Jointer Question: Difference between jointer & one with Parallelogram Beds?

[Brodie Brickey]

I'm a couple months out from a new jointer, but I'm already starting to look around. What is the difference between a jointer and a jointer with Parallelogram Beds? Is a Parallelogram Bed easier to set up?

I ran across the term on Grizzly's site with the G0490 vs. G0656.

Any clarification would be appreciated.

[David Kumm]

On a parallelogram the beds ride on eccentric cams and lift straight up and down. Four cams to each bed so infinite adjustibility. Regular jointers run on wedges. The old jointers had gears and wheels to help the bed slide up and down and the tops were bolted to the wedges so you could shim them. New ones generally have none of that so if they are not co planar or droop you have to shim the wedges which is no fun. I would go parallelogram unless buying one I could inspect first. I'm biased though as I'm not a fan of most new jointers. Dave

[Kevin Presutti]

A parallelogram jointer has pros and cons to the common dovetail ways type jointer. The P-jointer has a 4 point adjustment on both the infeed and outfeed tables (8 adjusting points). Sounds sweet but it requires you to have a good straight edge and some machinist tools (i.e. dial indicator etc.) to get the beds Parallel to the cutter head and parallel to each other. It can be somewhat tricky. Where the D-jointer basically can only be shimmed for sag, P-jointers can also have tables removed and ground flat (warping etc.) where a dovetail unit has to be ground as an assembly. Hope this helps, if I screwed up up on some of the differences please let me know. These are things I have come to understand from reading, personally I own a Powermatic dovetail jointer but the P-jointer is somewhat intriguing and appealing but I will save that thought for when I am looking for a 16" jointer.



Kevin

[Joe Jensen]

A parallelogram jointer has pros and cons to the common dovetail ways type jointer. The P-jointer has a 4 point adjustment on both the infeed and outfeed tables (8 adjusting points). Sounds sweet but it requires you to have a good straight edge and some machinist tools (i.e. dial indicator etc.) to get the beds Parallel to the cutter head and parallel to each other. It can be somewhat tricky. Where the D-jointer basically can only be shimmed for sag, P-jointers can also have tables removed and ground flat (warping etc.) where a dovetail unit has to be ground as an assembly. Hope this helps, if I screwed up up on some of the differences please let me know. These are things I have come to understand from reading, personally I own a Powermatic dovetail jointer but the P-jointer is somewhat intriguing and appealing but I will save that thought for when I am looking for a 16" jointer.



Kevin

Kevin is correct, but the downside to the dovetail way design is that you depend on the manufacturer to machine it perfectly. When you were buying old iron made in the USA a long time ago this was ok, but when you are buying a machine that was built mostly for a price point in China the risk is much higher. I helped a friend buy a chinese made name brand jointer and brought my quality 3ft straight edge to the store and the first two machines (one store) were around .020" out. the third machine at a different store was really good.

[glenn bradley]

As others have said (or almost anyway) a P-bed jointer is way easier to align if ever required. My G0490X showed up so true that I kept checking for what I had missed. The beds do not go straight up and down, they arc in such a way that the distance from the cutter head to the lip of the table remains pretty much constant. I shimmed my last DT-way jointer awhile ago and haven't looked back but, this is only really an issue IF you ever have to adjust.

I also went with the spiral carbide insert head. It has been a couple years and the spiral head has just recently paid for itself based on my sharpening and replacement intervals on my old knifed machines. There are many good knife setups but the ease and longevity pretty much seal the deal for me. I went with a spiral when I upgraded my planer as well. Expensive at first but, pays for itself pretty quickly.

