Steel City 40600 6" Jointer

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

I have read many posts about people wishing they had gone to an 8" machine from the start and up until recently I was going to buy one of the 8" parallelogram units (from SC, King, etc) but because of the smaller size of my shop (10x25) and the very reasonable price I can get a 40600 I am now leaning towards the SC 40600. I'd like to hear from any owners of SC equipment, especially the 40600, or anyone else who has some wisdom they want to pass on.
Thanks,
Andrew

[Jason Whelehon]

With the exception of it being only 6", there's nothing to complain about. The price difference between 6 and 8 was too much for me to justify the extra cost.

[John Thompson]

Considering I worked in the Steel City booth at the International WW Show last week demonstrating SC machines... I won't really comment and let other owners do so. But.. I will say I own 4 SC machines and when their newly debuted (last week) 17" Variable drill press arrives to market I will have 5 of their machines.

BTW.. 8" is preferred over 6" but you have to work with what space and funds you have. I used a 6" for around 33 years before getting an 8" and it didn't stop one project as I purchase all my lumber no more than S2.

Good luck with your decision...

Sarge..

[Nancy Laird]

Andrew, We have the 40615 6" wedge-bed SC jointer, and couldn't be happer with it. We don't do face jointing, so the 6" is sufficient for our purposes. We replaced the head with a head from Woodworker's Supply, which is "like" a Shelix head, but the knives are arranged in a chevron pattern rather than a spiral, and the dust/shavings are directed toward the middle and down the chute for better dust collection. We love it!!! You can't go wrong with any SC machine!

[Mike Goetzke]

Don't know if you are interested but Jet (& I think Mini Max) has a new jointer/planer combo. It's a 12" jointer and it's under 60" long.

I have the same problem in my garage/shop. An 8" jointer bed is as long as my Uni with a 50" Biese. Due to space I currently have a 6" ShopFox and really like it. A few times I have joined boards wider than 6" using the alternate feed direction method - works pretty good.

Mike