www.ukworkshop.co.uk - Freud JS102 Biscuit Jointer

Freud JS102 Biscuit Jointer Hot

Reviews Tools

Written by Charley

Wednesday, 22 October 2003

Description

Tools

Model: JS102
Manufacturer: Freud
Price: £109.79

User reviews

Average user rating from: 1 user(s)


Overall rating		4.3
Performance		5.0
Build Quality		4.0
Value for Money		4.0

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Freud JS102 Biscuit Jointer, Wednesday, 22 October 2003

Written by gidon - View all my reviews - Top 10 Reviewer


Overall rating		4.3
Performance		5.0
Build Quality		4.0
Value for Money		4.0

This jointer is the spitting image of the Trend T20 - even down to the same blow moulded case and accessories. First appearances are very good - nicely presented with decent accessories including tools for changing the blade, some biscuits, some machine oil and a dust bag.

The feel of the machine is good - nice and solid. So onto the manual - yuk! Although it looks like it has some good information in it - it's so poorly presented that I chucked it to one side and guessed how to use the thing! The main problem is the quality of the pictures - blurred and not in my opinion usable. But help is at hand - as I said the jointer looks the same as the T20 - and Trend kindly have their manuals online.

I went on to trying to make some biscuit joints. Very straightforward, adjust the height of the fence and the depth of the biscuit and you're away. However although the manual says the depth is adjusted in the factory to the size of the biscuits - this wasn’t true with mine – not even close! Anyhow it's easy to adjust and once you've adjusted it for one biscuit the others will automatically be set. To set the height you align the fence with both vertical scales. With both sides of the fence set I made a check on the accuracy of the scales - the cut was out 0.3mm from one side of the cut to the other - not bad I guess.

The plunge action is smooth. And the cut slots are accurate. There's no play that I can see. I cut a biscuit a fraction of a mm below the surface of some planed wood to test the accuracy of the cut. The results were good. The fence is also fully adjustable and there are precise pre-set stops for 0, 45 and 90 degrees. Mitred joints were easy to cut.

The dust extraction seems to work pretty well. I've only used it with the included dust bag. It did get clogged with some oak shavings but for constant use you really want to attach a vacuum hose. I haven't tried changing the blade yet.

Overall all I am pleased with the jointer.

Would I pay £30 more for the Trend? Probably not. It's the same jointer as far as I can tell. Trend does include a better manual though, and support from Trend may be better.

I bought mine from MTS Powertools - it arrived a couple of days later and delivery was free.

Hope you find this review useful and please e-mail me if you have any questions.

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