Help with Jet JJ-6 or Walker-Turner 2560-1 used jointer selection.

[Hector Guzman]

Hello. I am new to this group and am familiar with woodworking through various home projects. However, I have never worked with rough lumber and would like to work with it. I recently got a used Dewalt planer and now would like to get a jointer. I woodwork out of my garage, my space is small and everything needs to be mobile. I have to re-arrange things to get the cars inside for the winter ;-(. For this reason, I am looking for a 6" unit.

I have been eyeing a used Jet JJ-6 and a Walker Turner 6520-1. I am not sure what to look for other than to check for levelness of the table and squareness of the fence. I am trying to assess which one is a better build and overall better value. Any guidance from this group would be fantastic. Thank you.

-hector

[jamil mehdi]

I love Walker-Turner tools. Every W-T machine I've ever used has been built to withstand an atomic blast.

With that said, jointers are pretty simple machines. It's a cutter head, a belt, a motor, and the beds. Assuming the beds are flat on both machines, I would base my decision on the following criteria in the following order:



Length of bed
Motor make and size
Ease of adjustment
Ease of knife setting and knife replacement


I'm sure other people have their own list of priorities, but that's what I would look at. All things being equal, I would pick the Walker-Turner because it will probably be a functional jointer for another 300 years.

[Hector Guzman]

Hi,

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I had similar thoughts regarding the robustness of the Walker-Turner. The W-T motor is a Craftsman rated at 1HP (115V/14A). That said, the W-T bed length is ~36 inches versus 42 inches for the JJ-6. The price is also about $100 higher for the W-T.

I am not sure if the additional 6" makes a major difference for a jointer bed and would defer to this group. I am willing to pay a $100 more for a better build quality.

[Jim Becker]

Longer bed is a plus for a jointer...

[Alex Zeller]

I'm assuming both jointers are dovetail. Dovetail is how the beds move up and down. I would be more concerned with checking to see if the in feed and out feed beds are parallel with each other. If not you'll most likely have to shim the out feed table. This can be time consuming for someone who's new to doing it. What happens is the in dovetail joint for the in feed bed wears. Since you will be moving it in future use you adjust the out feed bed to match the in feed. My jointer is a parallelogram style so it's not an issue for me. I'm sure someone else can help you more if needed.

[Bill Dufour]

No idea if it applies but, WT 15" drill press uses special order ballbearings on the driven pulley. Supposed to be that NTN has something that will work. Pretty much before the internet, I had my dad bore out the upper bearing bore by 2MM? and used spacer to create the extended inner race. Their 20" DP is off the shelf regular bearings.
Bil lD.