Any General Intnl. Owners out there???
Wondered if anyone out there has purchased any tools from the new General line. I’d like to hear if anyone has any good or bad experiences with the tools that General has been importing to the US from Taiwan.
I’ve been doing a little advance shopping for a new saw and discovered that General has a left tilt version of their contractors saw. General’s North American line has always had a very decent reputation, so I figured it would be worth checking out. My local dealer hasn’t put one out on the floor to compare against the Powermatic 64, so I’ve not been able to inspect it. They gave it a quite favorable review and despite the fact that the Powermatic is quite a bit more expensive, didn’t show any tendency towards trying to steer me to the Powermatic.
I did get a chance to do a side by side of some of Jet’s tools and General’s import line. The 6″ jointers appeared to be identical with the exception of the paint color and handle style. I’ve had quite good experiences with the Jet tools in my shop, so I’m inclined to believe that the quality is on par with Jet’s, since it looks like they may come from the same factory.
The only other left tilt contractor’s saw that I’ve been able to find any info on is the Bridgewood, so if anyone has any comments on that saw, I’d appreciate hearing from them, as well since it’s unlikely I’ll find myself in PA anytime soon to check them out in person.
Thanks!
Replies
I picked up one of the General Int. left tilt contractor saws a few months back. So far I'm really happy with it. I love the beismeyer-style fence and the saw has plenty of get up and go. When I was shopping around I was comparing it to the Delta and found the GI to have a way better fence as well as more horsepower. The saw I had before that was an absolute peice of crap, so maybe I'm easy to please.
I to have just bought a new GI left tilt saw and boy am I ever happy. I was going to get the General 350 but I have had a sudden career change and I am going to be gone for 6 months and needed to get some work done and out of the way before I leave so I bought the GI for pure money reasons. I looked at several different brands side by side and none of them seemed to be up to the same standard as the GI. And as for the price it was a no brainer. I did get the stamped steel wings because it saved me a few dollars and I was building a table for the saw it sit in anyway.
Scott C. Frankland
Newfoundland Wood Worker
I bought a GI 8" jointer last year, practically all my boards go on this nice machine, I like the tables, fence is good, no problems with the power, so, next machine will be a bandsaw , a GI 18" with 1 1/2 hp or a General 15" model 490.
Have the GI contractor Saw like it very much, nice fence...
have the 6" jointer with the extension wing...like it very much too....
I am planning to buy the new GI 14" bandsaw...
Mike
Here is my saw with my feed tables installed. The finished table gives me a working area of 50"x62".Scott C. Frankland
Newfoundland Wood Worker
I purchased a left tilt contractors table saw about a month ago and am happy with it. Their customer service is good. The instruction book didn't provide directions for adjusting the blade so it would be parallel to the mitre slot. General International answered my e-mail within a few days with detail as to the adjusting process and references to parts shown in schematics in the instruction book.
I purchased a model that came with cast extension wings. The price was very competitive with Delta and Jet; however, the General seemed to be substantially heavier and it came with a 2hp motor versus the 1 1/2 size offered elswhere.
Hi
I have a general contracter saw, and it's a good saw. But I bought It because I thought after looking at it closely that it was a powermatic knock off. I wanted to get a beisemyer splitter and they don't make one. Powermatic, jet, delta are mainstream., to me, Splitters are made for those contracter saws. And I can live with the saw.
Also, I had a major problem with the saw burning wood, no matter how many times I tried to align the saw I burn wood. It was annoying, anyway after building a jig I found out the saw blade actually moves toward the fence as you lower the blade, so I called up General and told them what I had found, they blamed it on the rear trunion and sent me one, did not work. I called them back and they never got back to me. Anyway, I set the blade back farther away from the fence to compensate for what I usually cut. As long as It's not binding anymore.
john g
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled