Kerry Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I have seen some people say that the Jet jointer/planers (the 8 or 10 inch quasi-benchtop models specifically) aren't very good. I'm wondering just what it is that is so wrong with them. To me it seems like a good idea if you have limited funds and / or space. So what is it exactly that is wrong with these little machines? Are they really that bad so as to be useless? I have to say that I'm kinda interested in these as they are affordable (barely right now) and they don't take up gobs of space (which I don't have). Am I better off just forgetting these things and finding some other means of jointing and planing wood, like handplanes for instance? That seems like it might be nasty if you have a lot of boards to do, though I guess I'd look more like Schwarzenegger afterward . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decibel Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I have seen some people say that the Jet jointer/planers (the 8 or 10 inch quasi-benchtop models specifically) aren't very good. I'm wondering just what it is that is so wrong with them. To me it seems like a good idea if you have limited funds and / or space. So what is it exactly that is wrong with these little machines? Are they really that bad so as to be useless? I have to say that I'm kinda interested in these as they are affordable (barely right now) and they don't take up gobs of space (which I don't have). Am I better off just forgetting these things and finding some other means of jointing and planing wood, like handplanes for instance? That seems like it might be nasty if you have a lot of boards to do, though I guess I'd look more like Schwarzenegger afterward . Consider I haven't used this machine so I'm only speaking of what I've heard or based on specs. The biggest complaint is the size of the tables which are realtively short. If you're doing shorter boards maybe that's not as big of a deal but something to consider as you don't have a lot of table to work with. You also have a 2 kinfe cutter head vs the 3 knife you see in most straight blade jointers today. So that's what the "word" on the street is. As far as alternatives you could consider the handplane route for sure, or you might consider using a different combination of power tools. So I'll break it down for face jointing vs edge jointing. Face jointing to me is the biggest use for my jointer one alternative is to use a planer for face jointing. You'll need to make yourself a sled that you would use with the planer so you could get a flat face. Lookup planer sleds there's a few examples out there if you haven't heard of this one. You could also you a sled for your router to do face jointing as well. Edge Jointing: You can do you edge jointing using a table saw jig or even on the router table. I personally have the jet 12" combo machine but that's gets to be more $$ and was a great upgrade over the 6" jointer and 13" planer I had in the past. You could get by with the 6" jointer and a seperate "lunchbox" planer and the 6" jointer won't take up much more room than the jet 8 & 10 combos. I guess my biggest concern is having a planer that is less than 12" inches. I wish I had a bigger planer myself and it's very useful for helping to true up glued up panels etc. So for me at least that's one of the biggest downfalls of the smaller combo machines. I get around it by using a drum sander but it takes forever to take off any material using that.. Hopefully that helps more than confuses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I have the Rikon 10" jointer/planer combo, and I love it. The main differences that I see between it and the Jet are that the motor on the Rikon is much beefier. From reviews of the Jet, the table adjustment mechanisms seem to be questionable, and that's exactly what you don't want in a jointer. The Jet is also half the price. Either the Rikon is way over priced (I don't think so), or they had to do something to the Jet to make it that cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisMoore Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I had the Jet 8" combo. Out of the box on small stock, I was in love. And when I mean small stock, I'm talking under a foot in length and 5/4 thick. When I tried to joint some longer boards I couldnt get a tru edge to save me. I was just that impossible to set up. Plus in planer mode, the infeed and outfeet are so short, it cannot support long length boards. It kept tripping the breaker constantly and jamming up. Plus the planer is not in english measurements. It isn't even metric from what I could tell, it was weird. So I sold it on Craigslist. I don't regret the purchase, because we learn from our mistakes. I went out and got a DW 735 and couldn't be happier with that and my other hand and power tools, I can get good straight stock with no problem. As a side note, in one of Marc's shop pictures he had the 10" model. He said that even he could not get it set up to make true stock, so to me that says something. To do it over again, I'd just buy a good benchtop planer and joint with my tools, and that's what I recommend to people who asked if I liked mine. I do know some have had success with their combo unit for what it is worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Hmmm... So it sounds as though unless I want to plane and joint "twigs" while praying the adjustments don't move out of whack, these Jets just aren't worth much. I must admit that I never even thought about the short table lengths for the jointer part. I was looking at some pics of them set up in planer mode and must say that it looks like a good way to remove a few body parts as well. Why on earth they couldn't even bother putting some sort of infeed table on there for the planer is beyond me. When I first saw one I thought that it was just folded out of the way or something. All in all it sounds like I should pass on these and just come up with another way, like a router, tablesaw or lunchbox planer instead as were mentioned. Oh well saves me money I don't really have lol. Maybe I'll look at a small portable tablesaw instead (the dewalt DW745 looks interesting), though I'm not really sure I need one as I do have a 14" bandsaw. Something for me to ponder at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 FWIW, I think that concerns of the "short bed" of the 10" jointer/planer combo are overrated. First, this is a machine that everyone and his brother seems to make and sell in Europe and the UK. If woodworkers across the pond can use these, I don't see why we can't in the US. Second, the typical quoted "limit" to a jointer bed is a board twice the length of the bed. That limits the length of a board you can joint to "only" 80". Let's call it 6 feet to be conservative. I don't know how many projects would be limited by a 6 foot board length: floor to ceiling bookcases, bed frames, and very long tables are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head. And this can be overcome with outfeed tables, or even getting a friend to help feed the board over the jointer. I've successfully jointed and planed 8 foot long boards to make my workbench top with the help of a friend on my 10" jointer/planer combo, and they turned out great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 FWIW, I think that concerns of the "short bed" of the 10" jointer/planer combo are overrated. First, this is a machine that everyone and his brother seems to make and sell in Europe and the UK. If woodworkers across the pond can use these, I don't see why we can't in the US. Second, the typical quoted "limit" to a jointer bed is a board twice the length of the bed. That limits the length of a board you can joint to "only" 80". Let's call it 6 feet to be conservative. I don't know how many projects would be limited by a 6 foot board length: floor to ceiling bookcases, bed frames, and very long tables are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head. And this can be overcome with outfeed tables, or even getting a friend to help feed the board over the jointer. I've successfully jointed and planed 8 foot long boards to make my workbench top with the help of a friend on my 10" jointer/planer combo, and they turned out great. I was always under the impression that the "length limit" was derived from just the infeed table length. Guess I was wrong (not surprised really). Still, I simply can't afford ~$1,000 for the Rikon and it sounds like the Jet can't hold it's adjustments very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleBear Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 I've had the ten inch model, it was great at the start. The tables got out of being co-planar within a year, the front of the infeed table was lower than the fence side; after a few passes face planing, the stock turned into a long doorstop wedge. There was no way to correct for this issue. That is the drawback dealbreaker for these benchtop combo units, if you can't recalibrate them it's no better than a boat anchor. I've since replaced it with separate jointer (Grizzly 8") and planer (delta dc33/380), both good deals off of craigslist and are far more adjustable than the Jet combo. If you have your heart set on a new out of the box/crate machine I suggest going with Grizzly for what you can afford and have space for. Otherwise, keep an eye out for deals. When you're able to upgrade to better equipment, you'll be able to sell what you've got without losing much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jtblckmaro Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 I've had the jet 10" combo unit for over a year now. I called jet and they emailed me directions on how to adjust the tables to be coplanar. Did that and haven't had any trouble. It's not in the manual but the email directions were way easy and took all of 10 minutes. Only thing I'm not happy with is the in/outfeed tables are soft and scratch easily. Little block sanding knocks down the high spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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