General 880 jointer

[Adam Grills]

Hello,
I am seriously looking at a Canadian made General 880 jointer. They are high $ and wondering if anyone has one that they can comment on and compare. Note : when spending the $ I am seriously considering the helical upgade ( I do a lot of figured lumber) . All hands-on comments and considerations is appreciated.
Adam

[Gary Herrmann]

880, no but I have the 480 with a Byrd head which may be an option to consider over the stock helical head. I envy you the aircraft carrier. I'd never get it down into my shop.

[gary Zimmel]

I've also got a 480 and could not be happier. Can only dream about the 880. How much would something like that be..

[Scot Ferraro]

That is one awesome machine with one awesome price-tag to boot. If money were no object you might look at some of the Northfield machines as well for comparison for that style of jointer -- all are industrial, solid and very smooth running. I love the ship-wheel machanism on the back to raise and lower the infeed table on these style machines! You might also consider the many Euro-brands out there with the quick-change knife system -- some I think that you can even retro-fit with a helical head but most have straight knives -- with a large 16 inch jointer you can scew many boards and avoid some tear-out, thereby minimizing the need for a helical head. If it were my money I would put one on the planer instead with a quick-change system on the jointer. This worked very well at a woodworking school I attended -- they instructed us to get the boards 70% flat on one face (enough to register on the planer bed) and then switch to the planer to get the board flat.

Let us know what you end up with.

Scot