Jointmaker Pro

[Randall Houghton]

I was wondering if anyone is using the Jointmaker Pro from Bridge City Tools to cut their joinery? I would be interested in your opinion fo this tool aside from it's price. Regards Randy

[John Shuk]

I'm very interested too.

[Brent VanFossen]

I don't own one, but I got to see it first-hand at the recent tool event here in Portland. It's about as easy as shown on their video, and makes the cleanest saw cuts I've ever seen. Very fine kerf, and I don't remember any saw marks at all. The saw is a Japanese tooth. It looks like a great machine for small to medium-sized work pieces.

[Leigh Betsch]

When this thing first came out it seemed like a lot of folks were jumping up and down to get one. I've never heard of anyone that actually bought one and posted about using it. I am interested i hearing more also.

[Dale Sautter]

A couple blog entries I remembered:

The Economaki-Brese-Imai-Lie-Nielsen Melange
http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/2011/05/economaki-brese-imai-lie-nielsen.html

Dovetailed Chest in Birdseye Maple
http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/2011/07/dovetailed-chest-in-birdseye-maple.html

[Leigh Betsch]

Anyone ever use one of these? I figure they have been around for a while now, maybe there is a used one around for Christmas......

[Tony Shea]

I am very surprised not more people have posted their experience with this tool around here. I would love to use one to try out before actually dropping that kind of $ on one. But if it is coming from Bridge City then it can't be a bad investment.

[Tony Wilkins]

I looked at it when I first started woodworking but the cost was prohibitive. I wonder if it's so for most people.

[David Wong]

Anyone ever use one of these? I figure they have been around for a while now, maybe there is a used one around for Christmas......
There is one for sale on craigslist in the San Francisco Bay Area (not mine).

[Leigh Betsch]

There is one for sale on craigslist in the San Francisco Bay Area (not mine).
Looks like the same one that is on eBay. But for that money I'd rather buy new from Bridge City. I'm not sure they are worth the money. I saw one at the Amman Colonies hand tool show last spring. Cool tool but pretty spendy. I wish somebody here had one and would tell us about it. Ok I really wish they would sell it cheap, but that ain't gonna be.

[Greg Berlin]

I think that is awesome! I just watched the video. It's useful like a table saw and I know people who will drop twice as much on a sawstop table saw andim pretty sure this saw has flesh detecting technology too ;). That must be where the cost is coming from! Haha but it's a pretty neat tool if you ask me, but I know you can buy almost a full month of hand tool lessons for that which might be more worth the price if you ask me. That also is the same cost as 3 or four top notch hand planes, plenty of saws, etc. I actually think you could pretty much purchase almost every tool you'd need in a hand tool workshop at least to get started for that including the materials to build your bench. But still very awesome!

[Jack Curtis]

I've been thinking since it came out that I should dismount the blade on an old contractor table saw and mount a LV Japanese replacement blade upside down instead. With a little care, should be a reasonable alternative for very few dollars, maybe $100 or so if I get a real good blade.

[William Adams]

I was considering one back at the beginning of the year, but bought a hobby-level CNC (a ShapeOko) instead --- kind of regret that, since the CNC's usage is constrained by the noise and dust it creates (need to make a dust shoe for a new router --- the one I made for the Dremel worked really well and a sound enclosure).

I've looked at using the linear rail from the CNC to make something like one, but the parts aren't that much cheaper, esp. now that they have the single wing --- there's a solid economic reason why there isn't a clone.

[Leigh Betsch]

I went and put my name on the waiting list, if they have any leftover at the end of the production run they will work down the list maybe get to me. I won't know until March. Maybe by then I'll wise up. But for right now I'll just dream about straight smooth chip free cuts......zzzzz

[george wilson]

Bridge City tools as an investment: They may be,but I have NEVER seen a B.C. tool for sale tat was actually USED!! If you USE yours,it may not bring as much,I don't know. Seems like everyone buys them,keeps them for some years,then sells them in new condition.

[Leigh Betsch]

I'm quite sure if I buy it it won't be a good investment;) But really I never plan to buy any tool as an investment or to collect. Everything I own I intend to use, sometimes it doesn't work out that way and I don't use it but my intention is everything is a user.
There is something about precision stuff that I can't resist, it's like art to me. I hope the Jointmaker is that caliber of tool.

[Lars Larson]

I have a JMP with the precision fence. I am in the process of relocating my shop so haven't spent too much time working with it yet. What I can tell you from my limited experience is that it makes perfect cuts. As long as you clamp your workpiece appropriately you can cut a pencil mark in half.

One thing to remember if considering the saw is its scale. It is ideal for smaller items like box making, picture frames, small drawer parts, small banding components, or tool parts. I don't think I would be comfortable clamping a large dresser drawer front to the saw just to cut some dovetails.

If you have specific questions I will do my best to answer.

[Leigh Betsch]

Lars, I realize that the uses are pretty narrow in terms of size of pieces that it will handle, but how large of drawer sides would be about its maximum size for cutting dovetails? I cut dovetails now on my sliding table saw and was thinking that the JMP might be a better way. I know most here will trash the idea in favor of handsaws. :eek:

[Sean Hughto]

But, George, it slices, it dices, it juliennes and makes wonderful radish roses! ;-)

[David Weaver]

Bridge City tools as an investment: They may be,but I have NEVER seen a B.C. tool for sale tat was actually USED!! If you USE yours,it may not bring as much,I don't know. Seems like everyone buys them,keeps them for some years,then sells them in new condition.

What's odd is that they are now showing up in MJD tool auctions mixed in with antiques. Of course, LN's do, too. But their virtues of being limited edition number this or that are described. But just about everything appears to be a limited edition.

I'll give the guy credit, he can design a lot of tools fast, and some of them really have the gizmo factor down. I don't own, any, though.

