sunhill jointer owners?

[chris toomey]

anybody with any experience with the sunhill 8 inch jointer? a buddy of mine is seriously considering it. i know that most of the tiwanese tools come out of the same factory, and that they are often interchangeable.....but i'm looking for someone who has real experience with them. 2 horse, 4 cutter head on sale for $739.00.....thats 100.00 bucks cheaper than the grizzly, for the same machine? what do you think? thanks

[tom clark]

I'm also interested in this jointer, but could not locate any pricing at their website. The only pricing info related to free shipping through the end of the month. Did you find the great price listed at their website?

[chris toomey]

tom

my buddy showed me that on line....but i fear it was an old link. i can't dit now. i too checked it out and only found the $895.00 plus free shipping. that makes it about the price of the grizzly....still a nice price

[craig lapiana]

i got one of each from sunhill machinery but have not setup either yet. i have unpacked them and they are very heavy duty machines. the 4 blade jointer has a HUGE material handling platform and is really well made. planer jointer is also a beast and has 2 tables to make handling stock easier. you will need 2 people to setup the jointer in that its that big.

regarding the people at sunhill machinery they have been a pleasure dealing with. very friendly and have gone out of their way to assist me in the order process.

the delivery was without issues outside of the carrier dropping my planer on its side trying to get it into my house. all the way form CA and 3 feet from my garage this happens rrrrrrrrrr i was not happy but the crate kept it intact outside of a knob getting broke and a dust collector being bent. i simply called up sunhill and they had no issue sending out a replacment the same day as i called so i was impressed again.

i guess what i am saying is this outfit is top notch in my book.

[Brian Knop]

I have had the 6" sunhill for 5 years. I have no complains. Its a jointer, not really alot to them.

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Chris. I recently bought the $759 version of the Sunhill 8" jointer.

First off, Sunhill is mostly of a distributor of Taiwan equipment. The actual manufacturer is a company named GeeTec.

I looked for quite a while before deciding on the Sunhill/Geetec machine. When I took delivery, i noted that the machined surfaces were noticeably stained, and lightly rusted. I called the customer service and talked to a very nice young lady who told me that the sale units had gotten wet during shipping and that the original salesman should have told me that. She then offered to send me a free set of blades as compensation.

It took me a good full day of scrubbing of the in-feed/out-feed tables to get the surface smooth to the touch(with eyes closed.) I went to my nearest Harbor Freight store and picked up a $9 1/4 sheet sander. I used it with a Scotch Brite, and several metal cleaning compounds to clean the top.

When I originally unpacked the 400 pound plus jointer, and 60 pound base cabinet, I put the jointer on a hydraulic lift table for cleaning. I then moved the table and jointer to the shop. However on the way, I turned a corner, and a wheel of the lift table ran off the concrete an the whole shebang tipped. The jointer dug a corner of the output table into the dirt. Grrrrr :mad: With the help of LOML, I managed to get the unit on a furniture dolly and into the shop. After more "Rub Goldberg" actions I managed to get the jointer on top of the cabinet.

I set it up and check things with my Starrett 36" straight edge, and nothing was damaged by the "fall". Everything was still aligned. At that point all I had to do was hook up the power, and set the table heights. I did have to have a dust output transition made by a local sheet metal shop, but that was no big deal.

I have used the jointer on some red oak, and in my opinion, the edge is ready to glue. There was no ripple or snip. It is rather noisy, but after all you have 4 blades turning at over 5000 RPM. Ear muffs are a good idea.

In my opinion I have a unit that is better than the much acclaimed DJ-20, at half the cost. I am not worried about service or repair parts as there is very little to go wrong on any jointer. The motor can be removed without too much hassle if need be. The blades are easily accessible for adjustment. Otherwise, there is very little than go wrong.

[dave schaefer]

i have the 8" jointer, the 15" planer and the 2Hp tble saw. all arrived with no problems.. the jointer has been used extensivly... no prob to date..i chose this line of tools because they offered to ship to Fairbanks about $200 cheaper than Grizzly... Geetech produces tools for many of the name brand tools... good luck..ds

[nic obie]

I've owned the Sunhill 8" jointer for about a year now. It does a good job and was a great price.

I've used the Delta 8" and think the 4 knife cutterhead Sunhill does a nicer job. However my opinion might change when I have to change out 4 knifes instead of just three. ;)

[Jay Goddard]

I have had the Sunhill 8" jointer for a couple of years now. Functionally, I have had no problems with the jointer. Tables were flat and fence was square. It leaves a nice finish and is very powerful. However, fit and finish left a lot to be desired. Compared to the Grizzly tools I own, the Sunhill was not as nice. The paint job did not look like the Grizzly high quality powder coated finish.

Also, the infeed/outfeed bed extensions came nowhere close to lining up with the regular table castings. This was an issue with the casting tooling, not just improperly drilled holes. The ground surfaces between extension and table were off (side to side) by at least 1/8". The rabbetting ledge was off (in height) by at least 3/16"-1/4", so depending on the length of the board you can't use the rabetting ledge. I complained and received replacements which were identical to the first. Since I don't use the rabetting ledge I just let it slide.

Overall, I have been reasonably happy with the jointer except for the above bed extension issue. Has anyone else experienced this problem?