Great Sale, but is it any good?

[Stew Hagerty]

I saw this on Amazon today and I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience with or knowledge of this machine. I mean...WOW. It is a heck of a price.

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-8BT-8-Inch-Jointer-Planer/dp/B001O0D6NS

This model is also on sale:

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-10BTOS-10-Inch-Jointer-Planer/dp/B001O0D6OC

I've read the reviews on both, but I respect the opinions of you guys and gals on here more than some anonymous reviewer on Amazon.

[Mitchell Andrus]

The design is pretty bad if you're flattening a board of any great length. The infeed/outfeed tables are miserably short. For jointing alone, 1" will do. 8" implies flattening as it's primary function for which I wouldn't be able to use it.
.

[Rod Sheridan]

Stew, the condensed version courtesy of Monty Python.

RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!


Seriously, you will be disappointed if you buy this machine.

I would expect that for the price you could pick up a good condition used 6" jointer that will give you years of service, and better accuracy and performance.

Regards, Rod.

[Van Huskey]

The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

I had a friend against my advise pick up the 10", and I got the fun of setting it up. It is one of those "machines" that is VERY entry level but takes a bit of skill to setup/use. I was able to get decent results on 3-4 ft boards and you could maybe do more if you had good infeed/outfeed support. The key is you probably are better using only skip planed wood since you can't take much off in a single pass and treat it like a 6" J/P at best due to power. My suggestion if you want to buy new is find a 6" Rigid jointer for around $300 and get a cheap lunchbox planer for about the same. True it will be twice as much but you really will have something you can use. The biggest issue with setup is getting the tables co-planer. Further since they use the same motor and anything wider than about 6" is going to bog it even with a light cut if you HAVE to buy one get the 8". Plus the blades are rather fragile.

[Rod Sheridan]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;1515641]The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

QUOTE]

Was that a quote from Yoda?

So what happened to the "Euro stuff is crap" sig line? I was looking forward to that.:D

Regards, Rod.

[Will Overton]

Never used the machine, but the savings isn't as great as they make it look. The normal street price on the first one is $299. The sale is from Jet as the second week of their 'season long sale' and available at most of their dealers.

If you make nothing but small boxes and the like it might be worth a shot. I had a benchtop jointer for a number of years, and for boards < 2ft long it was fine.

[Jerome Hanby]

I would really love for these machines to be good workers, but I can't find any reviews that I would trust that say so. Guy I talked to at Woodcraft gave me a lot of qualified descriptions. I think if I ran his response through the company line translator, it would come out

RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

[Lee Ludden]

I bought one last Christmas (the 10" one). Used it for about 3 days before putting it for sale on CL for about 1/2 what I paid for it. Best $200 I ever lost.

Problems included: tables not parallel and no easy way to adjust them, tables not very rigid. Fit and finish very substandard. Knives were chipped out of the box and was told that they weren't covered by warranty and ended up replacing them at my own cost.

I ended up waiting and picking up a good used jointer and planer on CL.

[Van Huskey]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;1515641]The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

QUOTE]

Was that a quote from Yoda?

So what happened to the "Euro stuff is crap" sig line? I was looking forward to that.:D

Regards, Rod.

Yoda's version: Strong the lure of a sub $300 J/P it is.

I've been lazy, but the sig line is comming, when you least expect it. Probably when you and your Euro friends are sitting down having a nice glass of port and listening to Mozart, I'll bust in with a boombox on my shoulder blaring AC/DC with a sandwich advertising board proclaiming your true thoughts on Euro tools, probably when the Felder guys are over from Austria to see you. Or I could just be waiting for you to slip out with something like hammers are only good for breaking rocks, I would take a little creative license and make the hammer into Hammer... :D

Actually Rod, I am a little afraid of you... my daddy always said you can't trust a man that doesn't own a router...

[Phil Thien]

I bought one last Christmas (the 10" one). Used it for about 3 days before putting it for sale on CL for about 1/2 what I paid for it. Best $200 I ever lost.

Problems included: tables not parallel and no easy way to adjust them, tables not very rigid. Fit and finish very substandard. Knives were chipped out of the box and was told that they weren't covered by warranty and ended up replacing them at my own cost.

I ended up waiting and picking up a good used jointer and planer on CL.

I can confirm all of this except the nicked knives.

The problem with these isn't the short beds. I have an Inca with even shorter beds and I routinely straighten material 6' in length no problem.

The problem is they did a poor job designing and manufacturing the jointer beds.

