Extrema planers and jointers

[thomas prusak]

Does anyone own any Extrema brand machinery? I cannot find even one review online about extrema. I'm quite interested in their 20" planer and 12" jointer. Someone on sawmill surely owns and has an opinion about Extrema yes?

[Van Huskey]

Does anyone own any Extrema brand machinery? I cannot find even one review online about extrema. I'm quite interested in their 20" planer and 12" jointer. Someone on sawmill surely owns and has an opinion about Extrema yes?

Their distribution center/showroom is about 30 miles from me and I have looked over their stuff a number of times. They have PM stuff there as well and it strikes me built and priced about the same as the PM Industrial line stuff. It seems to be sold and marketed primarily to businesses. I wouldn't have any problem having any of the equipment that I looked at. I was shopping 12" jointers at the time so that was what I was most interested in and spent the most time with. If you are buying new I will give you my overall impressions.

After looking at all the 12" jointer choices (leaving out the uber high priced Euro jointer only options) the sub $6,000 12" jointer of choice is the Oliver. You can get a several different cutter heads. It weighs over 1500 pounds, the BASE is all cast! I really like the fact the tables are on dovetail was BUT the actual table is a separate casting that is fully adjustable. Best of both worlds. US made Baldor motors as well.

The Extrema appears to be fine and well made at the price point but the Oliver just stands out as the class of the Asian 12" jointers.

[Paul Grothouse]

I have an Extrema 24" double sided surfacer and a three head 51" Wide Belt. Both machines have thousands of hours of service. They are simple heavily built machines, they may not have all the bells and whistles of some brands. They use common parts you can get locally for the electronics, and bearings etc. For asian imports, they are the best you can buy and compared to some european models (umm, umm Felder, terrible) they are better. Price to value, they are a very good brand. I would recommend them.

[mickey cassiba]

At my last job we had a slew of Extrema saws.Cut off and gang rips. Built like tanks. Great customer service, though some parts were hard(impossible) to get. No surfacing machines though.

[thomas prusak]

Thanks van,
Any recommendations as to where to buy Oliver equipment ?

[thomas prusak]

Thanks paul and Mickey

[Van Huskey]

Thanks van,
Any recommendations as to where to buy Oliver equipment ?

Best "printed" prices are on Toolzone but I would call Equipment Sales and Surplus as well. The other big retailer is Machine King but I tried to buy their demo unit at IWF this year (late on Saturday, the last day of the show) and they wouldn't even meet Toolzone's advertised price for their unsold demo so I dunno how much love you will get. The Toolzone shipped price for the Byrd equipped Oliver was about $700 cheaper than the unshipped price of the Extrema but I never shopped it but could pick it up local but have sales tax as well. I have to say from the little that I used both they both did the simple job of a jointer well. I just preferred the size, weight, motor and features of the Oliver which is cheaper to boot.

One caveat though do NOT confuse the "new" Oliver with the "old" purely American Oliver, if they still existed it would be NO contest but they would be priced at Northfield levels. The "new" Oliver is very much an Asian concern.

Further, particularly if you want or are fine with straight knives there are a LOT of old American iron 12 and 16" jointers being sold, you seem to be in an area I would expect to have a good supply. However, if you want a Byrd (or other helical) head the prices aren't as favorable since many of the Byrd 12-16" jointer heads are VERY expensive especially for the direct drive jointers. The same with the old planers. My desire for a helical head has turned me away from deal after deal on old iron.

Finally if you are not in a production environment the Grizzly jointers offer great value at near half the price of the Oliver, PM, Delta, Extrema, Lobo etc. The 604 is very well reviewed in the hobby community and though I have not used it, it looks VERY nice for 2,600 (shipped w/ helical head).

[thomas prusak]

Thanks so much van for taking the time to help

[J.R. Rutter]

They are simple heavily built machines, they may not have all the bells and whistles of some brands. They use common parts you can get locally for the electronics, and bearings etc. . . . Price to value, they are a very good brand. I would recommend them.

That has been my experience too. I currently still have a straight line rip saw that has been working well for many years.

[David Werkheiser]

I've had the 12" jointer for 5 yrs, nice long bed and haven't had any problems. Two small things that bother me are: the fence support that covers the blades on the back side, has a open center which is where the handle for the fence bevel adjustment is (you want to shut the machine off when making bevel adjustments). When moving from a deep cut to a light one, turning the adjustment wheel some how grabs the center locking knob and tightens the knob.
David Werkheiser

[thomas prusak]

Thanks dave

[thomas prusak]

Thank you JR