Jointer Advice

[Dok Yager]

I am looking at getting a new jointer before my table saw upgrade. The main reason is I have to spend way too much time hand planning edges on all my cutting boards as well as the few tables I have made. So I am seriously looking at the Grizzly G0452Z with spiral cutter head. I can`t see that I need an 8" jointer at this point or for quite some time to come as I have a nice planer. And I run all my cutting boards through it after glue up and glue removal. I definitely want the spiral cutter head. Any suggestions or help is appreciated!

[Myk Rian]

If you can swing it, get the 8".
Seriously.

[Keith Hankins]

Wider the better. Also, when I did mine i sacrificed the spiral cutter head for an extra 4" of width and went with the 12". Good decision and don't regret it. Now if I had to do it all over, I'd go find an old piece of american iron for sale and get that. It will be cheaper and last longer. And yes I have the grizzly 12"

[John Lemke]

I'm still working through jointer decisions myself, and my current thinking may not bear on your needs at all -- still, here it comes...

I made do with just a lunchbox planer and a sled for several years. I was pretty content with that until in the summer of 2012 I made my son a jatoba table. I had to fight with my sled quite a bit during that project, enough to get me thinking semi-seriously about an 8" jointer with a spiral cutter head. Retiring last May got me looking even more seriously, but when I spotted what seemed like a crazy deal on Amazon (G0654 for under $450 and free shipping) I decided it was worth a shot. Kind of a $450 toe in the water, so to speak. I like the jointer very much, and like you, I'm thinking that 6" covers most of my needs. But I haven't had to deal with dull knives yet -- not enough shop time in my life, even post retirement! -- and my current plan is to (a) stick with the jointer as is until I need to deal with the knives and (b) put a shelix head on my Dewalt 734 planer. I see the planer as a keeper, but I'll hold off before committing to an upgrade on the jointer. When that decision has to be made, I may just put the jointer on CL and go for a larger 8" with spiral cutter head, or I may hold to my original judgment that 6" would be fine and just go for the better cutter head.

[Dick Mahany]

As soon as you settle for a 6" jointer, the next boards you get will be at least 6-3/4" wide and I know this to be true from experience:D. I quickly outgrew my 6" jointer and upgraded to a 12" J/P combo. If budget allows, seriously consider 8". I wish I had a spiral cutter, but the budget wouldn't allow it.

[Rick Moyer]

You asked for suggestions, so my suggestion would be to forego the spiral and get an 8" jointer. There is a reason there are often 6" jointers for sale used but not nearly as many 8". I think a spiral head would be much more useful on a planer than a jointer. Of course both would be nice. I have neither, though.

[scott vroom]

If budget allows, my advice is to spend a bit more and get the Grizzly 8" w/spiral cutterhead. You said you don't need wider than 6" because you have a planer, but unless you're building a planer sled you'll want to face plane on the jointer to ensure your boards come off the planer flat (most of the lumber I buy is too wide to faceplane on a 6" jointer).

[glenn bradley]

I would never recommend a 6" jointer to anyone. Despite everyone here warning me way back when, I just knew a 6" would be fine; 30 days later I had it up for sale at a loss and bought an 8".

Now that I've done my good deed. No matter what jointer I bought, I had a short list of must haves:
- Parallelogram beds (I never wanted to shim a DT-way jointer again).
- Spiral head (I never wanted to set knives again).
- Long infeed table (I never wanted to fool with roller stands to true up my feed path again) <- Starting to see a pattern here?
- Sturdy, tall fence (I just love a tall fence for jointing thicker lumber that gets heavy and awkward to control).

If you're going to go 6", just buy used. Thre are always plenty on the market from folks who just upgraded.

[Dok Yager]

Ok guy`s I see a definite pattern here. That being said I am now looking 8" jointers. You guy`s are Killing my pocketbook :D but I see the point. Thanks for all the replies. So now how about some recommendations on 8" jointers from some of you guy`s that have them, and why you chose the one you have.

[Rick Moyer]

I chose the Grizzly G0586 (no longer available) because it didn't "kill my pocketbook" too badly. Their current most similar one would probably be this one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-72-Jointer-with-Mobile-Base/G0656. I think I paid around $600 years ago for the one I have (w/o mobile base).
Although Glenn makes some good points above, I didn't feel the need for all his must-haves. I will say that I don't move mine around much, but I haven't needed to really do anything to it. Maybe I got lucky, but not having parallelogram beds or a spiral cutter head has not been an issue. Would I like them, yes, but dollars are an issue and I haven't regretted anything about my jointer.

