Great Sale, but is it any good?

[Stew Hagerty]

I saw this on Amazon today and I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience with or knowledge of this machine. I mean...WOW. It is a heck of a price.

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-8BT-8-.../dp/B001O0D6NS

This model is also on sale:

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-10BTOS.../dp/B001O0D6OC

I've read the reviews on both, but I respect the opinions of you guys and gals on here more than some anonymous reviewer on Amazon.

[Mitchell Andrus]

The design is pretty bad if you're flattening a board of any great length. The infeed/outfeed tables are miserably short. For jointing alone, 1" will do. 8" implies flattening as it's primary function for which I wouldn't be able to use it.
.

[Rod Sheridan]

Stew, the condensed version courtesy of Monty Python.

RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!


Seriously, you will be disappointed if you buy this machine.

I would expect that for the price you could pick up a good condition used 6" jointer that will give you years of service, and better accuracy and performance.

Regards, Rod.

[Van Huskey]

The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

I had a friend against my advise pick up the 10", and I got the fun of setting it up. It is one of those "machines" that is VERY entry level but takes a bit of skill to setup/use. I was able to get decent results on 3-4 ft boards and you could maybe do more if you had good infeed/outfeed support. The key is you probably are better using only skip planed wood since you can't take much off in a single pass and treat it like a 6" J/P at best due to power. My suggestion if you want to buy new is find a 6" Rigid jointer for around $300 and get a cheap lunchbox planer for about the same. True it will be twice as much but you really will have something you can use. The biggest issue with setup is getting the tables co-planer. Further since they use the same motor and anything wider than about 6" is going to bog it even with a light cut if you HAVE to buy one get the 8". Plus the blades are rather fragile.

[Rod Sheridan]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;1515641]The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

QUOTE]

Was that a quote from Yoda?

So what happened to the "Euro stuff is crap" sig line? I was looking forward to that.

Regards, Rod.

[Will Overton]

Never used the machine, but the savings isn't as great as they make it look. The normal street price on the first one is $299. The sale is from Jet as the second week of their 'season long sale' and available at most of their dealers.

If you make nothing but small boxes and the like it might be worth a shot. I had a benchtop jointer for a number of years, and for boards < 2ft long it was fine.

[Jerome Hanby]

I would really love for these machines to be good workers, but I can't find any reviews that I would trust that say so. Guy I talked to at Woodcraft gave me a lot of qualified descriptions. I think if I ran his response through the company line translator, it would come out

RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

[Lee Ludden]

I bought one last Christmas (the 10" one). Used it for about 3 days before putting it for sale on CL for about 1/2 what I paid for it. Best $200 I ever lost.

Problems included: tables not parallel and no easy way to adjust them, tables not very rigid. Fit and finish very substandard. Knives were chipped out of the box and was told that they weren't covered by warranty and ended up replacing them at my own cost.

I ended up waiting and picking up a good used jointer and planer on CL.

[Van Huskey]

[QUOTE=Rod Sheridan;1515662]

The lure of a sub $300 J/P is strong...

QUOTE]

Was that a quote from Yoda?

So what happened to the "Euro stuff is crap" sig line? I was looking forward to that.

Regards, Rod.

Yoda's version: Strong the lure of a sub $300 J/P it is.

I've been lazy, but the sig line is comming, when you least expect it. Probably when you and your Euro friends are sitting down having a nice glass of port and listening to Mozart, I'll bust in with a boombox on my shoulder blaring AC/DC with a sandwich advertising board proclaiming your true thoughts on Euro tools, probably when the Felder guys are over from Austria to see you. Or I could just be waiting for you to slip out with something like hammers are only good for breaking rocks, I would take a little creative license and make the hammer into Hammer...

Actually Rod, I am a little afraid of you... my daddy always said you can't trust a man that doesn't own a router...

[Phil Thien]

I bought one last Christmas (the 10" one). Used it for about 3 days before putting it for sale on CL for about 1/2 what I paid for it. Best $200 I ever lost.

Problems included: tables not parallel and no easy way to adjust them, tables not very rigid. Fit and finish very substandard. Knives were chipped out of the box and was told that they weren't covered by warranty and ended up replacing them at my own cost.

I ended up waiting and picking up a good used jointer and planer on CL.

I can confirm all of this except the nicked knives.

The problem with these isn't the short beds. I have an Inca with even shorter beds and I routinely straighten material 6' in length no problem.

The problem is they did a poor job designing and manufacturing the jointer beds.

They are not flat by a long shot, but rather like candy dishes.

And they give you no decent way to adjust them to get them coplaner other than a couple holes that aren't even elongated so you're relying on tolerances in the hole for adjustment.

Had they spent about $50 more on manufacturing to provide a nice set of tables that had a built-in shim system, they would have had a winner.

It is infuriating to see this kind of crap because it seems like such a horrible waste of natural and human resources. The design doesn't work and they produce container-loads full of them. And instead of realizing how bad they are and correcting the problems, they will abandon the line and move onto something else that doesn't have the kinks worked out and produce containers of those, too.

