5". Glenn is sorry he did not get this one. The quill movement is very smooth, the depth gauge works very easily, the quill lock works with the slightest touch of a finger.

It has the laser marker. However, I have had three machines with laser markers. None of them were precise enough for me to consider using them. They would be OK for framing but not for building furniture, jigs or other things where off slightly screams at you or causes you to screw-up building something.

My other son purchased a much more expensive PowerMatic DP which he returned. He then purchased the same Delta I have and likes it very much. I also like (VERY MUCH) the 17 inch size compared to my old Delta which was the same vintage as the 14" BS. (Keep in mind that I have the hots for a PoweMatic lathe so I am not anti-PowerMatic.)

Did I talk this much when you came to visit?

Enjoy,
JimB
 
I've bought a few things through CPO (a Makita 12" CMS and some smaller items) with good experience so I wouldn't be any more concerned buying there than any other online retailer (and less concerned than some). Generally they're worth watching for refurbs as they are sometimes a fair bit cheaper on those (if you aren't in a hurry). For new the prices from some of the other online tool dealers are often at least competitive or sometimes better. No problems I've seen or heard of (outside of the normal, everyone has a bum machine every once in a while).

If you can swing the $$'s on the bigger BS I'd +1 the vote on the 513 series. It opens up a whole range of options the 14" just doesn't have capabilities for and is a much sturdier machine overall (once or twice I've kinda wished I'd gone to the 514 but only once or twice and it was just size envy than need :D). Space wise in the shop its footprint is pretty darn close to the same, as the 14". Compare page 18 of the 513 manual (32"x32") vs page 14 of 555x manual (26"x30") and notice that the 4" of space savings is front to back where you probably want some extra room anyway. This isn't saying that the 555 isn't a nice saw.. it sure is.

Chuck, I'm actually curious what you see as better about the Jet? The Pro-Delux looks a fair bit like the 555 with a riser?

I have both a (much) older Jet 17" DP (SN 213 if that tells you anything :D) and the 18-900L cousin to the delta dp Jim has (I don't think? the 17-959 is made anymore). The Delta is a vastly nicer drill press for a couple of main reasons (its also $300 more.. my how slippery is this slope):
  • quill travel - this is sometimes useful and you'll want to evaluate the value of it for you. I like having it about twice a month or so. The Steel City is ~the same here.
  • headstock is much more massive and has more distance between the bearings. Again I think the steel city looks similar, although I haven't seen it in person. I don't expect this would be a problem at either of our use levels, but overbuilt is always nice :D
  • changing speeds on the delta is much much nicer. This is imho the main under appreciated feature of these dp's. Instead of unlocking the motor and wiggling it back and forth to un/re tension the belt there is an idler gear with a simple flip leaver and its so easy. Not perhaps as easy as an electronic setup but about as easy as a manual speed change could be.

I don't believe that the non VS steel city dp is made anymore and the vs model has a low end on its speed of 500rpm which is imho faster than I like so I'd rule it out on that (I don't often use big bits.. but when I do I don't want to run them at 500 rpm!! :eek:). I rules out the PM for the same reason (400rpm instead of 500, but still).

I might also drop by the local Grainger store (looks like there is one in Pasco) and see if any of their DP's are in stock. When I was comparing before buying mine they had some that spec'd rather well, but I could find ~zero~ reviews I trusted by people using them. For instance 5PHC3 is the closest to the Jet 17" has 5" of travel on a 17" dp with good speed ranges (16 from 144 to 3615 rpm), and the 1KEN7 is also competitive in a 20" model but only has 4.25" of throw.. I probably wouldn't trust it w/o seeing it though :D
 
I have a delta 17-959 drill press too, and love it. I don't think delta makes that model anymore, just the $1000 one with auto speed changes. I'm sure it's nice, but not sure if that was in the budget.

On the bandsaws, for my projects and a lot of others it wouldn't be my first choice, I'd go for a larger saw. I have the 1hp jet saw chuck linked and want to upgrade. In a small shop working on smaller projects, especially if you don't resaw a lot of wide boards that's just a trade off you are going to have to decide on. The one you were looking at is a very nice saw and more mobile, but not as good at resawing from every review I've seen.

I'd take the grizzly over The jet personally. 1.5hp and cast iron wheels on the grizzly, plus I'm not crazy about the jet fence. I got mine used at about half the new price though :). You might look at the 14" 1hp and 17" 2hp anniversary models from grizzly. Same as the 555lx and g0513 but cheaper in black paint. They are not better or worse to me, but they are discounted and the projects you make determine the best choice for your shop.
 
I bought two large tools from CPO; my Jet 1642 lathe and a Jet oscillating 48" belt sander. Process was as smooth as silk. Would not blink buying from them again.
 
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