[C Scott McDonald]

The 6" jointer is the purchase I have most regretted since getting started in woodworking.

save up and get an 8"

[Michael Mayo]

I have a couple of Shopsmith's and one of them came with a 4" jointer. I found myself constantly using it but it was very limited in what I could joint with it. So I started looking for an 8" jointer used. All the ones I found were very expensive even used but I waited. Then a Geetech 8" jointer came up on Craigslist and I watched it for weeks. I couldn't find a lot of info on it as they were no longer in production but the members here said it was a decent jointer. I finally decided to call the guy as it hadn't sold in over a month. I went and looked at it and it was pristine and perfect. I picked it up for $450 and my buddie bought the guys pattern makers lather which was incredible. We have since been back to see the same guy and bought all of his wood and some other small stuff. I am extremely happy with the jointer. The knives are a bit of work to pull and sharpen but nothing to get too worked up about. I echo the others suggestion to get at least an 8" jointer with long beds. The width and long beds on my jointer make jointing anything a pleasure instead of a chore.

[Myk Rian]

Ok guy`s I see a definite pattern here. That being said I am now looking 8" jointers. You guy`s are Killing my pocketbook :D but I see the point. Thanks for all the replies. So now how about some recommendations on 8" jointers from some of you guy`s that have them, and why you chose the one you have.
Keep an eye on CL, even if it requires a drive to get one.
I'm a Delta/Rockwell guy, so that's my first choice. I did have a Grizzly G1018. Nice machine.

[Eric Shapin]

I own a Grizzly G0604X 6" parallelogram jointer, no regrets here. Decision made considering adjustability of tables for coplanarity (parallelogram feature), length of tables (55" is among the largest for 6" jointers), fit within my small basement shop, and cost. I Regularly face joint boards up to 10" using the jointer with these methods:

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/milling-wide-boards/

http://woodgears.ca/jointer/wide_boards.html

In short, I am happy with my jointer purchase. The unit performs well and provides the means for me to get the job done.

[John TenEyck]

Like was said, get a used 8", or even wider if you can find it. There are often great deals on 12" ones, I just passed on a beautiful one going for $500, because I couldn't get it down into my shop. Patience will save you a lot of money. I have a 10" Inca and there's no way I would want anything narrower. I would only consider a spiral head on a combo machine. I'd much rather use the $ difference between a straight knife and spiral head jointer to buy a drum sander - used, of course.

John

[Charles Coolidge]

Get the G0490 8" parallelogram jointer $995 and Byrd Shelix cutter head $385 total = $1,380 + shipping.

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[Greg Peterson]

I picked up an old Delta 6" jointer. 8" jointers just don't come up on CL our here. Old iron can be a great deal, but it isn't always the cats meow. In my neck of the woods, old iron does not come up very often. It's actually pretty rare.

I spent a lot of time shimming the dovetailed tables. Getting them co-planer was tricky, compounded by the fact that I was unable to get the tables parallel to the cutter head. I ended up having to shim the blades in the cutter head. Then, I spent a fair amount of time trying to configure an effective dust collection solution. These old jointers are typically mounted in such a way so that gravity takes care of the chips.

For me, the shelix cutter head is the least important attribute. The thickness planer can clean up the reference face if necessary and the table saw or hand plane can prep the edge for glue ups.

Capacity, quick, accurate configuration of the beds and length of beds are my priorities in my next jointer purchase. Thus far, the capacity of the 6" jointer has not been a limitation. But it's accuracy and easy of configuration (I don't dare move the infeed table) leave much to be desired.

Modern manufacturing, when done well, surpasses most old iron. When the time comes to buy a 8" jointer, I will be buying new.

[scott vroom]

Get the G0490 8" parallelogram jointer $995 and Byrd Shelix cutter head $385 total = $1,380 + shipping.

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That's what I did. The installation was not difficult, and I took the opportunity to upgrade the bearings at the time. It sounds like the OP is budget constrained and when you factor the 25 dollar cost of shipping the Byrd head the deal ends up looking like this:

G0490X - $1,475 shipped
G0490 + after market Byrd - $1,555 shipped

I guess the question you'd have to ask is whether the Byrd head is worth the extra 80 bucks. I have the Grizzly spiral cutter on my 15" planer and it seems on par with the Byrd. Chevy or Ford?

