Smart Miter, My First Jointech Experience
Snake City
Miter sled. I went to the Jointech
website, http://www.jointech.com/index.html and watched the videos on
the Smart Miter and I was
very impressed. I contacted Ernest, a tech at Jointech to ask a few
questions. He told me that
they had a few of these Smart Miters for sale on Ebay for a great
price. It was the combo kit that
included the sled and all of the available accessories for $263 with
shipping. Great deal!...I thought.
I ordered the sled and received it in the beginning of Dec. 2005. At
the time I was recovering from
a serious knee injury and then, right about when I received the sled I
reinjured the knee and was
unable to do much standing, let alone try out my new toy. But I did
take it out of the box and checked
it out.
The first thing I noticed was that the edge of the fence closest to
the blade moved closer or
farther away from the blade/cut line depending on where you set the
miter fence. It moved about 1/32".
The key to the Smart miter is that you can set the stop block to
anywhere along the fence and the
distance to the blade won't change no mater where you move the fence.
But it did move. Now if you've
ever made a frame with mitered corners you know that if all four sides
aren't exactly the same length
the mitered corners won't be tight no mater how close to 45 Deg. the
cuts are. I couldn't actually
check the sled on my table saw but it sure appeared that this was going
to be a problem when I did.
I contacted Jointech and spoke to Phil. He's the owner of Jointech
and supposedly the guy who
designed this and other Jointech products. He assured me that this was
normal and that it was
basically an optical illusion and the cuts would actually be the proper
length no mater what degree
the fence was set to. Well...Ok...we'll see...
So in the middle of April 2006 I was finally able to hobble around
again and test out the new miter
sled. The instructions are pretty clear and adjusting the miter bar,
(slides in table saw miter slot)
and the tape measure on top of the fence went just fine. The test cuts
on some scrap wood were
the right length and a perfect 90 Deg. I kept the stop block right at
the same place and then moved
the fence away from me up to 45 Deg. and tried a cut. As I predicted
the fence pulled away from the
blade about 1/32" so that instead of the cut leaving a nice sharp
corner it left a flat tip on the cut.
I played with it numerous times and even used the supplied clamp to
make sure the wood wasn't
creeping a little while making the cut. But if I moved the fence up
beyond 45 Deg. to 50 Deg. and
then back to 45 the tip of the fence would move back to where it should
be and the cut would be
perfect. But even that wasn't consistent and even getting consistent
length cuts with the fence
set to 0 Deg. (90 Deg. to the blade) the length would vary a little.
This thing isn't that complicated
and there really wasn't much room for operator error. My table saw is
very well adjusted but even
if the blade wasn't parallel to the miter slot all that would've done
was make the kerf a little wider.
Swinging the fence towards me to 45 Degrees yielded even more movement
than going the other
direction. I discovered that in order to make an accurate length cut
using the stop block and the
ruler on the fence with it set at 0 Deg. I had to swing the fence away
from me beyond 0 Deg. and
then pull it back to 0 Deg.
I contacted Jointech again and explained the problem to 3 different
people, finally talking to Phil
again. At first he didn't seem to understand the problem and then he
insisted that this just wasn't
possible because the sled is machined very precisely using computer
controlled equipment. Well,
this turned out to be his, "Go to statement" that I've heard many
times. He asked when and where
I bought it and I told him I bought it from Jointech on Ebay. He said
Jointech has never sold on
Ebay. I have the receipts to prove it! It turns out that Ernest
didn't bother telling me that I wasn't
officially buying from Jointech but rather from, "Intellitoolz". Phil
told me it didn't matter where I
bought it but that they stand behind their products. Sounds promising,
right? Yeah, right...
So, I paid $30 in shipping to send the sled back to Jointech for a
warranty repair. Even though
I was beyond the 30 or 90 day return Jointech claims to offer a
lifetime warranty for defects
in materials or workmanship. So Jointech gets the sled back. I call
them the day after UPS
delivers it to see what was up. Phil had told me they'd get right on
it when the received it but
nobody had looked at it yet. I call the next day and he said he'd get
back to me when they had
a chance to look at it. At Jointech's closing time, several hours
later, I decide to post a message
onto Jointech's forum on their website. I explain the problem and that
I was still waiting for a
call back from Phil. I was hoping that someone else would answer
either saying they had the
same problem or no problems at all or at least offer some sort of
advice. Shortly later I finally
get a call back from Phil. He tells me that they checked the fence
with their protractor and that
the angles were fine. Huh? Phil! That's not my complaint! I
explained it to you for at least 20
minutes that it's the fence pulling away from the blade, thus changing
the length of the cut. Oooh...
We'll check that out and get back to you tomorrow. Jeez! It was like
talking to a brick wall but
I still managed to completely maintain my temper. I had a bad feeling
about this...
He doesn't call back the next day, of course, so I call them. He
asked what table saw I had
because it must be just like theirs. The miter bar was set almost
perfectly to fit on their saw.
Yes, they're both General International contractor saws. But he said
that he had to realign the
sled a little and that mine must be out of alignment. It cut perfectly
on their saw so the problem
with mine must be the alignment of the blade to the miter slot on my
tablesaw. Wrong! As I
said earlier, my saw is nearly perfectly aligned and even if it wasn't
that wouldn't make the fence
move when you swing it up or down. He's an engineer? Hmmm...Anyway, I
tried to explain this
to him but it was useless. He said there was no way for the fence to
move left and right like I
described because of the close tolerances to which it was machined.
But he did admit that the
stop block was out of square and that the bolt that the fence pivots on
was, "Very loose". They
replaced the stop block and tightened the pivot bolt and he said that
should take care of any
problems. I wasn't convinced but what could I do? He said he tested
the sled out and sent along
a test cut showing only the slightest flat end on the 45 Deg. miter
cut. He said that was within
their tolerances and as far as he was concerned that was good enough.
On their website it say,
"Not good miters but PERFECT miters". "Good enough" isn't PERFECT in
my book and if I make
a picture frame and it has even a small flat spot on the end of a
mitered corner there's no doubt
that there will be some visible gaps in the frame. He still insisted
that there was no way for
the fence to be moving like I described. I can't understand how they
couldn't see
this when they had it. I doubt they really put much time into it He
sent the sled back to me...
I get it back, set it up again and try it out again. Ok, It's
slightly better than before but just barely.
The fence still moves nearly 1/32" while swinging it through it's arc
and it shows up on the length
of the cuts. I study that sled for a long time finally having my wife
help me hold it upside down
while I swing the fence back and forth. AH HAH! There is a little
phenolic disk that is sort of the
key to the whole sled working as advertised. It rides in a slot
machined in the bottom of the
sled and it needs to fit very snug to prevent lateral movement while
swinging the fence through
it's arc. It didn't fit snugly enough and that was where much of the
movement was coming from.
I called Phil and told him what I found. He *STILL* didn't believe me.
He insisted that this was
impossible because, tight machine tolerances blah blah blah...I told
him that I saw the movement
with my own eyes and that either he thought I was stupid or lying. He
only would say that it
just couldn't be...He told me to measure the diameter of the disk and
compare it to the width
of the slot it rides in. He said it should have about 2 or 3
thousandths difference. He told me
to use a feeler gauge if I need to measure the gap and call him back.
I did. It was right at
.010", more than 3 times what he said the slop should be. I even used
2 different gauges just
to be sure they were accurate. It was actually about .011" but I told
him .010". I called him
back again and told him what I found. That still wasn't enough to
account for all of the movement
the fence was doing but it was a start. I thought he'd be glad to hear
it. Nope! He *STILL*
wouldn't believe me and was really getting agitated at this point
because I just wouldn't go
away. He told me I should've measured it with a decimal dial caliper.
He originally said a
feeler gauge was fine. I explained that without taking it apart it was
difficult for me to get an
accurate measurement with my dial caliper but I tried to do it anyway
while cradling the
phone on my shoulder. It was frustrating and I had trouble reading the
proper decimal reading
to him. I had a slight brain fade I guess and I told him I'd try
again. He lost it, yelled, "Measure
it and call me back!" and hung up on me. Nice! I measured again with
more success and
tried to call him back. He didn't answer his phone for a long time but
I finally got through to
him again. He agreed that there might be a .010" gap and that what
they've done in the
past was to send out a strip of adhesive UHMW plastic tape of that
thickness to stick to
the inside wall of the groove. Of course he had previously told me
over and over again that
they have never had this problem before and that it just wasn't
possible.
