re considering the excalibur and comparing to jet with Blade Comparisons

[harpolemond]

As some of you are aware I had some serious problems with my new Excalibur a year ago.  After finally obtaining the correct part and setting up the machine my assessment has changed. 
    My new Jet 22" is of course an awesome machine.  I first compared it to my Excalibur and was biased against the former due to difficulty obtaining parts.  Since then I have re considered the Excalibur.  I write this for those looking to buy a new machine.   
   My Ex-16 is of course only a 16 inch cut.  But I have found it is about as smooth, as well as versatile as the jet
   I began a new intricate state fair project on my Jet 22 as the Ex16 would not accommodate  the size of the project.
The new Jet is awesome for my now arthritic hands making blade changes much easier and less painful due to their new blade head attachments.   It is my go to machine for larger projects.
     But the Ex 16 is nearly as good as the jet in terms of intricate cuts, control, linear cuts and is a pleasure to work with.
I give my new jet a biased rate of 9.9 out of ten only due to my arthritic hands.   so that is the bias.
But the Excalibur is every bit as capable of those intricate, linear cuts better known as veining.  And is also a pleasure to work with. so getting away from bias I give it a 9.5 out of 10.  Only because of parts unavailability, but that may not be a problem.  it appears both machines will last at least my lifetime and more. 
So for those looking to buy a new machine.  Where they are made matters not as long as they are made well.
If you have arthritis consider the new Jet. If not then Excalibur is indeed worth it and a nice choice.  Not to say some of the other better machines out there are not good.  They indeed are.  I just chose what I did.
   My original machine years ago was Craftsman, then Delta,and even a Dewalt. 
   Blades:
     State fair projects are tricky. You must keep the size down.  do as much intricate cuts as possible.  Judges like veining for sure.  All this said I ended up with two types of blades for very intricate work.
Flying dutchman: 2/0
Sharktooth: which I believe are made by Olson whom I dearly hated at first but also  changed my  mind.   There are other good blades out there, I just found Flying dutchman and Sharktooth work best for me.  Especially the Sharktooth regular 3/0 blades.
     I only write this to help people be more decisive in their choices.  These machines and blades are all personal choices.  And since I am stuck here at home I am cutting more than I ever did and have time to get back here and give a final thumbs up to both of these machines.  If you do veining much try those sharktooth blades
All be safe and have a nice day.   ds

[KCSteve]

I've been doing a lot of bowls lately and I've found one small disadvantage to the Jet.

If you're doing angled cuts it's better to have a tilting-table saw like the Excalibur than a tilting-arm saw like the Jet.  When you cut a sharp corner you just pin the blade and spin around it. But if you're cutting at an angle on a tilting-arm saw you can't do that.  Because the blade is tilted if you rotate around the top of the blade the bottom of the blade is going to move in an arc - the more tilt the larger.  So you have to tilt at just the right point down inside the wood which is very hard to figure  out.  With a tilting table saw the axis of rotation is still lined up with the blade so you just make your corner as normal.  I find that for sharp turns it's best to drill a through hole at your proper angle.  Then you just cut to the hole and turn gently.  The blade sits in its little pocket and you wind up spinning around the magic spot.  But then you have that stupid drill hole to clean up later.

It's a small thing, but important to know about.

[Berta]

The head on my Excalibur tilts. Not the table.

[KCSteve]

Well then for things like bowls you'll either want to drill sharp corners or do a lot of practice so you can hit that sweet spot of the rotation without the help of the drilled space.

[harpolemond]

RE:  Bowls and Excalibur
     I have never done a bowl but I can see the truth of it with a tilting table. Trouble is many machine companies are now going to tilting heads of which both my Jet and Ex16 have.  I no longer have a tilting table machine.  I have done angled cuts but not in bowls.  I suspect my jet and ex16 will both work for some Intarsia I have scheduled to do.   It may be that tilting tables may soon be a thing of the past. I certainly hope not as there are many out there that consider the table issue very important, but companies make things that they think people will like, and they change directions with products even though we don't want that change.
If it isn't broken....don't fix it.  So I have a suggestion for the next big machine idea...Are you listening Jet?   Excalibur?  Seyco?  etc?
Develop a machine that has both:  Remember you heard it here first:
Yep  make a tilting head machine that also has a tilting deck....Why haven't they done this?   Any manufactures here?  Make both the head and decks tilt! You Can't Loose!!  And since this is my idea, maybe you could give me a prototype? 

[KCSteve]

Now that is a good idea!

Be a bit tricky if allow both to tilt at the same time, but I'll bet they could do it so one or the other can be tilted.

I really like the tilting arm for everything except sharp corners.