They are not flat by a long shot, but rather like candy dishes.

And they give you no decent way to adjust them to get them coplaner other than a couple holes that aren't even elongated so you're relying on tolerances in the hole for adjustment.

Had they spent about $50 more on manufacturing to provide a nice set of tables that had a built-in shim system, they would have had a winner.

It is infuriating to see this kind of crap because it seems like such a horrible waste of natural and human resources. The design doesn't work and they produce container-loads full of them. And instead of realizing how bad they are and correcting the problems, they will abandon the line and move onto something else that doesn't have the kinks worked out and produce containers of those, too.

[Stew Hagerty]

I just got off the phone with Tech Services @ Jet. After reading your replies (thanks to all of you that did, by the way), and researching customer reviews at various outlets, I figured I would take it to the source. The Tech informed me that starting with serial #'s beginning with a "10" have been redesigned to correct the non-adjustability problem and have new tables that are made to higher standards to eliminate cups and waves.

So, maybe they aren't so bad afterall. I mean, it doesn't change being underpowered, but I'm far from a professional woodworker. I just have a stall in my garage and want to be able to tinker. Make a few things for around the house and for my new grandaughter and such. I don't have much room or money to spend.

Comments?

[Jerome Hanby]

Be cool to see a real review of one of those newer S/N models...

I've been wondering what, if anything, could be done to retrofit better tables to these gadgets. At those prices, a little tinkering would be a small price to pay for 8 or 10 inch jointing!

[Callan Campbell]

I just got off the phone with Tech Services @ Jet. After reading your replies (thanks to all of you that did, by the way), and researching customer reviews at various outlets, I figured I would take it to the source. The Tech informed me that starting with serial #'s beginning with a "10" have been redesigned to correct the non-adjustability problem and have new tables that are made to higher standards to eliminate cups and waves.

So, maybe they aren't so bad afterall. I mean, it doesn't change being underpowered, but I'm far from a professional woodworker. I just have a stall in my garage and want to be able to tinker. Make a few things for around the house and for my new grandaughter and such. I don't have much room or money to spend.

Comments?
Rikon makes a different, larger version of the Jet little combo machines, I think it's been said it's a copy of an older INCA machine. One more thing to think about, although you've already heard from everyone who actually owned one of the Jets[briefly..:p:p:p] and from Van the Man who had to set-up his friends Jet machine. I also heard from some Woodcraft employees that everyone is a bit disappointed with the lack of power, esp when the same 8" model set-up is used by Jet on the larger 10" capacity machine with no more power to run the larger blades.
Anyway, look at the Rikon and see if the purchase price, which IS higher than the Jets, is something in your budget.:confused:

[Stew Hagerty]

Rikon makes a different, larger version of the Jet little combo machines, I think it's been said it's a copy of an older INCA machine. One more thing to think about, although you've already heard from everyone who actually owned one of the Jets[briefly..:p:p:p] and from Van the Man who had to set-up his friends Jet machine. I also heard from some Woodcraft employees that everyone is a bit disappointed with the lack of power, esp when the same 8" model set-up is used by Jet on the larger 10" capacity machine with no more power to run the larger blades.
Anyway, look at the Rikon and see if the purchase price, which IS higher than the Jets, is something in your budget.:confused:

I just looked up the Rikon and you're right it is more money. It's $858 on Amazon which is almost 3 times as much. I could get two separate machines for that. It does look like a better machine, but the price would put it back into the "can't afford it" category.

I'm not so worried about the lack of power. First of all, it's not going to get a lot of use, and second, I don't mind making several small passes.

I'd love to get a Gizzly Jointer and a Dewalt 735. It's just that $1000 is what I have available to spend. And if I wait until I can save up that amount, there are a lot of things I just can't do in the mean time.
I'm disabled so my income is not what it used to be. Ironically though, I now have the time to do stuff I want to do. Funny how that works huh. I guess my point is this: I can afford the $300, and for that amount I get the functionality of two machines. If they truely have changed and improved the design, then maybe it's not such a "RUN AWAY" kind of deal.

[Callan Campbell]

I just looked up the Rikon and you're right it is more money. It's $858 on Amazon which is almost 3 times as much. I could get two separate machines for that. It does look like a better machine, but the price would put it back into the "can't afford it" category.

I'm not so worried about the lack of power. First of all, it's not going to get a lot of use, and second, I don't mind making several small passes.

