Monday rant, since everyone enjoys that....

tod osier

tod osier

Well-known member
Supporter
I have been spending a lot of time and money on tool upgrades and DAMN, but what a pain in the ass these new out of the box top of the line tools have been.

I upgraded my Hitachi/Metabo 12" compound miter that was giving me some trouble with a Festool Kapex. What a fantastic tool, but WTF with how it came. It came with the miter angle off by a degree and the lasers all messed up. I called Festool and the support guy started quoting the pages to set it up and fix the problem. I was like WTF, how about a sorry first? and he went on how they have to travel by boat and train and get bashed up and that it is easy to set up. I will say that the design makes it very easy, but, it should come set up right.

I bought the Milwaukee track saw and have been using it with great success on the deck and been super happy. I'm making cabinet carcasses our of melamine and noticed a couple issues. The saw's bevel angle is off a degree so it undercuts the material. Again, easy fix, but not in the manual. Second, is I noticed some more chipping than I'd like and come to find that the shoe is not parallel to the blade. Again, fantastically easy to fix because the saw is beautifully made, but WTF it was off parallel almost a 1/32" from the front to rear of the blade. An offshoot to this is that now the anti splinter strips on the tracks are cut too close to the tracks because to get the blade parallel requires adjustment of the blade away from the track. I called Milwaukee and they are sending anti splinter strips out. I wrecked $48 dollars of strips on $400 dollars of tracks and now they have to be reinstalled.

The positive with buying nice stuff is that you can actually adjust it, but dang it should come right out of the box.
 
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tod osier said:
I have been spending a lot of time and money on tool upgrades and DAMN, but what a pain in the ass these new out of the box top of the line tools have been.

I upgraded my Hitachi/Metabo 12" compound miter that was giving me some trouble with a Festool Kapex. What a fantastic tool, but WTF with how it came. It came with the miter angle off by a degree and the lasers all fucked up. I called Festool and the support guy started quoting the pages to set it up and fix the problem. I was like WTF, how about a sorry first? and he went on how they have to travel by boat and train and get bashed up and that it is easy to set up. I will say that the design makes it very easy, but, it should come set up right.

I bought the Milwaukee track saw and have been using it with great success on the deck and been super happy. I'm making cabinet carcasses our of melamine and noticed a couple issues. The saw's bevel angle is off a degree so it undercuts the material. Again, easy fix, but not in the manual. Second, is I noticed some more chipping than I'd like and come to find that the shoe is not parallel to the blade. Again, fantastically easy to fix because the saw is beautifully made, but WTF it was off parallel almost a 1/32" from the front to rear of the blade. An offshoot to this is that now the anti splinter strips on the tracks are cut too close to the tracks because to get the blade parallel requires adjustment of the shoe away from the track. I called Milwaukee and they are sending anti splinter strips out. I wrecked $48 dollars of strips on $400 dollars of tracks and now they have to be reinstalled.

The positive with buying nice stuff is that you can actually adjust it, but dang it should come right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Pretty short rant for a Monday
 
tod osier said:
I have been spending a lot of time and money on tool upgrades and DAMN, but what a pain in the ass these new out of the box top of the line tools have been.

I upgraded my Hitachi/Metabo 12" compound miter that was giving me some trouble with a Festool Kapex. What a fantastic tool, but WTF with how it came. It came with the miter angle off by a degree and the lasers all messed up. I called Festool and the support guy started quoting the pages to set it up and fix the problem. I was like WTF, how about a sorry first? and he went on how they have to travel by boat and train and get bashed up and that it is easy to set up. I will say that the design makes it very easy, but, it should come set up right.

I bought the Milwaukee track saw and have been using it with great success on the deck and been super happy. I'm making cabinet carcasses our of melamine and noticed a couple issues. The saw's bevel angle is off a degree so it undercuts the material. Again, easy fix, but not in the manual. Second, is I noticed some more chipping than I'd like and come to find that the shoe is not parallel to the blade. Again, fantastically easy to fix because the saw is beautifully made, but WTF it was off parallel almost a 1/32" from the front to rear of the blade. An offshoot to this is that now the anti splinter strips on the tracks are cut too close to the tracks because to get the blade parallel requires adjustment of the blade away from the track. I called Milwaukee and they are sending anti splinter strips out. I wrecked $48 dollars of strips on $400 dollars of tracks and now they have to be reinstalled.

The positive with buying nice stuff is that you can actually adjust it, but dang it should come right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Tod~

I have certainly encountered "customer service" staff who have scant interpersonal skills - and sometimes almost no civility (I'm talking to you, Canon!) I always lavish praise when I get good service - but too often have to be satisfied that at least the interchange "was recorded for quality control purposes". I do wonder if they ever monitor the "tapes"....

Of course, we Old School guys know that good manners have gone the way of good grammar.

All the best,

SJS
 
Its good practice for when you knock them out of alignment so consider that part of the training or getting to know your tools introduction! ;)

I have found it good to regularly check things like is my saw blade truly square to the table or parallel to the mitre tracks whether its the table saw, bandsaw, track saw or miter saw. Joiner fences need squaring up too.
 
