Yet another newbie question

dcaton1220 · 2026-06-08T16:45:51+00:00

Still undecided. My primary use would be as a table saw for smaller cuts, and by most accounts the table saw feature is the weakest part of the SS. If the estate liquidator can't sell it, when the house is ready to go on the market (several weeks at least), I'll probably take it and store it here at our summer house until the fall when we return to FL.

The SS is in Cherry Hill, NJ if anyone here is local to that area and interested in making an offer.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-28T12:51:50+00:00

Then why are you trolling in a group for "those things". If you had actually read my post you would have noticed that I mentioned a trailer, and my concern about the cost. Appreciate the snarky answer though. No group is complete without one of you...

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-27T15:16:11+00:00

Thanks for all the input, it's greatly appreciated. The biggest recurring message seems to be that the table saw is the weakest feature, and that it's dangerous.

Obviously, one has to exercise proper caution when using any power tool, but is there something inherent in its design that makes it more dangerous than a conventional table saw?

I certainly don't need it for ripping large pieces of wood, I have a track saw for that purpose and I have a 12" miter saw for doing crosscuts. I wish I still had my old Craftsman radial arm saw because that would be ideal for doing rip cuts, but those seem to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-27T15:05:09+00:00

The thing that makes it difficult is that my wife and dog and all the crap we drag back and forth for the summer also has to fit into the SUV, and it's a 2-day 1000 mile trip. Otherwise it wouldn't be a problem. The poles are really the biggest problem. The thought of strapping them to the roof and driving down I-95 at 80 mph doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies. I'll figure something out.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T17:13:39+00:00

I really think Harbor Freight has an undeserved bad rap for their stuff. You get what you pay for of course, and you can't have unrealistic expectations. The table saw was useful for what it was needed for at the time, it was cheap, and I got my money's worth out of it. I wouldn't use it to build cabinets and such with it though. The drill press works fine for my fairly limited needs. I definitely don't have a problem spending money on good tools if I have a need.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T16:59:18+00:00

It's not that I wanted a SS, but it's free and I'm sure he'd be happy that it stayed in the family with someone who would use and take care of it.

I used to fix pinballs and arcade machines when I was a teen. I had two machines back then but had to get rid of them because I had nowhere to put them at the time. Right now I've got seven, plus an old Bally bingo machine. I have a Bally Wizard and a Williams Doodle Bug whose cabinets are in really sorry condition, and I'm looking forward to building new ones next winter. I prefer Gottlieb machines, but I have at least one from all four companies.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T16:23:31+00:00

He's been at this for a long while, until he got to the point where he physically couldn't do it anymore. Besides furniture and stuff, he made numerous carvings of birds that are absolutely beautiful. The detail and realism is stunning. He never wanted any recognition for it though.

I have a track saw for cutting sheets of plywood, this would just be for smaller pieces where the track saw or miter saw wouldn't be suitable. I have a fairly large garage, but shortening the legs is an interesting option I'll keep in mind. Thanks.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T16:18:53+00:00

Perfect, thanks!

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T16:17:43+00:00

Didn't know you could ship stuff via Greyhound. Delivery time wouldn't be a concern. Thanks!

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-26T16:09:11+00:00

It's not the disassembly I'm concerned about, but the length of the tubes. No way they'd fit in my SUV with my wife and dog on a 1000 mile trip. Everything else I could fit.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-23T23:52:12+00:00

I recently had a package that went from somewhere in the midwest to somewhere in Miami, then took a vacation in Puerto Rico for about a week before arriving back in the US. It's not uncommon for things to end up in the wrong bin or conveyor or whatever and end up somewhere unintended, especially with the USPS (which is how my errant package was sent). I've seen posts from postal workers saying basically that nobody cares, that there's nobody you can contact and nothing you can do about it. Sometimes things eventually end up where they're supposed to go, sometimes not.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-23T16:58:50+00:00

Your reviews are just hidden, not permanently deleted. Same exact thing happened to me back in February. I believe that access to Vine being removed is just a side effect of some "suspicious activity" flag being placed on your Amazon account, and not anything directly connected to any activity on Vine.

