Inca Jointer/Dust Avoidance

[Gary Sostrin]

Need some feedback on my decision for buying an INCA 570 jointer used or new (I saw on a previous thread that they are going to be resurrected). Also my thought on dealing with dust avoidance.

Here is the back round. Part of my garage is my woodworking shop (located in So. Cal where weather is good almost year round). Since I have limited space and I have read a lot about sawdust generation on this website (thanks everyone except for the grenade throwers), I decided to put everything on rollers so I can roll it out in front of the garage and generate all the sawdust outside with the garage rolling door closed. I have my PM66 TS sitting in the middle of my garage on a shopfox base right at the front of my rolling garage door (Can move it and do not want to). Bought 2 fans for it to use when using the table saw, and will have them blow out toward the front of the garage with the rolling door open. I have a Makita 12” planer sitting on a sears workbench with a shop fox base. I have a Makita LS1013 miter saw sitting on an HTC mobile base (with wings) . I have an old 15 ½ inch sears craftsman drill press on an HTC2000 base. I am putting together a rockler stand (Hartville casters) to handle my shopfox mortiser. I have an old sears bandsaw, belt/disk sander, and 6 1/8 inch jointer on wheels. Also I have an old sears craftsman radial arm saw that I just added a shopfox base to it and will later add a performax drum sander add on that I picked up many years ago and hopefully get to it during this next month (I am a big procrastinator). I want to get rid of my jointer being it is to small and doesn’t work properly. I know I can probably fix it but it is still to small and not worth the effort. I just bought a veritas trashcan lid to use with my ridgid vacumm (this one is quiet and strong-not like my old craftsman screamer).

Also my back got tweak last week and even though I am better, I am not getting any younger (will go back to stretching and strengthening exercises. So here’s my thought. If I buy an 8 “ jointer (weight 450+), and want to make it mobile, it will use a lot of floor space and even on rollers will weigh a lot (back avoidance). A 10” Inca gives me 2 extra inches weigh about 200 lbs and is$? ($2400 years ago new). Also I heard that the tersa heads are very easy to change.


So is my thought process for the INCA correct and also my thoughts on dust avoidance.


Thanks

Gary

[Jim Becker]

Gary, what is the typical length of material you would be running across the jointer? The Inca is a nice machine and yes, Tersas are great. But the Inca also has very short tables. General rule of thumb is twice the total length of the infeed and outfeed table combined for stock length.

You'll also find that even very heavy machines move quite easily if they are on a decent mobile base system and you have a smooth floor/surface.

[Wilbur Pan]

Gary,

I bought a Rikon combination jointer/planer that is very close to the size of an Inca for exactly the reasons you state. I needed a machine that didn't take up too much space, and for me the extra width was more important than the length that the jointer could handle.

Using the "double the infeed+outfeed" rule, you would be "limited" to boards that are about 80" in length. That's 6' 8". I don't know how many projects require a board that long other than floor to ceiling bookcases. And even so, with some auxilliary support you could joint a longer board. My neighbor has an old Inca jointer planer, and he was able to build a nearly floor to ceiling Federal-style corner cabinet with it.

On the other hand, to joint a board that is wider than the width of the jointer is a more difficult issue to get around.

I'm really happy with my decision. The only issue with getting an Inca is to look into how difficult it would be to get parts. But if they are going to be coming back, that shouldn't be an issue. I only wish that they were "coming back" when I was looking for my machine. I passed on getting an old Inca because I wasn't sure if I would be able to get parts if I needed them.