I have a Jet contractor saw. About a year ago, I started coveting a cabinet saw to replace it. I resisted the urge to spend the money and decided what I was using was good enough. Instead of buying a new saw, I upgraded the fence to a Biesemeyer, extended the table and built a cabinet using plans from one Wood magazine (I think).

A few weeks ago, I had a pretty good kickback while using the saw. It knocked the blade way out of alignment. I was able to re-align the blade and start using the saw again. Everything was fine until I tilted the blade to 45 degrees. I felt the saw bind. When I moved it back to 90 degress, the blade was misaligned again by over 1/8".

I called Jet. The guy told me he would fax me some instructions that were not in the manual that would fix things right up. He faxed a photocopy of a magazine article that showed how to clean and lube the saw. Not much help... I messed with the thing for a day and a half but no joy.

I gave up and decided it was time to buy the cabinet saw. Either a Grizzly or a Jet.

I searched around and ended up ordering a Jet 3HP left-tilt with the 50" fence, table and mobile base (708663MBK) from Amazon because they offered free shipping and a $25 discount for $1499. I also had $100 in gift certificates squirrled away from Christmas and other occasions.

The comparable Grizzly G1023SLX was $1295, no mobile base and cost $78 for shipping. Since the Jet matches most of my other machines, I went that direction.

The contractor saw thing continued to eat at me because I *had* to figure out the problem causing the mis-alignment. So, on Friday evening I took it apart. I flipped it upside-down and started checking things out. I found that the front and rear trunnion brackets had become mis-aligned which caused the binding that threw the saw blade out of alignment when I tilted the blade. The problem is fixed and I think the saw is better than it ever was...

Now, my dilema. The new saw has not shipped yet. I think this a test of some sort... Do I cancel the order for the new saw? Or... Do I pretend that the saw that has always been good enough isn't quite good enough anymore and instruct my kids to take up postions at the end of the street to watch for the truck?

-Kevin