I bought this OSS about 18 months ago and can confidently say that it is the best heavy duty OSS out there for the money. There may be better OSS out there, but not for the money. I looked at both the Jet and Grizzly in person, and the Grizzly wins hands down. They are nearly identical machines in many ways, and may even be produced in the same factory....however.....the Grizzly has heavy duty cast iron trunnions (picture 1), while the Jet has thin steel ones. The table was out of flat by 0.025" on the Jet and only 0.012 on the Grizzly. Did I mention that the griz is about $500 less! The only plus that the Jet had over the Grizzly is that the Jet has a 5 year vs a 1 year warranty. The biggest negative on the Grizzly (also with the Jet) is that the dust collection is mediocre (see easy fix at the end of this post). Now, for the good, the bad, and the fixes!
GOOD
A very heavy and solid machine, over 300 pounds.
Heavy cast iron top and trunions (picture 1).
The spindles are bomb proof and run out was 0.006" or less (pic 2).
The sleeves change very easily due to the tension nuts on the tops of the spindle cylinders (pic 3); you just loosen the nut and it decompresses the rubber cylinder, which allows the sleeve to slip off easily; reverse the process to snug the sleeve on the cylinder so it doesn't slip during sanding.
The spindles change out very quickly IF you throw away the wrenches that come with the machine and buy 12" replacements on line (1-1/8 and 1-1/4"); I got mine through Amazon from Fuller, for $9 each .
The machine runs quiet.
This machine hogs off wood as quickly as you want with a low grit sleeve and WILL NOT BOG DOWN.
Oscillating mechanism is smooth and has about a 1-1/2" stroke.
The tilt mechanism is solid, smooth, and locks down easily.
BAD (see-its not a total love-fest)
There were no assembly instruction for the top and trunions.
The table was out of flat by 0.012", but this is probably all you need for this type of job.
There were no instructions on use of the spindles and sleeves.
The 3 inserts that go around the spindle are heavy gauge steel, but not particularly flat. One was unuseable and Grizzly quickly replaced it.
There is a 4" dust port, but dust collection was worthless due to minimal flanging around the underside of the machine - but this can be easily fixed. I took a square plastic container that you buy mini-cream puffs in at Sams or a food store, and cut it up so that it fits in under the top (pic 1). I bolted down a small piece of this container to cover up most of the back side (pic 5) which leads directly into the 4" dust port; I can't remember whether I needed to drill and tap the holes or if they were there already. I took the other half of the container and precision fitted it with little cutting and a few holes so that it nicely snaps in over 2 bolt heads (pic 6). It takes about 2 sec to remove and replace it when you are doing spindle changes. With this modification, THERE IS NO DUST WITH THIS MACHINE!
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