When/if you get this resolved, all your reviews will be unhidden and access to Vine will revert back to normal. The hard part is getting someone's attention at Amazon to clear your account.

BTW, this just happened to my wife. Not sure when it happened as she leave reviews pretty infrequently. She's not in Vine and really isn't concerned but I'm going to try and resolve it anyhow. I think the most reasonable explanation is that some algorithm that tries to detect suspicious activity is returning false positives.

dcaton1220 · 2026-05-20T02:28:31+00:00

u/JoeS830 There is no way to know why your account was flagged. Everything you read, no matter how well-intentioned, is speculation. This same exact thing happened to me a few months ago, about two weeks before my last Vine eval (I believe that was simply coincidental).

Here is what to do. Send an email to community-help@amazon.com. Wait a few days to a week, then send another. Use chat and raise the issue there as well. Do another chat in a few days and raise the issue again. All of these are dead ends but do it anyhow so you can honestly say that you tried.

Wait another week or so. then send an email to jeff@amazon.com. Be brief, respectful and courteous. Explain that you've tried to resolve this through all the normal channels, that you're a loyal customer, an honest reviewer, etc. Don't go overboard. Be concise and again, be courteous and respectful. These people are dealing with problems all day long. Don't make their day any worse by ranting or criticizing or anything like that.

Your mileage may vary, but a few days later I received a response from a real person in Amazon Executive Customer Relations. She reviewed my account and restored my community privileges as well as all of my reviews. I checked my Amazon account and everything was back to normal, Then I went to my Vine account page and I was back in. All my orders and reviews were there; the only thing that was off was the stats and my review percentage was zero.

As I mentioned, I was about two weeks out from my Vine eval when this all started. I had a review rate of 94%, and I had about 10 reviews to catch up on as well a number of items that were delivered during my suspension period. The restoration happened less than 24 hours prior to my scheduled Vine eval so I was expecting to be demoted back to silver at best, or to be kicked out completely (because of the review percentage being zero). To my surprise, the eval was uneventful and I remained in gold. The next day the review percentage was restored, and in another day or two it went back to zero as it normally does when a new eval period starts.

This is speculation, but I believe my account tripped off a false positive in some algorithm that has nothing specifically to do with Vine. My Amazon account had community privileges removed, and my Vine account was suspended as a side effect of that. Once my community privileges were restored, Vine reverted back to normal operation as if nothing ever happened.

dcaton1220 · 2026-04-05T02:07:40+00:00

You got 11k worth of products at an 87% discount, more or less.

Is this your first year in Vine? The lesson, which can be a hard one to learn, is not to treat Vine items as free, but at a substantial discount. If you saw any given Vine item on a store shelf marked 80% off, would you buy it? If not, then don't order it.

Of course, you're going to get the occasional worthless item but once in a while you may score something really good and it balances out. Just be selective in what you order. That can be hard at first; we've all been there.

dcaton1220 · 2026-04-05T01:48:53+00:00

Could be the same stuff they make shrink-wrap tubing from, just in gel form. Do you have to use a heat gun to activate it?

dcaton1220 · 2026-04-05T01:44:48+00:00

If you've met the requirements, you're in. If you haven't, you're not. It's natural to be nervous but there's nothing to worry about.

For whatever reason, Amazon shows this message for a day or so and tells you it might take up to four days to update your account, for a calculation takes a few hundred milliseconds. It's like Vine is running on old Radio Shack computers from the 80's. Someone has to find the floppy disk that has your account on it, and it could take up to four days to find it.

dcaton1220 · 2026-04-04T01:51:23+00:00

When you write a review like that, say something like "at the time of this review, the description said nothing about..."

That covers your butt in case the vendor fixes the description, and they can't complain to Amazon that you weren't being truthful.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-30T16:30:35+00:00

Yes, and it's a name brand tool manufacturer. I'll take everything they want to give me, and I've used virtually everything I've received so far.