[Stew Hagerty]

I just got off the phone with Tech Services @ Jet. After reading your replies (thanks to all of you that did, by the way), and researching customer reviews at various outlets, I figured I would take it to the source. The Tech informed me that starting with serial #'s beginning with a "10" have been redesigned to correct the non-adjustability problem and have new tables that are made to higher standards to eliminate cups and waves.

So, maybe they aren't so bad afterall. I mean, it doesn't change being underpowered, but I'm far from a professional woodworker. I just have a stall in my garage and want to be able to tinker. Make a few things for around the house and for my new grandaughter and such. I don't have much room or money to spend.

Comments?

[Jerome Hanby]

Be cool to see a real review of one of those newer S/N models...

I've been wondering what, if anything, could be done to retrofit better tables to these gadgets. At those prices, a little tinkering would be a small price to pay for 8 or 10 inch jointing!

[Callan Campbell]

I just got off the phone with Tech Services @ Jet. After reading your replies (thanks to all of you that did, by the way), and researching customer reviews at various outlets, I figured I would take it to the source. The Tech informed me that starting with serial #'s beginning with a "10" have been redesigned to correct the non-adjustability problem and have new tables that are made to higher standards to eliminate cups and waves.

So, maybe they aren't so bad afterall. I mean, it doesn't change being underpowered, but I'm far from a professional woodworker. I just have a stall in my garage and want to be able to tinker. Make a few things for around the house and for my new grandaughter and such. I don't have much room or money to spend.

Comments?

Rikon makes a different, larger version of the Jet little combo machines, I think it's been said it's a copy of an older INCA machine. One more thing to think about, although you've already heard from everyone who actually owned one of the Jets[briefly..] and from Van the Man who had to set-up his friends Jet machine. I also heard from some Woodcraft employees that everyone is a bit disappointed with the lack of power, esp when the same 8" model set-up is used by Jet on the larger 10" capacity machine with no more power to run the larger blades.
Anyway, look at the Rikon and see if the purchase price, which IS higher than the Jets, is something in your budget.

[Stew Hagerty]

Rikon makes a different, larger version of the Jet little combo machines, I think it's been said it's a copy of an older INCA machine. One more thing to think about, although you've already heard from everyone who actually owned one of the Jets[briefly..] and from Van the Man who had to set-up his friends Jet machine. I also heard from some Woodcraft employees that everyone is a bit disappointed with the lack of power, esp when the same 8" model set-up is used by Jet on the larger 10" capacity machine with no more power to run the larger blades.
Anyway, look at the Rikon and see if the purchase price, which IS higher than the Jets, is something in your budget.

I just looked up the Rikon and you're right it is more money. It's $858 on Amazon which is almost 3 times as much. I could get two separate machines for that. It does look like a better machine, but the price would put it back into the "can't afford it" category.

I'm not so worried about the lack of power. First of all, it's not going to get a lot of use, and second, I don't mind making several small passes.

I'd love to get a Gizzly Jointer and a Dewalt 735. It's just that $1000 is what I have available to spend. And if I wait until I can save up that amount, there are a lot of things I just can't do in the mean time.
I'm disabled so my income is not what it used to be. Ironically though, I now have the time to do stuff I want to do. Funny how that works huh. I guess my point is this: I can afford the $300, and for that amount I get the functionality of two machines. If they truely have changed and improved the design, then maybe it's not such a "RUN AWAY" kind of deal.

[Callan Campbell]

I just looked up the Rikon and you're right it is more money. It's $858 on Amazon which is almost 3 times as much. I could get two separate machines for that. It does look like a better machine, but the price would put it back into the "can't afford it" category.

I'm not so worried about the lack of power. First of all, it's not going to get a lot of use, and second, I don't mind making several small passes.

I'd love to get a Gizzly Jointer and a Dewalt 735. It's just that $1000 is what I have available to spend. And if I wait until I can save up that amount, there are a lot of things I just can't do in the mean time.
I'm disabled so my income is not what it used to be. Ironically though, I now have the time to do stuff I want to do. Funny how that works huh. I guess my point is this: I can afford the $300, and for that amount I get the functionality of two machines. If they truely have changed and improved the design, then maybe it's not such a "RUN AWAY" kind of deal.

If you buy new, and it's the supposedly improved later production models, you might be happy. However, think about how accurate you want the work/wood to come off the tool. Are you willing to put up with tapered pieces if you can't get the tables co-planar? Smaller bites on a lowered powered machines ARE a real way to deal with less power, so that's not hard. Maybe you can find a Woodcraft or other dealer who's got a demo model set-up to try out. At any rate, they do seem to sell, used, on Craigslist from what previous owners have posted about them. So if you decide to buy, and then not keep it, you may get all or most of your money back if need be. Sorry to hear about the disabled news, I wish you well in your quests and life.