Brad Bortner said:
Its good practice for when you knock them out of alignment so consider that part of the training or getting to know your tools introduction! ;)

I have found it good to regularly check things like is my saw blade truly square to the table or parallel to the mitre tracks whether its the table saw, bandsaw, track saw or miter saw. Joiner fences need squaring up too.
Click to expand...

You aren't wrong, but what a PITA to do it right out of the box. My Delta table saw with the unifence had been more perfect than perfect for 30 years. I did hear what I think may be a bearing whine in it, so that may be next. :oops:

I did learn what some new dohickeys that I will never use on the track saw were, so there is that. :)
 
Steve Sanford said:
Tod~

I have certainly encountered "customer service" staff who have scant interpersonal skills - and sometimes almost no civility (I'm talking to you, Canon!) I always lavish praise when I get good service - but too often have to be satisfied that at least the interchange "was recorded for quality control purposes". I do wonder if they ever monitor the "tapes"....

Of course, we Old School guys know that good manners have gone the way of good grammar.

All the best,

SJS
Click to expand...

I got a certificate of thanks from amazon customer support there other day for my "kindness and understanding". I almost printed the email to hang up with all my diplomas.
 
They must get so few customers showing up"kindness and understanding" that they had those made up for those special few. I think it deserves a spot up on the wall next to all your accolades and degree diplomas!!:ROFLMAO:
 
tod osier said:
I got a certificate of thanks from amazon customer support there other day for my "kindness and understanding". I almost printed the email to hang up with all my diplomas.
Click to expand...
Believe it or not, one shining light of reliably outstanding customer service is our County DMV. I never got anything I could hang on my wall - but did get a nice big hug once!

SJS
 
Best customer service I ever got was from my state DIFW office. I took Hunter Safety in high school and then didn't take up hunting until I was almost 40. I went to the office and asked whether they would have a record. "What year did you take it?" "1981 or 1982." "Where?" "At the Maine Conservation School." She disappeared into a back office full of file cabinets. Not five minutes later she walked out with a duplicate card they had kept on file for more than 20 years.
 
tod osier said:
I have been spending a lot of time and money on tool upgrades and DAMN, but what a pain in the ass these new out of the box top of the line tools have been.

I upgraded my Hitachi/Metabo 12" compound miter that was giving me some trouble with a Festool Kapex. What a fantastic tool, but WTF with how it came. It came with the miter angle off by a degree and the lasers all messed up. I called Festool and the support guy started quoting the pages to set it up and fix the problem. I was like WTF, how about a sorry first? and he went on how they have to travel by boat and train and get bashed up and that it is easy to set up. I will say that the design makes it very easy, but, it should come set up right.

I bought the Milwaukee track saw and have been using it with great success on the deck and been super happy. I'm making cabinet carcasses our of melamine and noticed a couple issues. The saw's bevel angle is off a degree so it undercuts the material. Again, easy fix, but not in the manual. Second, is I noticed some more chipping than I'd like and come to find that the shoe is not parallel to the blade. Again, fantastically easy to fix because the saw is beautifully made, but WTF it was off parallel almost a 1/32" from the front to rear of the blade. An offshoot to this is that now the anti splinter strips on the tracks are cut too close to the tracks because to get the blade parallel requires adjustment of the blade away from the track. I called Milwaukee and they are sending anti splinter strips out. I wrecked $48 dollars of strips on $400 dollars of tracks and now they have to be reinstalled.

The positive with buying nice stuff is that you can actually adjust it, but dang it should come right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Todays quality control is not there any longer. Haven't see a tool packaged well in a long time.
 
tod osier said:
I have been spending a lot of time and money on tool upgrades and DAMN, but what a pain in the ass these new out of the box top of the line tools have been.

I upgraded my Hitachi/Metabo 12" compound miter that was giving me some trouble with a Festool Kapex. What a fantastic tool, but WTF with how it came. It came with the miter angle off by a degree and the lasers all messed up. I called Festool and the support guy started quoting the pages to set it up and fix the problem. I was like WTF, how about a sorry first? and he went on how they have to travel by boat and train and get bashed up and that it is easy to set up. I will say that the design makes it very easy, but, it should come set up right.

I bought the Milwaukee track saw and have been using it with great success on the deck and been super happy. I'm making cabinet carcasses our of melamine and noticed a couple issues. The saw's bevel angle is off a degree so it undercuts the material. Again, easy fix, but not in the manual. Second, is I noticed some more chipping than I'd like and come to find that the shoe is not parallel to the blade. Again, fantastically easy to fix because the saw is beautifully made, but WTF it was off parallel almost a 1/32" from the front to rear of the blade. An offshoot to this is that now the anti splinter strips on the tracks are cut too close to the tracks because to get the blade parallel requires adjustment of the blade away from the track. I called Milwaukee and they are sending anti splinter strips out. I wrecked $48 dollars of strips on $400 dollars of tracks and now they have to be reinstalled.

The positive with buying nice stuff is that you can actually adjust it, but dang it should come right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Thank you sir for justifying all of my harbor freight buys now. I feel WAAAAYYY better about the cheapo tools in my shop lol.

Honestly its a damn shame you are going through all that. So much for quality being quality right?
 
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