JET 708100 - Excellent value

I purchased my Jet 708100 from a local machine shop, and consider it an excellent value.

Assembly was easy (once I figured out some missing info in the instructions) and the trunion, fence, and miter gauge all checked out true with no alignment or adjustment required. I installed my saw on one of Jet’s adjustable rolling bases and have found it to be quite stable.

Unlike other contractor saws, the 1.5HP motor is inside the saw’s cabinet, which makes it an excellent candidate for a small shop (the absence of a rear-mounted motor/pulley allows it store flush against the wall of my shop).

The only negative I have found is the table insert. It does not conform to any standard I can find. The (optional) dado insert has a slot wide enough to drive a truck through, so the only way I found to deal with small pieces is to adapt a shop-made sled to act as a zero-clearance insert.

A Jet dealer gave me a part number (709382) for a zero clearance insert, but couldn’t locate one anywhere, and it doesn’t show up in their online parts. I suspect he had it confused for the ZCI Jet makes for their Xactasaw.

For those who need a zero-clearance insert for the Jet 708100, making one is a viable alternative but takes a little patience.

1) I bought a 1/4” phenolic sheet (from McFeely’s), and used a pattern-cutting router bit to make a blank that fit the saw’s throat.

2) The resulting blank was a little proud of the saw table, so next, I cut a 1/16” x 1/2” rabbit around the underside of the blank.

3) I drilled 4 holes for leveling screws, and threaded them to #10-24, and used #10-24 3/16” set screws.

4) I used a 2” long piece of spring steel to fashion a front hold-down screw and attached it to the blank with a #10 1/2” flathead machine screw, countersunk.

5) I drilled a 1/2” finger hole toward the rear of the blank, and a 5mm countersunk hole to accommodate the flat head screw that secures the insert at the front.

6) I installed one of the cutters from a 6” dado blade set, installed the blank insert, clamped a scrap piece of 2×4 over the throat plate, powered up the saw, and raised the blade through the insert.

7) Lastly, I replaced the dado blade with the 10” blade I run in my saw, clamped a 2×4 scrap over the throat plate, and raised the blade to complete the cut through the insert.

The first one took a couple of hours to make, with most of the time spent trying to find a suitable piece of spring steel for the front hold-down clip. Now that I have the necessary parts (set screws, spring steel, etc.) it takes about a half hour to knock one out, and I have made ZCI’s for each of my most common dado setups as well as my thin kerf finish blade.

-- The Dane, Wisconsin