Need jointer, planer, and bandsaw have $900

[wtnhighlander]

11 hours ago, Nickhxc4life said:

And what is wrong with bench top options? This is a hobby. I don’t make things to sell at this point. I make things for fun. 

How about sharing with us the things you plan to make? In reality, that will dictate the best choice of tools, more than budget.

And let me clarify one point. I advised against spending money on inexpensive benchtop tools, because that is exactly what I did, and have regreted every penny spent that way. Yes, it is possible to build things with cheap tools, but to build things WELL with cheap, inconsistent tools requires a lot of patience, and a decent understanding of how those cheap tools are affecting your work.

The fact that you mentioned a surface planer tells me that you expect to work with larger material. That influenced my suggestion to buy the DW735. I suggested that you stay away from sub-$500 benchtop bandsaws, because I had a couple different such machines. One, a Craftsman 3-wheeler, was a completely worthless piece of junk. The other, a steel-frame Craftsman 10" saw, was a perfectly good saw for small, scroll-type work, but its size limited it to handling almost nothing more than a jigsaw can do.

I also own a benchtop jointer. Although the fence is a bear to keep straight and square, it will joint small boards well enough. But all too often, I find myself doing stuff like this:

Which is really, really stupid.

Save youself some headaches, and listen to the advice you asked for. It is worth a good deal more than you paid for it.

[Keggers]

13 hours ago, Nickhxc4life said:

By no decent advice I meant that I didn’t ask people to reply with a lengthy post about how my budget is too low or how tools in that price range aren’t worth. I’d rather those people not post at all....not that complicated to understand. 

Sigh.....I smell a troll.

[drzaius]

5 hours ago, Keggers said:

Sigh.....I smell a troll.

Sadly, I agree. Although I think not by intent, but by nature. Some people just wanna always be told they're right even when they know, on some level, they're not.

[collinb]

Maybe you're like me. Cheap, err thrifty. But sometimes too much so. Don't under-spend. Get at least medium-grade equipment and you'll always be happy with it.

**

$900 for a jointer, a planer, and a bandsaw.

Obviously it's going to have to be used equipment.

A used 14" bandsaw -- $400 or less. Porter-Cable & Delta both come in this price class regular on a basis (around here).
Or a used 10" bandsaw -- $200. For making stuff for around the house a 10" might do the trick. Just avoid the need to resaw thick pieces and you'll be ok. Plus a 10" is a lot more versatile for cutting curves.

A used planer --
I see the Delta 22-540 like I started with for about $250 or less. They do a decent job. They're 2-blade so you'll have to sand afterwards.

Finally the jointer.
A used 6" for $300 isn't impossible to find if you're a patient shopper.
Again, for stuff around the house you many not need to "face joint" anything. In that case look around for a little 4" jointer. If you're just jointing the short edge of a piece there's no reason to get a big unit. You can get one of those later as the need arises. They take up very little space. I see them at summer yard and estate sales for $20 to $50 -- because nobody wants the any more. But I think for the tiny shop they might have some minimalist application.
With any inexpensive jointer you'll still have that "washboard" edge just like a 2-blade planer. If the edge will show then you'll need to sand it. There is one more alternative for edge jointing -- the manual route.
If you're just jointing a few edges you might consider setting up a good way to clamp the wood down and doing it by hand with a #6, #7, or #8 plane. A #6 is good enough for pieces up to about 4' and they take up little space. Plus they're an in-between size plane that nobody wants so they go pretty cheap these days. One of these planes would fall into the $40 to $150 price range. They're still in  your arena.
(I don't hand joint very often at all. But there are times when it's faster to clamp the board in and grab the plane than rolling out the jointer, plug it in and set/verify everything just to do one board.)
Just a week ago I got a #8 in user condition for $15. Needs a little TLC but well worth the price. (IOW, just be a patient shopper.)

$900 isn't difficult but you can't just go out and pick it up. It may take 6 months of Craigslist shopping to find what you need.

