Jointer / Planer Combo

[ed vitanovec]

I know there are several owners of the Jet and Grizzly 12" Jointer/Planer Combo's here. After owning these machines for a while I'd like to hear some input on the machines you all own and use. Do you like their performance and quality, any problems with parts failure? I'm considering the combo machine and selling my seperate machines.

Thanks!
Ed

[Curt Harms]

Hi Ed

If you're familiar with the search function, you can be entertained for quite some time:).

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/search.php

In the "keywords" box, try "combo" or "Jointer/Planer" or "Jet combo" or "Grizzly combo" or "Hammer Combo" or whatever. I've had the 12" Jet with straight knives for about 18 months and no complaints so far.

[John Coloccia]

I know there are several owners of the Jet and Grizzly 12" Jointer/Planer Combo's here. After owning these machines for a while I'd like to hear some input on the machines you all own and use. Do you like their performance and quality, any problems with parts failure? I'm considering the combo machine and selling my seperate machines.

Thanks!
Ed

I've had my 12" Jet a bit less than a year. I love it. I have none of the problems that I thought I'd have, such as repeatability/alignment when I raise and lower the table. The only complaint I have is that the Jet fence is terrible...there's no other way to put it. The way it's designed practically ensures that you'll never get it aligned straight down the table (it moves back and forth on two tracks so it racks easily) without whipping out squares, straight edges and dial indicators. This makes miter cuts a little fiddly. On the other hand, if you're anything like me, you pretty much NEVER make anything but a 90 degree pass on the jointer, so if it's angled a bit it's more or less irrelevant. I REALLY REALLY LIKE the blade guard. Every jointer should have this style guard in my opinion.

If you feed the work properly, you get very little snipe on the planer. You do have to lower the planer table in order to swing the dust hood back into jointer mode. Not a big deal, but not ideal. I wish it had a variable speed feed motor.

So far, I haven't done a thing to it. Everything was adjusted dead nuts right from the factory, believe it or not. If it were stolen tommorow, I would buy another one to replace it.

Here's the thing, though. If I had the room, I would have wanted a seperate jointer and planer. The Jet is nice, but it doesn't beat having dedicated machinery.