Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
So after more than a year of hemming and hawing i pulled the trigger and bought a Jessem Router table top to go with the lift i purchased ages ago but have never settled on what to put it in.
I am back to wanting this to be stand alone rather than in my saw top as i was going to do.
What i really like is the solid phenolic and the cut out all having been done by cnc and precise.
I plan on using some aluminum angle iron and attaching it to the top via the predrilled and tapped holes and then using it to attach to the sides of the plywood cabinet i am going to build once i can get measurements on the distances between the aluminum.
Those of you familiar with Jessem will know they make quality products. Canadian made.
BUT RANT ON
Their documentation sucks. I hope they get to read this thread. They really need to catch a wake up. And call their technical support and it turns into you being made to feel like an idiot rather than a customer struggling to understand their products.
I have found a great blog that some guy that bought the Jessem Excell table with the hand crank and digital measurement gauge but we should not have to rely on the internet and private blogs in a time of multimedia to be able to fully understand a manufacturers products. I have seen better documentation from a Tai Chi company than these guys. To me it shows a lack of customer service mentality and technical arrogance.
KUDOS to Lee Valley which is where i purchased this top. On their website they dont show the top as a stand alone item. They have the Excell table all set up in the local store with its lift and stand. I did not want that setup i just wanted the top and when i approach one of the sales people it was no problem to look in the system and see if it was available as components. Sure enough they had it and priced very competitively at $209 Canadian for the top on its own.
Whats more when they brought it out, i asked if i could see it, well the sales person a lady already had the cutter in her hand intent on cutting the box open. We proceeded to take it out and i was even more delighted because the one on the floor was a black clear phenolic and this one is the same phenolic but coated with what appears to be some sort of white melamine or pretty thick white paint coating as you can see. I wanted it in white.
I told her i had hemmed and hawed about this and was not sure how it would fit my lift and before the words were out she said well you know you can always bring it back if its not what you want when you get it home. NOW thats customer service. WOW!!!
If only the product lived up to the sales people Lee Valley has.
So why my rant about them. In the event that by chance they happen to stumble upon my rant, i want to leave some thoughts behind for the idiots (sorry but it makes me mad that a western company that produces such a darn good product drops the ball short of the line)
1) There is no dimensions to be found in regards to any of the holes. When i say dimensions, i dont just mean between centers but what the heck the holes are for. Then what thread they are. And how deep. How to deal with tightening a screw into them. I mean they do supply some 1/2" 10 -24 cap screws which you can get a fair bit of purchase on when tightening if you not careful and i can see an idiot like myself stripping these holes if one is not careful. The only way i know which screws are which is because i went and purchased a brand new 10-24 tap today and had to first get the nut in the hardware store to match to determine the tap i needed to be able to clean out the holes.
2) If one by comparison looks at company like Kreg, its chalk and cheese in terms of info that one supplies over the other. Kreg even have plans and videos to show you how to use the product and set it up etc. This is a router top. They obviously think if they tell people how to diy your own cabinet for it then they gonna lose sales on their metal frame stand. (that's the only logic i can see other than just being blind to the fact that providing some aids to would be customers to use their products in component form would help sales dont you think?) I can tell you in my search for other users info I found a couple of guys that were on the fence like i was in terms of buying this simply because they could not find out all they wished to before purchasing.
Kreg by comparison show you how to use their stuff to build a whole work bench and more.
3)But even if you look at the manual they have for the Full Excell stand and top assembly it leaves a great deal of connect the dot conclusions to be made. Communication and customer service are something i have seen complained about on the web on other sites during my research. You would think by now they would have put some effort into it. You may have printed black and white manuals for the purpose of cheap printing but heck man what about color pdf manuals for downloading then at least one can make out what is happening on black anodised products.
4) A DIY plan and sketchup file would be nice addition to their documentation such that at least there are some clues as to how to attach this top to a cabinet you build. The angle iron is my own doing and i hope it works out.
5) We live in an age of free you tube uploads for videos and Jessem even has a channel, but dont look for it and any decent info other than marketing splurb to try sell the product. Even then it falls terribly short. How difficult is it to make a video to show off your product today.
And this lack of information shows. The unit i got from Lee Valley was manufactured in 2012 so they not exactly flying off the shelf @ $939 for a fence, stand, table and lift. So you would think they could sell more if guys were able to buy a top and a lift and diy some of the components. Besides the stand is pressed metal angle iron, have these guys not heard of dust collection. WAKE UP JESSEM.
My apologies for the Rant but i had to get this off my chest. This is a great Canadian made product falling short because of short shortsightedness of the company. Someone there needs a kick up the backside and i suspect its the owner not staff.
