Which 12 inch Jointer to buy???

[Mark Brubaker]

I would like to buy a 12 inch jointer. There is so much variance in pricing between the available s (Delta, Powermatic, Grizzly, etc).

Dollar for dollar, what is really worth the money?

Thanks in advance!

[David Weaver]

Are you closed to buying an older machine? You could save yourself some money and possibly move a size up for the same price.

I never thought much about larger jointers until one of the guys we get hardwood from offered to face boards for us for free. He has a 24-inch porter jointer with a powerfeed - I have never seen such a slick operation. Blink and it's over, and I haven't seen a 24 inch wide board, so there's no limit.

Between my ww buddy and I, the largest we have is an 8 inch jointer, so we usually tough it out or do hand work if we get larger boards. It would be handy to have a 16 or 20 inch jointer to match the 20 inch planer.

[Paul Greathouse]

Mark

I don't remember who it was but I just read a post a couple of days ago by someone who had just purchased a Shop Fox. He was very happy with it and said it was $200 cheaper than the Grizzley but was almost identical. Try doing a search on Shop Fox and see if you can find it.

[Dick Sylvan]

You ought to at least consider a combo jointer planer which saves some space if that's an issue. FWW recently gave high marks to the Mini-Max and Hammer.

[Dick Latshaw]

I would like to buy a 12 inch jointer. There is so much variance in pricing between the available s (Delta, Powermatic, Grizzly, etc).

Dollar for dollar, what is really worth the money?


Northfield has a really nice 12 inch jointer. You might want to check them out. (They do start at around $10,000 though. :D)

[Rich Tesoroni]

There was an auction in Quakertown on the 12" I was the second highest bidder on a very clean Northfield 12". I bid $950.

Would have gone more if I was serious, but only bid since it was under $1K
Rich

[Todd Solomon]

Mark,

I have the Grizzly Ultimate 12" Joiner (their high end industrial model). This has grown to be one of my favorite machines - absolutely industrial, dead flat and parallel, very low vibration. This is a bit pricier than many out there, but you will never regret buying it. Grizzly has a lower-priced, new model as well. Grizzly tends to do very well in the quality and performance of their jointer line, it is one of the things they do best. I would think that either a Grizzly or Shopfox would be an excellent choice.

Todd

[Reg Mitchell]

http://www.owwm.com/classifieds/main.asp?catid=1&subcatID=8
try there. no need to get a chiwaneese jointer. Those are great and will last a life time over again. Ask questions about the big jointers. If you have 3 PH power and some of the guys here http://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=2db15ee4bfdef9c7a912416510a4d933 can help you if you don't
Reg

[Hunter Wallace]

Hi Mark,
I'm the guy with the new 12" Shop Fox and couldn't possibly be
happier. As for the cost vs the function/features, I couldn't find
another machine out there that I thought would meet my needs
for the money.

There is the possiblity of buying something used and, believe me,
I've been on that hunt for years now...never in the right place at
the right time!

Dick also pointed out the combo machines which I seriously
considered for a long while. But after really thinking about it
I figured a 12" jointer would work perfectly with the 12 1/2" planer
I already had. Opinions vary on that point, but that's MHO.
Another thing that would have been a real compromise with
a Hammer, MiniMax, Felder, etc. was the length of the bed.
Most of them are in the 5' range. The biggest frustration with my
old jointer was the short infeed table...the width was something
I found I could work around (don't try this at home kind of stuff!!)

So I would suggest either the Griz G0609 or the Shop Fox W1744...
same exact machine, different color, lots of bang for the buck.