I'd love to get a Gizzly Jointer and a Dewalt 735. It's just that $1000 is what I have available to spend. And if I wait until I can save up that amount, there are a lot of things I just can't do in the mean time.
I'm disabled so my income is not what it used to be. Ironically though, I now have the time to do stuff I want to do. Funny how that works huh. I guess my point is this: I can afford the $300, and for that amount I get the functionality of two machines. If they truely have changed and improved the design, then maybe it's not such a "RUN AWAY" kind of deal.
If you buy new, and it's the supposedly improved later production models, you might be happy. However, think about how accurate you want the work/wood to come off the tool. Are you willing to put up with tapered pieces if you can't get the tables co-planar? Smaller bites on a lowered powered machines ARE a real way to deal with less power, so that's not hard. Maybe you can find a Woodcraft or other dealer who's got a demo model set-up to try out. At any rate, they do seem to sell, used, on Craigslist from what previous owners have posted about them. So if you decide to buy, and then not keep it, you may get all or most of your money back if need be. Sorry to hear about the disabled news, I wish you well in your quests and life.

[Jerome Hanby]

You know one advantage to having more time and less money, you could haunt the CLs for several hundred miles around you. Big jointers don't show up often, but they do make an occasional appearance...

[Justin Bukoski]

So I'm in the process of getting back into woodworking after a long break due to some RL issues. I had to pretty much start from scratch (except for my small hoard of Festools) and I didn't have a large budget to work with. So after buying my bandsaw and tablesaw and wood to make a bench I had very little left over to buy a planer/jointer so I decided to give one of these things a whirl. Now I knew it was going to be a piece of junk going in but pretty much anything that I could get for $400 was going to be junk and having the lumber supplier surface stock for me would have been waste of time. (for you neanders that have gotten lost and came into this forum, yes, I know, jointer plane would be about the same amount of $$. I don't have that much time to work wood. :)) Considering my last jointer/planer was on a euro combo machine I had very low expectations.

I wasn't disappointed. It really is a piece of junk but after several hours of tinkering and a few new parts (ie new, unwarped tables) from Jet I finally have it working to acceptable tolerances. There is zero chance I'll ever run anything heavy on it but the one project I used it for it was fine. Its going up on CL as soon as I can afford a proper one but in the mean time it works fine for smaller parts.

I think this would be something nice to have if I were using construction lumber at a jobsite since it is pretty mobile. Its really a PITA to get setup for furniture. All in all it was worth $300 but not a penny more.

[Joe Spear]

The Amazon reviews are not always reliable, but you should read them anyway. The nine reviews for this machine, even the somewhat favorable ones, are not particularly enthusiastic.

[Stew Hagerty]

You know one advantage to having more time and less money, you could haunt the CLs for several hundred miles around you. Big jointers don't show up often, but they do make an occasional appearance...

Unfortunately, my disability also left me unable to drive. LOML works long hours, and when she is not working she is doing housework that I am unable to do and taking care of me in other ways. I am just not prepared to ask her to then take additional time to drive me a hundred miles out into the boonies on a tool hunt. That is time I spend on her.

I actually do look locally at least a couple times a week. My brother has a truck and could help me pick it up around town. He has two young boys at home that are busy in all kinds of activities, so he's busy with them after work and weekends.

Besides... For some reason, I seem to live in a woodworking tool "dead zone" on CL. It seems that most everything is either obviously junk, or somebody selling some rediculous small item like a rusty sears crescent wrench for $2.95, or something that looks like it would be decent but that the seller wants 98% of the price for a new one and replies with "Well then go buy the new one!" when you ask them why.

[Chad Bender]

I went through the same thought process earlier in the summer, with the goal of acquiring a small benchtop jointer that would suffice for the next couple of years until I can upgrade into a full-sized 8" model. I ended up with the Geetech 6" benchtop from woodworkers supply for $140. Like all benchtop units, the tables are short so jointing long boards requires care. But the tables are cast iron and were aligned perfectly out of the box. The fence is difficult to adjust but once locked down seems to be staying square. I haven't tried adjusting the fence to cut bevels since getting it square initially took about an hour.

The unit has worked well for both face and edge jointing. The jointed surface is flat and also very smooth. I have face jointed almost up to 6". Wider than that goes through my planer using my planer sled. I've gotten around the bed length problem by not trying to joint long boards. Instead, I rough cut all pieces down almost to final size (plus an inch or so), and then joint the small pieces.

I just looked and woodworkers supply doesn't list these on their website anymore. Might be worth a call - otherwise, maybe you can find one somewhere else. After having used the unit for ~3 months I'm confident that it will suffice until I can afford a 8" full sized jointer, and will allow me to avoid the typical $400 6" full length bed step.

