Frustration with JessEm

[Jay Jolliffe]

I have two of the PC 7518 motors. They have only been used in a router table with good dust collection. On both motors, I have replaced the speed control. These do not get used hard for extended periods of time.

[scott vroom]

The Milwaukee 5625-20 is a good choice in a large router.

Do they sell the motor only?

[Frank Drackman]

I am more interested in the above table speed changes than the digital speed display. I'm going to put the router in the Incra cleansweep box so changing speed without getting on my hands & knees is appealing. That said, I can certainly live without it as the number of speed changes I expect to make is minimal.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will take another look at the PC and will add the Milwaukee to the list of possible motors.

I got a response from Jessem when I made a video of the router seemingly possessed - varying rpms on it's own by thousands of rpms while under no load. I put the video on YouTube and set it to private, as I was not even considering nuking them in public until they had a chance to make me whole - their response after viewing the video was quick. I was actually shocked that they stepped up and took care of me. At the end of the day though I had no faith in the router and did not want to try a third example.

It's a shame, because I have a lot of Jessem stuff and love it all, especially the doweling jig. I know there are murmurs of reduced quality in the pc7518 as well - but so far it has outlasted the Jessem router(s) I tried, by far. Only time will tell. One more note and I will step down - this experience happened within the last month. This is not something that happened when it first came out. The bottom line is that there is not a lot of real world testimony on this router and I believe it is a crapshoot if you decide to invest in it. I have many tools that have been in service for me for 15 years or so - my Hitachi miter saw, which I have built several houses with and made probably 100,000 cuts on it - has never missed a beat. Nor has my 20 year old rigid sander that has probably thousands of hours on it. No they are not the best tools out there, but they WORK, and that is important to me! I know the PC 7518 has a long history of WORKING, and that is all we can hope for these days. A bling bling digital rpm display is cool. It's not so cool when it's stuck on zero.