[David Kumm]

Glenn is correct about the new P bed moving in an arc. The old type- like the Oliver 166- worked with small wedge shaped blocks that you tightened to raise the bed and those moved more straight. With most old jointers you loosened the bolts holding the bed and adjusted the distance to the cutterhead manually. There was up to an eighteen inch lateral travel to allow for easier access. Don't equate old wedge bed jointers with new as they avoided all the problems that plague the newer ones. The old three toed wedgebed is considered the standard all others are measured by. Dave

[Jim Andrew]

My jointer, go609, is a parallelagram type, very happy with it. Had a sunhill oliver 10" before, never could get the thing to work right, it had the dovetail ways. The grizzly worked perfect right out of the crate. I put a straight edge on top and looked at it with a light, could see no gaps.

[Larry Edgerton]

One thing that has not been mentioned is the speed of adjustment. I own both styles, and if I had to have just one it would be the P type for this reason. I take a quick look at the stock and estimate the cut needed and bump the lever to what I want which is way faster than a wedge bed.

Larry

[Mel Fulks]

In regard to buying a good jointer that may need table adjustments.A Faye and Egan parallel type was way off .We removed the infeed table and found a bunch of shims,took out all of them,and put the table back on.Adjusted the drop down out feed table control and no further adjustment was needed. Adjustment on the other type ,I find more difficult.Wear might make more complicated adjustments necessary on both machine types,but I have not come across any worn to that extent.

[Jeff Duncan]

One thing that has not been mentioned is the speed of adjustment. I own both styles, and if I had to have just one it would be the P type for this reason. I take a quick look at the stock and estimate the cut needed and bump the lever to what I want which is way faster than a wedge bed.

Larry

Larry beat me to it! My jointers are both parallelogram type as I find them to be much quicker to adjust. For the way I work I may have to edge a long board removing 1/4" of material at a shot and then tighten up to just shave a piece. Dovetailed jointers are much slower to adjust.

As far as downsides.....if adjusting them is the only downside then I'd personally have to disagree. I've done both types and while the parallelogram may be a bit trickier, especially for a beginner, it allows you dial it in nicely wherever it is out.

good luck,
JeffD

[Mel Fulks]

No real disagreement.My point was that some of the parallel type that are out may just need an easy "dehacking" by removing totally unneeded shims . With the other type any adjustment will be more difficult than mere shim removal.

[Brodie Brickey]

Thank you all for the information. It is much appreciated.

[Jerry Hillenburg]

239300

Most of my machinery is Powermatic. Last spring I went shopping for a new jointer with a budget under $1500. I narrowed my choices down to Powermatic and Grizzly. The Grizzly http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2012/Main/42 won because I could buy the 8" GO490, with the Byrd Shelix Helical cutter head option for the price of the 6" Powermatic 54HH. PLUS the GO490 has Parallelogram Beds - easy to adjust and they stay closer to the cutter head when adjusted.

Grizzly sells the Byrd Shelix cutterhead as an option to the GO490 for $385. After changing out the standard straight knife cutterhead to the Byrd Shelix cutterhead, I was up and running with minimal adjustments. I was so impressed with the Byrd Shelix that I also installed one on my Powermatic 201 planer. Grizzly also offers the GO490 with their own spiral cutterhead (GO490X), but the knives cut straight unlike the Byrd Shelix which shears at an angle. Check out the Byrd Tool http://www.byrdtool.com/shs1.html for a good explanation of the difference.

My new jointer has seen two months of use - it is a dream machine - I have no regrets. The quality of the Grizzly GO490 is equal to or better than Powermatic and the 30% lower price makes it a no brainer for me. In my opinion, Parallelogram Beds are the only way to go and Grizzly GO490 with the Byrd Shelix is the machine to buy. I am not a Grizzly salesman and I do not own their stock, but I have been swayed by all the favorable forum posts. This is my first Grizzly machine and I agree with all the nice things said about the Grizzly GO490.

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[Frank Drew]

Parallelogram adjusting jointers are perhaps more sophisticated, but I sold my mid-century Northfield inclined way jointer a few years ago and it had held its accuracy for all the time I had it, with no fine tuning on my part. Additionally, I never found that adjusting the depth of cut was anything like slow enough to be noticeable -- we're only talking about a few seconds here, after all.

I'm not at all familiar with new machinery, though.