I am back to wanting this to be stand alone rather than in my saw top as i was going to do.
What i really like is the solid phenolic and the cut out all having been done by cnc and precise.
I plan on using some aluminum angle iron and attaching it to the top via the predrilled and tapped holes and then using it to attach to the sides of the plywood cabinet i am going to build once i can get measurements on the distances between the aluminum.
Those of you familiar with Jessem will know they make quality products. Canadian made.
BUT RANT ON
Their documentation sucks. I hope they get to read this thread. They really need to catch a wake up. And call their technical support and it turns into you being made to feel like an idiot rather than a customer struggling to understand their products.
I have found a great blog that some guy that bought the Jessem Excell table with the hand crank and digital measurement gauge but we should not have to rely on the internet and private blogs in a time of multimedia to be able to fully understand a manufacturers products. I have seen better documentation from a Tai Chi company than these guys. To me it shows a lack of customer service mentality and technical arrogance.
KUDOS to Lee Valley which is where i purchased this top. On their website they dont show the top as a stand alone item. They have the Excell table all set up in the local store with its lift and stand. I did not want that setup i just wanted the top and when i approach one of the sales people it was no problem to look in the system and see if it was available as components. Sure enough they had it and priced very competitively at $209 Canadian for the top on its own.
Whats more when they brought it out, i asked if i could see it, well the sales person a lady already had the cutter in her hand intent on cutting the box open. We proceeded to take it out and i was even more delighted because the one on the floor was a black clear phenolic and this one is the same phenolic but coated with what appears to be some sort of white melamine or pretty thick white paint coating as you can see. I wanted it in white.
I told her i had hemmed and hawed about this and was not sure how it would fit my lift and before the words were out she said well you know you can always bring it back if its not what you want when you get it home. NOW thats customer service. WOW!!!
If only the product lived up to the sales people Lee Valley has.
So why my rant about them. In the event that by chance they happen to stumble upon my rant, i want to leave some thoughts behind for the idiots (sorry but it makes me mad that a western company that produces such a darn good product drops the ball short of the line)
1) There is no dimensions to be found in regards to any of the holes. When i say dimensions, i dont just mean between centers but what the heck the holes are for. Then what thread they are. And how deep. How to deal with tightening a screw into them. I mean they do supply some 1/2" 10 -24 cap screws which you can get a fair bit of purchase on when tightening if you not careful and i can see an idiot like myself stripping these holes if one is not careful. The only way i know which screws are which is because i went and purchased a brand new 10-24 tap today and had to first get the nut in the hardware store to match to determine the tap i needed to be able to clean out the holes.
2) If one by comparison looks at company like Kreg, its chalk and cheese in terms of info that one supplies over the other. Kreg even have plans and videos to show you how to use the product and set it up etc. This is a router top. They obviously think if they tell people how to diy your own cabinet for it then they gonna lose sales on their metal frame stand. (that's the only logic i can see other than just being blind to the fact that providing some aids to would be customers to use their products in component form would help sales dont you think?) I can tell you in my search for other users info I found a couple of guys that were on the fence like i was in terms of buying this simply because they could not find out all they wished to before purchasing.
Kreg by comparison show you how to use their stuff to build a whole work bench and more.
3)But even if you look at the manual they have for the Full Excell stand and top assembly it leaves a great deal of connect the dot conclusions to be made. Communication and customer service are something i have seen complained about on the web on other sites during my research. You would think by now they would have put some effort into it. You may have printed black and white manuals for the purpose of cheap printing but heck man what about color pdf manuals for downloading then at least one can make out what is happening on black anodised products.
4) A DIY plan and sketchup file would be nice addition to their documentation such that at least there are some clues as to how to attach this top to a cabinet you build. The angle iron is my own doing and i hope it works out.
5) We live in an age of free you tube uploads for videos and Jessem even has a channel, but dont look for it and any decent info other than marketing splurb to try sell the product. Even then it falls terribly short. How difficult is it to make a video to show off your product today.
And this lack of information shows. The unit i got from Lee Valley was manufactured in 2012 so they not exactly flying off the shelf @ $939 for a fence, stand, table and lift. So you would think they could sell more if guys were able to buy a top and a lift and diy some of the components. Besides the stand is pressed metal angle iron, have these guys not heard of dust collection. WAKE UP JESSEM.
My apologies for the Rant but i had to get this off my chest. This is a great Canadian made product falling short because of short shortsightedness of the company. Someone there needs a kick up the backside and i suspect its the owner not staff.
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