[gee-dub]

On 11/10/2018 at 7:57 PM, Nickhxc4life said:

And what is wrong with bench top options? This is a hobby. I don’t make things to sell at this point. I make things for fun. 

There was an article on this in one of the mags.  There are definitely bench top tools of good quality although the recommendation, no surprise, was to stick to stationary sizes for things like bandsaws and jointers.  In argument to that, I have a 10" Rikon that sells for about $300 that I use for quick cuts and most curved work.  It does a really admirable job but, would take a coon's age to resaw much of anything.  It is still one of the best smaller bandsaws I have used.

I had a benchtop jointer.  It was completely worthless for its intended task.  There are a few tools used in woodworking where "close enough" is useless; a jointer is one of them.  If your jointer is inaccurate or irregular, so is everything else you do afterwards.  Again, I would just wait on this one.

A $300 bandsaw and a $500 planer will probably see you well for some time.  Since one generally comes before a jointer and the other generally comes after in your workflow, you are in kind of a pickle.  Darn, there's goes more of that unwanted advice .

The folks on here want to give you their best opinions based on their experiences.  I know that's why I come to forums; to learn from others experience so I don't have to make the mistake myself.  That being said, I must confess that I wasted a couple hundred bucks on a benchtop jointer even though many who went before me predicted what would happen . . . it did.  Since then I have been more receptive.

 

[Brendon_t]

Although the OP obviously didn't come for real information, some people do use the search function on forums to find answers before asking so...

I hope other posters do still reply, because this is an educational spot.  The Truth is, that budged is not able to get you much. Plain and simple.

Instead of curating responses, maybe YOU should ask what IS possible when the collective wisdom says $900 isn't enough for a decent new version of those three tools. It just doesn't. If you can get them new for that price, they aren't decent, they are crap.

 

[Woodenskye]

18 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

 

Instead of curating responses, maybe YOU should ask what IS possible when the collective wisdom says $900 isn't enough for a decent new version of those three tools. It just doesn't. If you can get them new for that price, they aren't decent, they are crap.

 

Since I was 1 of the first to comment on his budget, I will go first.

Ridged jointer new $300 (knew manager at Home Depot and got last 1 when no longer stocking in store).

Bought a used Dewalt 733 planer from a woodworker for $250

Grizzly GO555 14" bandsaw approximately $450 plus $89 for riser block.  Bought at Grizzly tent sale, so I'm not factoring the 6 hours in car or sleeping in parking lot before sale opened.

Going new and used I was still at about $1100.

[Brendon_t]

1 hour ago, Woodenskye said:

Since I was 1 of the first to comment on his budget, I will go first.

Ridged jointer new $300 (knew manager at Home Depot and got last 1 when no longer stocking in store).

Bought a used Dewalt 733 planer from a woodworker for $250

Grizzly GO555 14" bandsaw approximately $450 plus $89 for riser block.  Bought at Grizzly tent sale, so I'm not factoring the 6 hours in car or sleeping in parking lot before sale opened.

Going new and used I was still at about $1100.

And I'll throw kerosene there by saying that the G0555 I Own is not a decent machine. It was $713 delivered to my door, has had multiple (3) independent catastrophic failures. So imo not a decent machine. And not in that budget at that price with tax and delivered.

[Woodenskye]

19 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

And I'll throw kerosene there by saying that the G0555 I Own is not a decent machine. It was $713 delivered to my door, has had multiple (3) independent catastrophic failures. So imo not a decent machine. And not in that budget at that price with tax and delivered.

I remember you had issues, I have had good luck with mine, only issue I had was a stripped screw when attaching the riser block.  This points out some of the things you get with budget tools.

[Llama]

I had the 555 bandsaw for many years, lovely machine if you refrain from abusing it. 

[Brendon_t]

10 minutes ago, Llama said:

lovely machine if you refrain from abusing it. 

Yeah for sure. Cutting wood with a moderate slow feed rate = abuse.

