Inca J/P or...

[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

I've got a line on a Inca 570 for a reasonable price. I currently have a 6" Jet jointer and a Dewalt 735 planer that I could sell and come out about even. I don't have room for full-size separates but would like to move up to higher capacity. My question is whether to go for the Inca or hold out for a 12" J/P (ideally, a Hammer or similar, though this would require a 1-2 year wait)? Any opinions?

Thanks!
Chris C.

[Jim Matthews]

I own a 570 and it's a good machine.

It still needs to be mounted on something, to be useful.
The max width is 10", which is adequate but not huge.

They're finicky and have a huge motor hanging off the side.
Repairs for a stock Leeson motor will cost $200 and up.

The Tersa knives are good, but the modern SHELIX heads are a step up in cut quality, reliability and ease of "sharpening".

FYI - I've been trying for nearly two years to recoup the $1000 I spent on mine - they're expensive to ship.
I would say you're money ahead to either buy dimensioned stock or join a local co-op to use their machines.

It's pretty easy to get to final finish on most woods (wild figure aside) with hand planes.

[John TenEyck]

I have an Inca; not sure which model (I bought it third hand about 25 years ago, and paid $950 for it when they sold for about $2500 at that time), but mine has a separate 1.5 HP Baldor motor mounted on the stand below connected by a V-belt to the Inca. That reduces the footprint over the later models by about a foot since the motor is below the machine and not hanging out the back. Mine also has straight knives that you have to set, but it's not a big job; if you can set straight knives in a jointer you can set them in an Inca. The knives on my machine are 10-1/4".

OK, my opinion of the Inca is vastly different than Jim's. I love this machine; we've made a lot of stuff together. It has never failed me, even when I've run 5" thick beams through it, and some stair railings that were over 16 feet long. I regularly joint boards 7 - 8 ft long, and have no trouble doing it even though the tables are only about 40" long. Yes, I wish it was a little wider and longer, but that's always the case. If you hold out of for a 12" wide machine, in a year you'll wish you had gotten a 15" one, and so on. The Inca is not a power pig; you can't take 1/8" off a wide board in one pass. If that's what you want to be able to do, don't buy the Inca. What the Inca is is an excellent example of Swiss engineering and manufacturing. Beautiful pressure cast aluminum components. Thoughtful, simple controls. Mine has hard anodized jointer tables and a stainless steel skinned planer bed. When you set it to take of 1/16" or less it is a joy to use. Mine only weighs about 75 pounds when I take it off the motor stand. Although I have the motor wired at 220 V it can be run on 110 V also. Those mean I can take it with me to a jobsite if I want to, and I've done so a couple of times. Change over time between functions is about 30 seconds - honestly. I have mine hooked up to my central vacuum system to keep the chips under control.

Maintenance is minimal. I've jointed and planed thousands of BF with it, and the only thing that has ever needed replacing is one planetary gear belt. I lube the planetary gears once every year or so as well as the jack screws and bushings. I wax the tables and bed a few times a year. That's pretty much it. Spare parts are now available from Eagle America, I think it is. Also, there's an Inca users group on Yahoo that is very helpful if/when you need it, and you might go ask members there about their experiences with the various Inca machines.

For anyone with limited space an Inca makes perfect sense. BTW, I saw one in an article in FWW recently. Can't remember what the article was about, but I remember seeing his Inca. If you can get a good used one for anywhere less than $1000 I don't think you will regret it. Just try to see it running and working before you buy it. It should run w/o vibration and spit out nice smooth lumber. And if you just have to have that wider machine in a couple of years, you will be able to sell the Inca for about what you paid for it.

John

[ken carroll]

I sold my Jet 6" jointer, and bought a used Inca 570 just as you're thinking of doing about two years ago. I must say the Inca has surprised me by how well it has performed.
Plenty of power, adequate length tables.

I have not bothered to use the planer function as I, also like you, own a DeWalt portable planer and prefer to have both available as individual functions. The Dewalt isn't worth much to sell anyway, so why not keep it and treat the Inca as a 10" jointer?

[Phil Thien]

I had the 8-5/8" wide Inca jointer/planer.

Inca makes outstanding stuff. The Inca will give anything else a run for the money when it comes to precision.

BUT, I sold mine and got a Dewalt DW734 planer. I was consolidating the shop at the time (also sold a 16/32 sander) and I wanted something with feed rollers (my Inca required I push material through the thicknesser). I also wanted to work on boards wider than 8-5/8".

So now I use my Dewalt planer with a sled for face-jointing, and I use a straight-line rip jig on the table saw for "jointing" edges.

I'm happier with this setup than I was with the Inca. I don't really see the need for a separate jointer. Sometimes it would be a little bit faster to use a dedicated jointer, but then again I've been flattening boards that are up to 12" wide in the Dewalt and there is no way I'd be able to fit a 12" wide jointer into my basement.

[Cary Falk]

I don't have an Inca but I hear they are good machines. That being said, I vote to hold out. After years of buying and selling tools, I wish I would have just bought my last tool instead of a bunch of stuff in between. Sometimes I didn't know I was going to upgrade in the future. You already do so why bother. My guess that few people know what the INCA is and you might not get what you paid for it in the future.

[ken carroll]

Upgrading is part of the fun!

[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

Thanks for all the quick feedback on the Inca. I got some more info on the machine--it needs a new pinion gear, which is available for ~$65 from Eagle, but is in otherwise fine shape. I'm going to pass for now because it won't be much of an upgrade in terms of function for me (and I don't have the time to invest right now). That said, I'd jump on it if I didn't already have a functional set up. He's asking $650 and it sounds like he'd come down if anyone out there is interested:

http://spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3420889294.html

Cheers,
Chris C.

[David Wong]

Hello all,

Thanks for all the quick feedback on the Inca. I got some more info on the machine--it needs a new pinion gear, which is available for ~$65 from Eagle, but is in otherwise fine shape. I'm going to pass for now because it won't be much of an upgrade in terms of function for me (and I don't have the time to invest right now). That said, I'd jump on it if I didn't already have a functional set up. He's asking $650 and it sounds like he'd come down if anyone out there is interested:

http://spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3420889294.html

Cheers,
Chris C.

Most of the Inca J/P's that come up for sale in my area are not in as good condition as the one here. No rust and great looking table surfaces. Inca 570's do not come up in the market that often. Wish I was closer.

[Peter Kelly]

The 570 is a cool little machine and that one looks immaculate other than the broken gear. I'd grab it!

[John TenEyck]

That machine looks cherry, and a bargain at that price with an extra set of blades. And of course there's no rust on it - it's made mostly of annodized aluminum and SS. Don't let the small size fool you; this machine can do serious work. And where else are you going to get a 10-1/4" wide jointer for $650, much less one that can plane as well.

John