Grizzly G0706 Short-Wide Jointer

[Daryl Henderson]

I have been putting off getting a new jointer until after the holidays. I plan to get a G0609X 12 inch with spiral cutter head.

When the new Griz catalog came out today I was checking to see if they changed the price and much to my surprise I found a new 12" jointer with a 60" bed.

The 609X bed is 83 1/2" vs. the 60" on the new model. Everything else is comparable and very little price difference.

I have room for the longer bed jointer as I plan to put it on a mobil base, however, the shorter bed model would fit better.

How much do you think you would miss the extra length?

[glenn bradley]

With the understanding that opinions differ; having had both, I'd never want to give up the long beds and tall fence on my jointer. It may be like electric side-view mirrors on your car . . . if you've never had it, you may not miss it. All that said, the 706 look like a cool, compact machine.

[Jim Becker]

Consider this: Realistically...how many project components do you need to face or edge joint to final accuracy that are more than 8' long? 8' is less than the typical "twice the length of the bed" rule of thumb for jointer capacity. My MiniMax 350mm J/P combo doesn't have really long bed capacity and I've actually exceeded the "twice the length" rule multiple times with careful workpiece handling. For me..."wide" is much more important than "length", especially since I rough size components before I flatten and thickness them. Rarely is anything very long using that methodology and when something is, it most likely isn't something that's going to have critical fit needs...like moldings.

[Tony Bilello]

With the understanding that opinions differ; having had both, I'd never want to give up the long beds and tall fence on my jointer. ........

What he said.

[Chris Barnett]

If the 12 inch shortie had been available from the Griz last year, would have it in my shop. But went with the 8 inch helical...still unused though! Maybe they would trade for the difference :D.

[Barry Vabeach]

Daryl, I agree with Jim, though if there is very little difference in price, and space isn't really a problem, I would get the longer beds.

[Peter Quinn]

I disagree with Jim's suggestion that bed length doesn't matter, but I can agree that it may not matter to you depending on your work. One of the things I make is passage doors, and trying to flatten any number of stiles, typically 86" minimum rough length, can be a major challenge on a short bed. I've tried it. Trying to flatten the face of 8/4 stock to 1 3/4" over 80"-96" is real tough on a short bed. You just don't get that many passes, and the material has to be flat for the doors to work right.

My understanding is that you can generally flatten twice the "Infeed" table length, not twice the overall bed length though I'm not sure where I learned that or if its true, and my practical experience is that longer beds make it much easier to flatten longer stock. You can certainly joint material longer than any rule of thumb would suggest with some care and perseverance. And frankly there aren't that many wooden objects that require you to face joint much over 6'. I guess I'm saying the short bed may be just the thing for many things but not everything.

I suppose in any event you could add table extensions like those from Felder for any circumstance where you really need a bit more length should the need arise. Or you could make table extensions and tap the ends of the tables to accept them.