The JMP seems very specialized, and if you're not making a whole bunch of the same thing for sale or something, I kind of wonder if they will be used much, esp. for the price.

[george wilson]

I don't always care for his designs. He is way too extreme on some things,like some of his small planes. Way too stretched out,etc.. Was it he who designed what I called the Terminator's block plane? Can't recall off hand. I didn't like the little,very angular brace either. Marginal on the combination square. Some things are good,if I recall. I think he likes to use a lot of straight lines in several designs because they are easier to make.

[Chris Griggs]

Was it he who designed what I called the Terminator's block plane?


Would this, by chance, be the terminators block plane?

277531

[David Weaver]

(sing to the old transformers theme)

Bridge City...

More than meets the eye...

[Tony Zaffuto]

Every time a thread starts about one of Economaki's tools, I peruse the website and think about how it might be nice to try one of the contraptions (cost is not an issue), however I find his site most atrocious. It is not easy to navigate, almost impossible to arrive at what the cost really is and so forth (I hate the whole "club" concept). I've heard/read the guy is a genius as designing these mostly "Rube Goldberg" devices, but it is evident marketing is not his forte (or could it be designing something truly useful that does not increase the time required to do a task?).

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

It just seems odd to me how many of their things are milled from solid stock - it seems like many of them would be more economical to make with other methods, but I really don't know what the setup costs for a situation like that would be, so I'm probably way off base. Certainly you then need to move more units, but each could be cheaper. Affordable tools from BC probably don't have the same cachet. The fact that they're still around after all these years means they've found a market and they're working it right for them.

Their flushing chisel always seemed like a tool that showed there is definitely a markup thing going independent of cost - even just the A2 replacement blade is 90 bucks; I don't think anyone else makes a blade quite akin to that, but it doesn't seem like an extravagant piece of metal, either. Add the milled aluminum handle it's 189.

That said, it looks like one of those tools that when you need it, might be handy.

[Jim Koepke]

Bridge City Tools was present at one of the Tool Events I attended.

At the time, if I had the money I would have bought the shoulder plane on display.

It felt like it belonged in my hand. When I moved the plane across the wood it felt like nothing was happening. Then I noticed the shaving. It was WOW! Times 10. The way it took a whisper thin shaving had me at hello.

I saved about $530 by picking up a Stanley #93 on ebay.

jtk

[george wilson]

Jawoll!! das ist die Terminator's block plane, ACH JAH!!

Und MIT dis plane,die Terminator will plane all of the skin right off your body,for offenses that only a MASCHINE could understand ! He could exert such force,he could plane a deep shaving from a granite surface plate,YA!! But,does it belong in mine tool box: NEIN.

Is it cool? Perhaps in a nightmarish sort of way. Is it pretty? Artistic? Pleasing to see? Does it inspire me do do some nice work with it? NO!

[Lars Larson]

I would say that you could cut material up to 5/4 comfortably. You can certainly cut thicker joints but it will be really slow going. I cut the sides of a 1/4" dado in some 6/4 cocobolo and the cut came out perfectly, it just took a little longer. Drawer sides longer than 24" would be awkward I think as they would be standing straight up. Past this point holding the piece still to cut properly will be your primary challenge. You could always rig up a taller fence if you were doing a bunch or doing so on a regular basis.

Good do luck with your decision.

[Leigh Betsch]

Thanks for the info Lars. I don't know if I'll pull the trigger and buy or not. I guess I have until March to decide.

George, I get what you mean about disliking some of the tool designs I terms of their art. I'm certainly not the person to judge what is good or bad sculpture. But what does attract me, even to the Terminator plane, is the high level of precision machining and a profound appreciation of the craftsmanship. I would like to own a Terminator plane, but I will never pay $955 for one. But like I said I'm no judge of art, maybe craftsmanship but not art.
Even though I might scrape up the money for a JMP I would never buy BC tools for their collector status or value. I can appreciate the time and money that it takes to make a JMP, I doubt there is a lot if profit in it for BC and when you figure much of what can be done with a JMP can be done with cheaper tools, there isn't a lot f value for the user either. So what could possibly be my attraction to it other that my deranged appreciation for its ingenuity? Or maybe I'm just whacked.

[george wilson]

No question that the craftsmanship is good. There are PLENTY of really good craftsmen out there. I see bizarre but well made knives by the dozen at gun shows. The hardest thing really is to learn TASTE. That's the absolute truth.

When I went into college,I already was a pretty good craftsman. Will Reimann kicked my duff into understanding taste. Most would have bailed out of his class. He was so arrogant and harsh. Sort of like Japanese training,I suppose. I knew he had the goods and stuck around for more punishment every spare class time I could skip. It paid off for me,at least.

[Roderick Gentry]

So while you are waiting...

Here is a home made one that Pete made to slot fretboards which is a tough cut in a number of unusual ways. Obvious point is that one does not need to angle the blade for this kind of work. On the other hand, this tool seems limited enough that a few jigs like thing might be all one actually needed, at the end of the day. ON the positive, this obviously works and it is just scabbed together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m44jBZeS1QM

Now one thing that they suggest the Jointmaker for is kerf making type adaptations. So here is a jig for that. Other than the fun of this thing, the lesson here is that there is always way of getting her done without spending upwards of a grand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-pdUWoNjPo

As far as how well the J pro works, the only critical thing I heard about it was that the blades are fragile, and that while they are reasonably well priced, one can go through a lot of them in the learning process. If they bind they break, kind of deal. Of course you depth of cut is dependent on a continuous run over the blade, so you can't just work the good end or something. That said there must be a ton of useful apps for broken pieces. I think the blades are well made, they are fragile in the application. it is an app that requires a very long, razor sharp, thin-kerf blade.