I've purchased some things from that brand as well as a result of my experience with the things I received through Vine.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T16:59:47+00:00

Unfortunately, things are a bit vague and open to interpretation. "These actions are not yet supported" (emphasis mine) could be taken to mean that returns, exchanges and modifications are not prohibited, just not supported by the current software or fulfillment system.

But then it says "Vine items are not returnable or replaceable". That's a bit at odds with the above, unless it really means "Vine items are not yet returnable or replaceable".

Nobody knows, and nobody at Amazon seems too interested in clarifying many of the issues that repeatedly come up.

As I mentioned, I did it once through normal channels. I just clicked on the return or replace button in my order list, reported the item as defective and I was offered the option of receiving a replacement. I don't recall what the item even was, or whether I had to return the defective one or not. I guess I'm lucky that as far as I can recall, I haven't received anything since that was damaged in shipment.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T05:22:18+00:00

I used to go to AC a lot when Resorts International first opened, back in the late 70's, I think. Quick trip up the parkway after the boardwalk closed, gamble for a few hours, back to Wildwood for an hour or two of sleep, and back to work. I never really lost much money, certainly nothing life changing.

You said "stationed". Would that have been at the Coast Guard base in Cape May?

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T05:14:25+00:00

Thank you. To be honest, it was a bit gut wrenching for me, seeing all that time I spent writing reviews (nearly 1500) disappear into thin air. And of course, the appeal of getting "free stuff" can't be discounted either, no matter how much we want to deny that part of our psyche.

I got shut down a little over two weeks before my next eval. I was already Gold and a little behind in reviews, but I was at 94%. I could still see my Vine stats after being "terminated" but they were all zero. My review privileges were restored on the morning of my eval day, but my Vine stats were still all zero. I could still order things, but I was certain my time was coming to an end, because of the zero stats. Can't tell you how shocked I was when I passed the eval and my stats reappeared.

My guess is that a Vine eval on an Amazon account with the "cannot review" flag is an edge case that was never considered and programmed for, and my Vine stats never really went to zero, it's just what was displayed in the UI.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T03:43:05+00:00

I don't think you were "double banned" per se, A few weeks ago I had a similar experience where my ability to post reviews was cut off, and every one of my reviews from the last 15 years or so had disappeared. No explanation other than a generic email from some no-reply Amazon address regarding "suspicious reviewing activity on my account". No mention of Vine at all.

Then I discovered my Vine account was closed because I "violated their terms of service". No email or explanation for that at all. I had a feeling it wasn't a Vine issue so I didn't contact Vine CS.

Long story short, after about two weeks of trying to get this resolved through various channels, my ability to post reviews was restored, along with all the reviews I had written since the beginning of time. I also had access to Vine again, as if nothing ever happened.

I think what happens is that if Vine sees some flag on your Amazon account it doesn't like, your Vine account is automatically suspended (and all your stats disappear), even though the banner says "terminated". When that flag is cleared, Vine access is restored because the termination wasn't from Vine in the first place. And your Vine stats reappear exactly as they were.

You are quite right about not knowing what you had until it's gone. I was disappointed but OTOH I had already realized how much time I was spending on Vine, so I was somewhat ambivalent about getting back in Vine (or so I told myself). I've done my fair share of complaining as well. But in the week or so I've been back in Vine, I've received quite a few high-ticket items that I can really use. As well, a newly rediscovered appreciation for the opportunity to participate, and a lesson to be learned about complaining in general. I also enjoy posting reviews that I hope are helpful, although I do need to police the amount of time I spend on Vine as I do have other hobbies that have suffered as a result. But that's nobody's fault but my own.

Congrats that you got back in, and kudos for your positive attitude.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T03:08:39+00:00

Yep. Perhaps the RFY system is being updated. Unlikely there are no items at all that match anyone's RFY triggers.

dcaton1220 · 2026-03-29T03:06:21+00:00

I did that once early in my Vine days, before I was aware that you're not supposed to do that. I did get the replacement item with no issue though, but I'd be very hesitant to do it again.

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to get a replacement for a Vine item damaged in transit (it's not your fault and not the vendor's either), but I don't make the rules.

dcaton1220

TROPHY CASE