# Samona router fence - Help



## Northerner26 (Jan 2, 2010)

im going to build my own table and stand but i want a good heavy duty
fence and had been thinking about getting the JessEm master fence when
i came across a place that has a Samona fence which i had never heard of 
but looks about identical to the JessEm

has anyone had any experience with this fence? i like it because of the dual
mounts on each side. they have tracks the fence slides in and locks down on.
plus its a lot cheaper too!


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Kevin...

Per their web page "Samona International is a leading Canadian importer and distributor of woodworking, industrial and automotive tools and accessories for the North American retail market." Jess-em is a domestic company who manufactures their products domestically.

I own a JessEm Mast-R-Lift and can assure you it is exceptionally well made and of the highest quality. Others here have made similar statements about other JessEm products. I've not worked with Samona tools, so cannot speak to how good of a knock-off it is. They're obviously trying to copy JessEm's design. What their quality standards are, I cannot say. I'd see it as a roll of the dice.

http://www.samona.com/site/


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

I have a couple of Samona tools. Bought them because they were "cheap". And yes they are CHEAP. I'm not buying anymore. I almost want to rate them below CTire's Jobmate brand. But that may be too low.


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## Northerner26 (Jan 2, 2010)

thanks for the info, just hard to believe since the two look almost identical.


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Aren't studio pictures wonderful? <g> There's only so many ways to knock-off a product at a low price while making a profit.


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## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

We have an organization in Quebec called Canac Grenier Marquis. They're the local equivalent of Home Depot. They'll undercut anyone's prices. They also have a reasonable tool department which is surprising because their markup is negligible. They carry Samona, some other cheap brands and some expensive ones too. I needed a quick 18ga brad nailer/stapler. They had a bunch of different brands. I paid a ridiculous price -- I think $19.95 when PorterCable was well over $150. When I compared them all, they were similar, with the exception that one had feature 'x' and another feature 'y'. I thought this was a bit much until I got the Princess Auto catalogue and lo and behold there's another nailer/stapler for $24.95.

Surprisingly enough, it's not a half bad nailer. I have a Makita 18ga nailer and other than the nail/staple magazine, they're identical. The manuals are remarkably similar all specifying the same sort of maintenance and they all came with the same spare parts (except the Makita.) The parts blowup of the Makita is remarkably similar to that of the Samona. Go figure!

I learned my lesson with my bandsaw where I found out that there were few "different" bandsaws and that most were the same "import." Since then I look for the similarities in everything and I quickly find them. Yes, there are alternatives but it has become so difficult to tell them apart now.


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## Cassandra (Mar 15, 2006)

CanuckGal said:


> I have a couple of Samona tools. Bought them because they were "cheap". And yes they are CHEAP. I'm not buying anymore. I almost want to rate them below CTire's Jobmate brand. But that may be too low.


Very well put! I have also bought Samona and found them low quality. As for Jobmate, they're on my no-buy list.

Cassandra


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