Are Axminster White bandsaws made by Jet?

[Anonymous]

I had an e-mail from Rutlands today about the new range of Jet tools. The bandsaws look identical to those supplied by Axminster, except for the logo (and the price.....). Is this just a coincidence or are they the same?
If they are one and the same why are Axminster so much cheaper - is there a catch?

Great forum by the way, only I'm more confused about which bandsaw to get now I've read all the helpful opinions than I was before...

 

[gidon]

Jet is apparently a sister company to Axminster - so a lot of the stuff is from the same factory. The £500 bandsaw they do is definiately the same as the Jet one and a lot cheaper. Worth checking on a speific item with Axminster themselves (not Rutlands) - they are usually very helpful.
I like the look of that Jet/Axminster one. Another popular one - with less capacity is the Scheppach Basato 3. Andy King tested it a while back and seemed to be impressed. It's a fair bit cheaper than the Jet one too.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Noel]

Axminster are not a sister company of Jet.
Jet / Powermatic / Powermatic in the North American market are part of the WHM Holdings group, based in Switzerland. All Jet products are manufactured in Taiwan and Axminster have had access to some of the Jet and Powermatic products (re-labelled) for many years. In addition the Taiwanese factory have also produced non-Jet products for Axminster.

As far as I'm aware Axminster do have an interest, or perhaps own, Jet UK who are slowly introducing a limited range in the UK. Some products are duplicated - for instance the Axminster cast iron bed jointers are identical to the Jet / Powermatic models, even down to list price. Haven't looked at the bandsaws but would imagine there is a similar degree of product duplication.

My take on the issue is that Axminster wanted to bring in a high end product that could be sold through local outlets across the UK rather than two single outlets for the Axminster range. If you are at the Axminster show next month you will see Axminster and Jet products side by side and no doubt Jet UK managers Brown and Poynton will be in attendance. They are friendly and very approachable.

I think the newly introduced hybrid cabinet tablesaw will be very popular and at £900 - £1,100 is very well priced especially compared to the DeWalt 746 which runs about £3 - 400 more. Cast iron table and wings etc, sliding table option - got to be a good thing.
Rgds

Noel

 

[sawdustalley]

Whats with these long winded answers??!!

YES

 

[Scrit]

Our American cousins might want to chime in and add a word of caution about Taiwanese stuff, here. My understanding is that most Taiwanese factories produce several different qualities of the same machine, so three identical-looking machines might well be "low-grade consumer", "trade" or "industrial" rated (component fit and quality) with retail sales tags which may or may not reflect the factory gate price. That said the Jet stuff I've seen (Stateside) seemed to be acceptably good - I believe that they employ their own in-house QC people, much the same as Delta do.

The printed stuff I've seen from Jet in the UK confirms that they have the same Swiss parent company as Jet in the USA. Don't know about their relationship with Brown & Stiles (Axminster).

Scrit

 

[gidon]

Axminster are not a sister company of Jet ... As far as I'm aware Axminster do have an interest, or perhaps own, Jet UK who are slowly introducing a limited range in the UK.

Didn't realise "sister company" had such a concrete meaning!

Cheers

Gidon

 

[Noel]

Gidon,

It was a slow day......

Rgds

Noel

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help. I had boiled it down to either the Elektra Beckum 316 or the Basato 3, but, perhaps wrongly, assumed that the extra capacity and blade width (and cost) of the Axminster might mean better all round quality on the smaller cuts. I'm unlikely to need the 200mm depth capacity of the Axminster, so should I be going for the smaller ones or does bigger mean better in this case?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Scrit]

Chris

As with so many other things in woodworking it is probably best to take some timber with you and ask to try out the machine of your choice. Any half-decent dealer will either set up a demo or introduce you to a customer who has bought the same machine - something that mail order prohibits you from doing. If you get the chance try to do some typical cuts you'd expect to make (e.g. ripping 8 x 2 pine or curve cutting in 3in oak, whatever) and ask to see how easy or difficult it is to change blades, retrack the blade and how the tensioning works. I think that far too many people buy machines on the basis of advertising bumf rather than practical experience.

Good luck

Scrit