World Class- Leecraft

[Mike Holbrook]

I have never even heard of customer service like this. I doubt that anyone will believe it but here goes....

I bought a Zero Clearance Insert that I heard fit my General Contractor saw. It was actually designed to fit Jet and Powermatic saws. When it got here it fit just right except it was a little short. I called Ron Lee who happens to live in Gainesville, GA., 30+ miles North of me to let him know that the insert did not quite fit the General International table opening.

To my amazement he said he was going to be down near me and asked if he could drop by and check it out. Sure enough Ron showed up a few hours later with enough calipers and measuring instruments to make Starrett envious. Ron spent over and hour measuring and investigating.

Even more to my amazement Ron called me today, the day after, and asked if he could drop back by. Believe it or not he had made brand new table inserts, that fit flat perfect. You arn't going to believe this, he even brought beer, Becks ! Ron had clear templets etc. and made sure his design was as perfect as it could be made. Ron left me two custom inserts, that will always remind me what it means to take care of customers. I only hope I can do half as well in my business.

If you need table inserts and like companies who stand behind their work, make sure you get a Leecraft.

[John Miliunas]

Wow Mike, that is truly awesome! You know, I've experienced close to that and have read many, many other positive posts about other OEM's and vendors. The question remains: Why can THEY do it, while so many others are just there overly willing to just take our hard-earned cash? Hat's off to Leecraft for going above and beyond!

[Doug Shepard]

While it doesn't diminish one bit the outstanding service that he gave you, I suspect Ron got something out of the deal too. You gave him the perfect opportunity to access that model saw for a little R&D. I'm sure he's already got a new model number in his product line now and he'll never have to get the same support call from a General CS owner again. I think you both made out nicely.

[larry merlau]

i had a leecraft insert for a table saw and needed to cut the grove for a dado head. now here is the question, it appeard that to me the process of cutting the phonolic insert from leecraft took a toll on the stacked dado's sharpness!! so how should i have done it or should just plan on gettin it sharpened after making a fitted insert? seems like the idea of gettin a insert set for said setting was the intenede idea but yet caused trouble.. dont get me wrong here i think leecraft inserts are better than some of the rest out there more stable and fit better. just asking the proper methode for the next time ??

[Bill Lewis]

i had a leecraft insert for a table saw and needed to cut the grove for a dado head. ... insert from leecraft took a toll on the stacked dado's sharpness!! so how should i have done it ...? ... just asking the proper method for the next time ??

Maybe you could remove some of the material before making the zero clearance hole with the dado. Use a handheld jig saw, or possbily use a router. You might need to make some sort of jig for the router.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Thank you for posting this! It is great to hear that there are still companies out there, that are willing to provide great customer service! If he benifited by having a new product, then you both win.

[John Miliunas]

i had a leecraft insert for a table saw and needed to cut the grove for a dado head. now here is the question, it appeard that to me the process of cutting the phonolic insert from leecraft took a toll on the stacked dado's sharpness!! so how should i have done it or should just plan on gettin it sharpened after making a fitted insert? seems like the idea of gettin a insert set for said setting was the intenede idea but yet caused trouble.. dont get me wrong here i think leecraft inserts are better than some of the rest out there more stable and fit better. just asking the proper methode for the next time ??

Larry, kind of curious: What flavor dado head were you using? I had a Leecraft on my former Delta contractor saw and I had to do the same (stacked dado) thing, though I really could not detect any difference in the sharpness after indexing the ZC insert. The carbide should cut through the phenolic quite nicely and shouldn't affect its sharpness in the process. Was there possibly a bit of extra resin or such on the blades prior to doing the insert? I'm kind of thinking that if there was, the task of going through the phenolic may have generated excessive heat, thus baking the resin on harder? Just a guess on my part. I haven't found any inserts for my BW, which is just as well, 'cuz now I save $$ and make my own. Not all that hard to do in the first place.

[David Dixson]

Mike,

Do you have the contact information for Leecraft? I'm wanting to get inserts done for my new saw and as far as I'm aware, there are not any currently made.

Thanks,

Dave

[Mike Holbrook]

Hi David,

Sorry I am slow had a hard day yesterday.

I am sending you an email, rather than posting it publicly. I just found out Ron is on SMC now so maybe you can PM him.