[Charles Coolidge]

One reason I went Byrd is the Grizzly is just a spiral cutter head its not a helix sheering cut. Another reason is I already had a Byrd in my planer so both use the same inserts, finally I had prior experience with the Byrd on insanely figured maple so I know its capabilities. Agree with you swapping out the bearings, I didn't and I don't like how they sound so I have to pull it back apart and swap them out now.

[glenn bradley]

I bought the G0490X in 2008 and have never been sorry. It is a proven design that has remained fundamentally unchanged for decades. The p-beds, long infeed, tall fence, 3HP motor and spiral head have met all my expectations. At the time I got mine Grizzly only offered one type of spiral head besides the Byrd so that is what I have. The additional foolery to add the Byrd after purchase (although reported to be very straight forward) didn't intrigue me as much as having a warranted unit pre-setup and ready to go. I was also influenced by a shop that had the G0490X and a G0586 with an add-on Byrd head. There was no way to tell the difference between surfaces if you didn't know which was which.

The current model has resolved the "belt slap" and open dust chute issues which I took care of during assembly thanks to the sharing of knowledge from others here. Based on my knifed machine's sharpening / replacement schedule, the spiral head paid for itself somewhere in 2010 and its all gravy from here on out. I pick up a couple 10 packs of inserts now and then in preparation for the day when I finally get to the fourth side. Global Tooling has them for a very reasonable price compared to Grizzly. My savings are amplified by the fact that when I upgraded my planer I went with the same head and inserts.

[Skip Evans]

If you are able to buy an 8", buy it. Later you will wish you had. I have an 8" and want a 12". I need to give my 15" planer a challenge.

[Thomas L. Miller]

I agree with Dick. I first bought a nice Grizzly 6" with a spiral head. I had a Dewalt 735 planer. I was constantly doing a "work around" to flatten boards >6" wide. It seemed necessary on every project. So I went to the other extreme. I've ordered a Hammer A3-31 with a "silent power" head. The reason I bought the 6" machine in the first place was that I didn't have 220v power available at the time. I suspect any machine wider than 6" will require 220v.
Tom

[Erik Loza]

There are two machines I routinely hear, "If I had it to do over again, I would have gone bigger", about: Bandsaws and jointers. For what it's worth...

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Jason White]

Ditto. Get an 8" jointer. You won't know how much you need it until you have a 6" and realize it's not enough. I made that mistake a long time ago.

Also, and this always drives me nuts, jointers are not just for straightening an edge. They're made for straightening and squaring two sides of a board before ripping and/or planing the other two sides parallel.

If your board is not perfectly straight and square when running through a table saw, you run the risk of a serious kickback. Jointers, combined with planers, also greatly improve the accuracy of your woodworking joints.

[Mike Leung]

8" was not wide enough for me as I buy 9-10" boards often. My jointer is an Inca 570 jointer planer which has a 10-1/4" Tersa cutter head. It is compact and provide an amazing surface quality when using M2 or M42 knives. These will pop up now and then for around 8-900$. For a hobby shop this is the ideal machine IMO. It is the same one Krenov had in his shop.

[Andy Pratt]

I'll echo the sentiment to hold out until you can buy a jointer that is wide enough to handle the boards you typically find yourself buying. FAS lumber starts at 6" wide, and you'll probably find that 90% of your boards fall in the 6-12" category. For me, 12" was the sweet spot, and I feel like I only have to rip a couple boards a year for lack of a wider jointer. If I dropped down to a 10" I would be unnecessarily ripping probably 10% of my boards, and if I went down to an 8" it would probably jump up to about 40%. Ask yourself what board sizes you get most often, and then buy a good quality used jointer (that parts are still available for and that can be upgraded with a spiral cutterhead) of that size or larger.

If I had a 15" planer and a 6 or 8" jointer, I would sell both to purchase a 12" combo with a spiral head.

[Cary Falk]

I had a 6" jet and then Moved to a Shop Fox 1741(same as the Grizzly 490) when Bing was giving away money. I think I paid $608 for it. I then put a Byrd head on it because Grizzly said their head would not fit. The price wasn't that much different at the time so no big deal. I have a Grizzly 15" planer with a Grizzly spiral head on it and the finish is the same. I hear a lot of people that don't have spiral heads on their jointer say it is a waste of money but I have never heard anyone WITH a spiral head on their jointer say they regretted it. I have gone 3 or 4 years without rotating the inserts and still no nicks. I'm a happy camper. Everybody talks about the width of the jointer but I find an added benefit in the length of the beds also.