[Stew Hagerty]

Be cool to see a real review of one of those newer S/N models...

I've been wondering what, if anything, could be done to retrofit better tables to these gadgets. At those prices, a little tinkering would be a small price to pay for 8 or 10 inch jointing!


I was thinking the same thing...

[michael case]

Rod said it right. Run away! Maybe he could loan you his bike? Seriously this machine has received terrible reviews. Its junk. Just look and see Toolcritic: Jet JJP-8BT Jointer/ Planer (8") (http://www.toolcritic.com/products/jet/jet-jjp-8bt.html)

[Jim Chan]

Hi, I own the 10" model, it was one of the first pieces of equipment I bought, and actually, still my only powered jointer. I don't have a whole lot of space for a big jointer.

There are very few cases where I use this machine anymore though. It's extremely loud, especially with good dust collection, and it's really hard to get setup just right. It doesn't have very much power, and gets bogged down really easily. More often than not, I find that it takes a straight board and puts a cup into it. :) I now use it purely to joint wide, rough material that is badly bowed/twisted. I do all my final jointing by hand using a LN no. 7 these days.

For planing, I found the 10" width too small for many use cases. I upgraded to an 18" woodmaster w/ spiral head for planing. it's 2 orders of magnitude quieter, and the finish is much better, and less/no snipe.

I keep it around for rough jobs since it's so cheap, but for any sort of precision milling, I would consider other options. A 6" jointer/13" lunchbox planer is probably a better bet.

[Jim Chan]

I just looked up the Rikon and you're right it is more money. It's $858 on Amazon which is almost 3 times as much. I could get two separate machines for that. It does look like a better machine, but the price would put it back into the "can't afford it" category.

I'm not so worried about the lack of power. First of all, it's not going to get a lot of use, and second, I don't mind making several small passes.

I'd love to get a Gizzly Jointer and a Dewalt 735. It's just that $1000 is what I have available to spend. And if I wait until I can save up that amount, there are a lot of things I just can't do in the mean time.
I'm disabled so my income is not what it used to be. Ironically though, I now have the time to do stuff I want to do. Funny how that works huh. I guess my point is this: I can afford the $300, and for that amount I get the functionality of two machines. If they truely have changed and improved the design, then maybe it's not such a "RUN AWAY" kind of deal.


Stew - if money is very tight, I think you would be better served getting a planner and a decent used handplane for jointing. It's not very hard at all to joint by hand. I can joint an 8 foot board in a matter of a few minutes. You do get a workout though. :) Thicknessing is more of a pain, so a powered tool is helpful for that. I do not think you will be happy for very long with just the jjp machines though.

And don't bother modding it. It's just not worth it.

[Paul Johnstone]

I think you'd be better served buying a regular lunchbox planer for about $300

You can get buy without a jointer. Not saying it is easy, but it is possible.
You may have to set aside some boards as unusable until you get a jointer, but a lot of quality kiln dried wood can be just ran through the planer and it is "good enough".

[Stew Hagerty]

Rod said it right. Run away! Maybe he could loan you his bike? Seriously this machine has received terrible reviews. Its junk. Just look and see Toolcritic: Jet JJP-8BT Jointer/ Planer (8") (http://www.toolcritic.com/products/jet/jet-jjp-8bt.html)

I have looked there. It also got some good reviews. It averaged 4 out of 5 hammers.

[Stew Hagerty]

Stew - if money is very tight, I think you would be better served getting a planner and a decent used handplane for jointing. It's not very hard at all to joint by hand. I can joint an 8 foot board in a matter of a few minutes. You do get a workout though. :)

I have a couple of planes, but they don't get much use. I don't have much strength in my right arm (figures I'm right handed huh) and stamina is something I have very little of.

My workshop is my therapy. I enjoy actually being able to do something again after being unable to do much of anything for almost 3 years. I do ok with power tools, but not so much with hand tools. Never gonna be a Neanderthal...LOL

[Trent Shirley]

I had the 10" version for a while. I found to to be cheaply made.
The table on my seemed to be pretty flat but I could never quite get the cheap aluminum fence set correctly for edge jointing and had a lot of problems with snipe trying to use it as a planer.
Someone with a lot more patience and experience than I could probably make do with it but I sold it on CL and bought a lunch box planer which is wonderful and a 6" jointer with a 55" bed. Been happy ever since.