Ryan N King
10-10-2019, 5:07 PM
I just got a new 16" jointer/planer combo machine from Canadian Woodworker, CWI-JP1604HC, and since I couldn't find much information about it when I was shopping I thought I'd share my experiences here. In sum, it's been a mixed bag with the machine having a great set of features on paper but arriving with a lot more quality control issues than I'd expected.
Here's the machine:
417523417521417522
Background
I needed a jointer and was interested in upgrading from my DW735 planer to something with a helical head. I work in a dedicated 2 car garage shop, so consolidating machines to save space was appealing. I couldn't bring myself to buy a jointer smaller than the planer and replacing the DW735 without also increasing planer capacity didn't seem like much of an upgrade.
The decision mostly boiled down to the Hammer A3-41 or the CWI machine. My other big machines are from Grizzly (G0514x2b bandsaw and G0623x slider) and have had good experiences with those imported machines. The CWI jointer/planer is very similar to the popular Jet and Rikon models, but with 16" capacity, a Taiwanese helical cutterhead, and couple other nice features.
The Good
The CWI jointer/planer came with a number of features included that you had to purchase separately from Hammer and really increased the price difference. The CWI machine includes a built-in mobile base and lifting bar, plus has the wheels oriented so you can actually get it through a narrow doorway. It has an electronic planer height readout near the power switch that can be converted between metric and imperial units, in addition to a mechanical digital readout on the crank handle like Hammer. The cutterhead is a 5 row true helix cutterhead with 80 inserts. The fence is center-mounted and appears plenty sturdy unlike the complaints I'd read about the end-mounted Hammer fence. Finally, CWI had the machine in stock, shipped it cheaply and quickly, and I didn't have to pay US sales tax. Hammer wanted to charge me 4x as much for shipping and I would have had to wait another 6-8 weeks.
The Bad
The machine arrived without any apparent damage to the box it was transported in, but several concerns appeared after opening up everything. The paint job was generally worse than the Grizzly machines I've purchased, with various patches of overspray, missing paint, dings and scratches. The fence had a quarter-sized gouge along the bottom edge that affects alignment with the infeed table and catches on material when referencing off the fence.
The Ugly
The two bigger concerns were the state of the cutterhead and jointer tables. 8 of the cutterhead inserts came with significant chips and knicks, often on more than 1 edge. The jointer table castings have 3 major blemishes in the surface polish with noticeable pitting and dips at each. The biggest is about 5" x 2". The oil paper covering the tables was undamaged when I took it off, so I think this was a poor attempt at the factory to cleanup casting defects rather than damage during shipping.
417524417525417518
Manufacturer Response
I shared all of my concerns with CWI and went back and forth with their representative a few times before posting this. They told me the paint condition was to be expected and that I should sand out issues with the fence. They offered to send me 5 replacement inserts (8 need to be replaced), and said that there was nothing they could do about the jointer beds. All of these issues have really damped my enthusiasm for the machine, but I'm not sure what else can be done at this point. I'd love to hear what other Creekers think about the state of the machine or what you'd do in this situation?
In sum, I would probably buy the machine again since I think it's still the best value in 16" jointer/planers and just hope for better luck on their quality control. Not sure I will look at CWI again for other tools though if there's a comparable offering from Grizzly or other importers.
Here's the machine:
417523417521417522
Background
I needed a jointer and was interested in upgrading from my DW735 planer to something with a helical head. I work in a dedicated 2 car garage shop, so consolidating machines to save space was appealing. I couldn't bring myself to buy a jointer smaller than the planer and replacing the DW735 without also increasing planer capacity didn't seem like much of an upgrade.
The decision mostly boiled down to the Hammer A3-41 or the CWI machine. My other big machines are from Grizzly (G0514x2b bandsaw and G0623x slider) and have had good experiences with those imported machines. The CWI jointer/planer is very similar to the popular Jet and Rikon models, but with 16" capacity, a Taiwanese helical cutterhead, and couple other nice features.
The Good
The CWI jointer/planer came with a number of features included that you had to purchase separately from Hammer and really increased the price difference. The CWI machine includes a built-in mobile base and lifting bar, plus has the wheels oriented so you can actually get it through a narrow doorway. It has an electronic planer height readout near the power switch that can be converted between metric and imperial units, in addition to a mechanical digital readout on the crank handle like Hammer. The cutterhead is a 5 row true helix cutterhead with 80 inserts. The fence is center-mounted and appears plenty sturdy unlike the complaints I'd read about the end-mounted Hammer fence. Finally, CWI had the machine in stock, shipped it cheaply and quickly, and I didn't have to pay US sales tax. Hammer wanted to charge me 4x as much for shipping and I would have had to wait another 6-8 weeks.
The Bad
The machine arrived without any apparent damage to the box it was transported in, but several concerns appeared after opening up everything. The paint job was generally worse than the Grizzly machines I've purchased, with various patches of overspray, missing paint, dings and scratches. The fence had a quarter-sized gouge along the bottom edge that affects alignment with the infeed table and catches on material when referencing off the fence.
The Ugly
The two bigger concerns were the state of the cutterhead and jointer tables. 8 of the cutterhead inserts came with significant chips and knicks, often on more than 1 edge. The jointer table castings have 3 major blemishes in the surface polish with noticeable pitting and dips at each. The biggest is about 5" x 2". The oil paper covering the tables was undamaged when I took it off, so I think this was a poor attempt at the factory to cleanup casting defects rather than damage during shipping.
417524417525417518
Manufacturer Response
I shared all of my concerns with CWI and went back and forth with their representative a few times before posting this. They told me the paint condition was to be expected and that I should sand out issues with the fence. They offered to send me 5 replacement inserts (8 need to be replaced), and said that there was nothing they could do about the jointer beds. All of these issues have really damped my enthusiasm for the machine, but I'm not sure what else can be done at this point. I'd love to hear what other Creekers think about the state of the machine or what you'd do in this situation?
In sum, I would probably buy the machine again since I think it's still the best value in 16" jointer/planers and just hope for better luck on their quality control. Not sure I will look at CWI again for other tools though if there's a comparable offering from Grizzly or other importers.