[Chip Sawdust]

OK well for my $900 I'd still buy the Dewalt 734 planer ($350-ish). It's reliable and just works. However, you need a dust collector to use it. Under $200 at Harbor Freight. So there's $550. I have the Cutech jointer, that was about $300 if I recollect correctly. So you're at $850. For a little bandsaw, Grizzly has a 9" one that's actually pretty good ($200) except the fence, but you make your own jigs and don't try to resaw with it. 

I know that goes over your budget but those are tools I've bought. I've gone with a better table saw, better band saw but the jointer and planer work great in my hobby shop.

Oh, and later I bought a $200 Wynn nanofilter for the dust collector because I don't like inhaling 5 micron dust. You really can't run a planer without a DC; I tried it, ejecting the sawdust into a bucket doesn't work well at all

Anyway, maybe that will give you some ideas to chew on.

[Jonathan McCully]

9 minutes ago, Chip Sawdust said:

OK well for my $900 I'd still buy the Dewalt 734 planer ($350-ish). It's reliable and just works. However, you need a dust collector to use it.

Not as familiar with the 734, but the 735 ejects its own waste, so I’ve just put a dust right DC bag onto the ejection port. A possible way to save some money here, if the 734 blows out it’s own chips like the 735 does.

[Chip Sawdust]

Yeah the 734 tries to blow its chips but doesn't succeed very well, or at least mine didn't. The DC is pretty useful for the rest of the shop and is more or less a requirement either way, I think.

[Brendon_t]

8 hours ago, Jonathan McCully said:

Not as familiar with the 734, but the 735 ejects its own waste, so I’ve just put a dust right DC bag onto the ejection port. A possible way to save some money here, if the 734 blows out it’s own chips like the 735 does.

Rockler DustRite 30 micron bag on a 3 foot flex hose does just fine in a pinch with the 744. Not so much without a blower.

[Geoffrey]

Before getting a dust collection system, I used the Rockler Dust Right Separator (then called the Vortex) on my DW 735. I had to clamp the lid down on the separator to keep the blower on the planer from blowing the lid off. The 735 has a pretty strong blower!

[chrisn]

Since the OP specified he wanted new tools for $900, this is not for him. However, if you are willing to go with used tools, a $900 budget will easily suffice

.In my area, I would bet that estate auctions are where you could find a lot of "old iron" tools. Craigslist can be a little sparse sometimes. One benefit of old tools is they are usually more robust than even fairly expensive new ones, and they are worlds apart from any new tools you could buy for the same price if that is even a possibility.

My bandsaw and jointer are both "old iron" found on Craigslist - a Delta 14" bandsaw for ~$120, and a Dewalt 6" jointer (aka Atlas 6001) for ~$150. I did purchase a new planer - a Dewalt DW734 for around $450 - but you could go with a used or a cheaper new lunchbox planer if you're really tight on budget. But I would recommend a DW735 now, since they can be gotten for only $50-$100 more than I paid for my DW734.

[wdwerker]

OP hasn't been back since Sunday morning. I think this horse is dead so maybe we should stop beating it ?

[Immortan D]

On 11/11/2018 at 12:56 AM, Nickhxc4life said:

By no decent advice I meant that I didn’t ask people to reply with a lengthy post about how my budget is too low or how tools in that price range aren’t worth. I’d rather those people not post at all....not that complicated to understand. 

[DerekMPBS]

If you're willing to go with smaller bench-top tools, you can get a Cuetech jointer and planer, both with spiral heads, for just under $700 and free shipping from their website.  That leaves $200 for a bandsaw, and I saw a couple of 9" or 10" models available for that amount.

[Llama]

On 11/12/2018 at 8:07 PM, Brendon_t said:

Yeah for sure. Cutting wood with a moderate slow feed rate = abuse.

I knew there was a reason I blocked you years ago.

[Brendon_t]

10 hours ago, Llama said:

I knew there was a reason I blocked you years ago.

It's never too late to fix that.