Hmmm...Which is it Phil? He wouldn't agree to send out a new phenolic
disk however. He
did agree to send out the tape in the morning.
I play around with it a bit more that evening and discover some more
of the movement. The
two screws that hold the disk up through the slot to the fence bracket
are only finger tight.
I mean finger tip tight! These are socket head Allen wrench screws
that are sunk into a
counterbore in the disk. I tighten them up but wanted to avoid
stripping out the thin threads
in the 3/16" thick mild steel bracket. There is still just as much
movement as before so
I take some very thin wood shims from a very thin rip and jam them
between the head
of the screws and the walls of the counterbore. That had a big effect
and cut the movement
of the fence down by about 1/3. I called Phil back first thing in the
morning with the good
news. Again, for some reason I thought he'd be glad that I diagnosed
the problem that they
couldn't do when they had the sled. Nope! Again, he denied that this
was possible! What
is wrong with this guy?! He tells me to, "Really crank down on those
screws with the
Allen wrench." Uh, Phil, I really don't want to strip the threads and
they're already pretty
tight. He said that the threads are allow steel and couldn't be
stripped. Yeah, ok, I'll give
it a try even though I knew better. I hang up and give it a try. The
first screw easily stripped
in less than 1/4 turn, as expected. Great advice, Phil! So I call him
back and give him the
bad news. He has trouble believing this because they do this all of
the time. Sorry, but
I don't believe that for a second. They were finger loose when I got
it and he seemed to
forget that even though the screws are some sort of allow the bracket
they screw into
is only thin mild steel and the threads are pretty shallow. I couldn't
back the stripped
screw out while on the phone so he told me to, "Drill it out". Easy
for him to say! I
hang up and manage to get it out without drilling and call him back. I
explain that the
bracket is stripped and that the threads on the one screw are slightly
damaged. I ask
him to send out the tape along with a new bracket, new phenolic disk
and a new screw.
He says he'll send the bracket but he won't send the disk because it
will be the same as
the old one. I ask for a new screw and he says...Get this!..."No.
Those things cost
85 cents." Are you kidding me Phil? The thing stripped because of his
bonehead
advice and the sled cost me over $250. This had to be a joke, right?
Nope. He said
he'd send out the tape and bracket that day. It shipped 3 days later
according to the
USPS date stamp on the envelope I received. Thanks again, Phil for
such great
customer service.
I finally got the parts and went to work on it. I have a couple of
different thicknesses
and brands of UHMW tape and both have adhesive that is very very
sticky. I cleaned
the phenolic groove but the tape wouldn't even stick to it. After
peeling the backing
off it would barely stick to my fingers or the phenolic. I had to glue
it on. I took a little
extra and wrapped the heads of the screws to take up some of their slop
and it still
wasn't quite enough. I tuned the sled up again and went to work
testing it out. While
it has improved by about 50% over when I first got it there is still
about 1/64" slop and
it still varies depending upon whether I'm pushing it up to the degree
mark or pulling
it down to the degree mark. It's much worse going down towards me and
the stop
block still isn't quite square to the fence. It includes a small
triangle to use when
the fence is in the down position and because the stop isn't square,
the tape measure
gauge isn't accurate anymore. So what good is it?
Can I use this sled? Well, yes if I fiddle with it everytime I use
it. But that was the
whole point of using this versus the Incra sled or even my stock miter
gauge with an
extended fence on it. I would've had to fiddle with those too and they
are a lot cheaper.
I wanted to see if anyone had posted any replies to the post I made on
their website
forum and they had not only removed my post but banned me from the
forum.
So, is this the kind of company you want to deal with? I'll never do
it again. Right
now the sled is only a little better than my stock miter gauge with a
wooden fence
and a stop block clamped to it and the fence was free with the saw.
What an
expensive lesson to learn. Anyone still reading this far?
Bruce