Need jointer/planer advice

[Douglas Rush]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and I'm a hobbyist looking to add a jointer and planer to my shop. I have a 25x25 ft shop with 220 capability. My budget for both machines is $3000 and so I have lots of options and have searched this forum for hours and I'm still undecided. Right now I'm debating between the Jet JJP-12 combo machine with spiral cutter (for $3k) or going with separate Grizzly machines. They would likely be a Grizz 8" jointer with spiral head (G0490X) for $1250 and a Grizz 15" planer with spiral head (G0453Z) for $1525 (although a secondary question is whether I should get a 20in planer G0454 for the same price but without the spiral head??). I currently don't plan on needing a wider planer than 15in but I guess you never know. I don't own any Grizzly products so I wanted to make sure that that's a good option since their prices seemed so much better than the competition. I'm open to suggestions!
Thanks for your help.
Doug

p.s. I live in rural Ohio over an hour to any major city so buying used machines is out of the question due to availability and shipping issues.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have a friend that has the jet and he doesn't like it. I have a 10 Gris jointer and a 15 Griz planer, both with the sc, and I love them. To me, I think it all comes down to how much space you have for your tools. As for if I would go for the 20" planer... I do not see needing it in a home shop. I'd save the cash for other tools.

[Victor Robinson]

I won't be making the leap to this size/class of machinery for a while, but if I were doing it right now, here's how I would be looking at it:

In my shop, the jointer exclusively sees single boards (as opposed to glueups). The stock I buy is rarely, if ever, over 8" wide.

I do, however, do plenty of glueups which end up in the 10-15" and over range, so planer width is far more valuable to me than jointer width (beyond 8").

So on that basis, I would be choosing separate machines IF my shop had ample space. As for a 15" spiral planer vs. 20" non for the same money, it would come down to how much figured stock I generally use and whether or not I have a drum sander.

[Matthew Curtis]

I have the Grizzly G0633 J/P combo. Ity is a 12" model. I love it. Great for space saving. Easy to change from Jointer to Planner mode. I did not have a need for anything bigger. 12" is plenty for me.

[Danny Hamsley]

Definitely go with the spiral head. You will not regret it.

[Ray Newman]

First of all, I ‘dunno nuttin’ about the spiral head cutters. From what I read, they are the cat’s pajamas, but I have never seen one operate in real life.

First, seriously and honestly consider and determine what you want to do, then buy the machine (or machines) based on that. With what you save, you can buy other needed tools.

I say that because I have seen many people fall into the “bigger is better” or “latest gadget” trap and buy equipment that they really do not need or use very much.

For a home shop/serious hobbyist use, I don’t think that you can go wrong with an 8” jointer. But most 8” jointers are a long bed and require enough floor space. In my experience, a long bed is very helpful when running a long board. I have a JET 8” with the ESTA Dispoz-A- Blade system that works well.

(For those not familiar with it, see: http://www.estausa.com/ (http://www.estausa.com/))

For a planer, a 12” lunch box or a 12-15” stationary will do. I bought a Sunhill 15” planer when it was on sale when I replaced my old worn and tired 1st generation 12” lunch box planer. The price of the Sunhill was not that much more than the 12” De Walt. Luckily I have the room to maneuver that behemoth around. I have never utilized the full 15” cutting width. The De Walt 735 seems to get go reviews and I do not of anyone who is dissatisfied with theirs. If I was in the market for a planer, I would probably opt for the De Walt 735.

One thing to remember about a planer, it does require really effective dust/chip collection. It does not take very long to fill up a bag or drum when working with a planer and the chips and dust goes everywhere!

Also look for a planer that has the motor head moving up/down to control cutting depth as opposed to moving the in and out feed tables controlling the cut. If you ever need to support a long and/or heavy board with non-moving tables, just set the support to the table height. Raise/lower the motor to change the cutting depth. Once worked with an machine that had moving tables and it was sort of a PITA adjusting the tables every time the cutting depth changed.

[Jim Becker]

I'm personally a believer in j/p combos for many reasons. In addition to space savings, the wide jointer capability for flattening lumber is very important to me, both for wide material and for dealing with unusual shapes or tricky figure. I rarely edge-joint on the machine because I have a slider, but I do flatten and thickness pretty much every single piece of lumber that goes into a project before cutting it up on the sliding saw. It's nice that there are lower cost options available for these machines now, too. While the Minimax combo I have is outstanding, Minimax, Felder and other euro names are not as affordable for as many woodworkers as the recent options from the mass market tools companies. And wide jointers as separates tend to be very expensive, not to mention space consuming.

[Curt Harms]

The biggest benefit to 8" jointers over combo machines is the longer tables. The rule of thumb I know is you can joint a board 1.5X to 2X the length of the jointer beds. I have a Jet JJP12 (straight knives) The jointer beds are 55". Using the 1.5x rule, that's an 82" board. 2X rule 110" board. My projects seldom use a board that long. Here's a lesson I learned about jointing to flatten--I had a piece of poplar about 7' long that developed a bit of a bow. No problem, I have this spiffy jointer. I got it nice & flat but by the time I got done both ends were less than 3/4" thick before planing the other side. Oops. So using rough stock, I skip plane one side, lay out and cut the pieces I need over size then flatten & plane to thickness. I waste less thickness that way and that's why I don't face joint long stock very often. Around here (S.E. PA.) it's not hard to find boards at a saw mill wider than 8". In my opinion, the changeover is not a big deal. If I had to do it 20 times a day or more it would get tiresome but with a little planning I don't switch between jointing & planing that often. I'm happy with the Jet JJP-12.

Matt Meiser just bought a JJP 12HH for less than 3K. Hopefully he will check in here.

Edit: here's the thread I was thinking about http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?157576-Laguna-Platinum-10-quot-J-P-SCH-vs-the-Grizzly-12-quot-J-P-SCH