Advice RE: next equipment purchase

[Mike Cutler]

My wife has a long list of furniture for the house for me to attempt and I would also like to make some cutting boards. She likes the look of walnut in the house so probably a lot of Walnut along with other hardwoods that I like.
I am new to this so I don't have a "normal" yet but my reading of this site and others like it have me thinking rough lumber or s2s is the most cost effective way to go (once I have a planer and jointer)???
I do plan on buying both a planer and jointer but was hoping to have a couple months in between each purchase.

Jeremy
If your goal is to start with rough cut lumber, which is the correct path in my opinion, then a planer and jointer are in your future. Soon! If you stay with wood working long enough, I guarantee that you will want the biggest jointer and planer you can afford, and fit in your shop. Almost every wood working project starts with these two machines.
Buy the planer first, and use a sled to joint the first face, then plane to thickness, because it's easy to joint a straight edge by other means.

You'll get lots of differing ideas,and none of them are necessarily wrong.

[Rick Potter]

It all depends on what you plan to build. Timber frame buildings? Eiffel tower scrollwork?

I went years without a jointer, but used a band saw and drill press regularly.

PS: You can also joint with a router table.

[andy bessette]

...If your goal is to start with rough cut lumber...

One's goal should be to start within one's ability. Buy surfaced lumber until you are setup to resaw, joint and thickness plane.

[Greg Parrish]

I say get the planer unless you can foot the cost of one of the 12” or larger combo machines. With the planer, a sled and either a track saw or circular saw and edge guide, you should be able to get your rough lumber cleaned and squared up with the final cut being on the table saw.

Joint the board face with sled
thickness and bring opposite face parallel parallel with just planer
trim one edge with track saw or circular saw and edge guide
and lastly cut last edge via table saw.

this gets you a squared board to start with until you can add your jointer.


I had had the dewalt 735 with shelix head and a Powermatic 6” with shelix head. I used them for the first couple years and recently upgraded to a 12” combo hammer machine. Wish I went with full size machines to start with. I’m in a 20’x22’ space and Only thing I would do differently is separate machines if I had more space.

Good luck.

[Andrew Seemann]

I've gone for years without a decent jointer. I'd like to get one some day, but for the last 30 years I have only used crummy 6" ones. The first one was one of those awful Craftsmans with the non adjustable outfeed table. Then about 12 years ago I "upgraded" to a 6" open stand Jet. It was an improvement, but not much of one. I only use it for edge jointing boards 4 feet and under. Anything longer I mark a line and cut with a bandsaw, hit it with a #7 or #8 Baileys, and then use that to joint the opposite side on the table saw. Face jointing I don't even bother trying to do on it. If anything I have needs face jointing, I just rough do it with a scrub plane or jack plane so that I can run it through the planer without it rocking to face joint the other side.

The point of this diatribe on my relationships with crappy jointers, is that you can survive (suffer) quite long with either no jointer or a poor one with relatively no ill effects your woodworking.

I'll get an 8" jointer someday, but even then it would mostly just be for edge jointing. Most of the lumber I get these days from my supplier has been skip planed rarely requires much if any face jointing. A 12" jointer would be ideal, but too big and heavy for my shop.

That said, I'd probably consider a getting a 14" bandsaw before a planer, and definitely before a jointer.

[Jim Becker]

Printed catalog prices for vendors like Grizzly may not be accurate if they were printed before the tariffs came into play...the website prices will be more accurate, IMHO.

Based on your list, the planer does make the most sense, but I'm very much a fan of J/P for small shop use. The initial investment is more, but you end up with a wide jointer (very desirable for many reasons) as well as a planer of identical width. For me, the most important thing about a jointer is flattening, so something narrow just wouldn't cut it with me very much. But that's me.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I would suggest an jointer/planer combo if you can spring for that.

Otherwise, my next choice would be a planer, although I've seen no mention of a dust collector, which with most of these large power tools becomes a must have.

[Art Mann]

I almost always work with rough sawn lumber. For decades, I had a separate planer and jointer and I would not have wanted to do without either one. A planer with a sled will work fair but it is a great deal more trouble and time consuming than just running the material across the jointer. Recently, I acquired a 12 inch jointer/planer combo machine primarily because I needed to routinely flatten material wider than 8 inches. I would never want to go back to a 6 or 8 inch jointer. I would not want to go back to separate machines because a 12 inch jointer is enormous, expensive and unnecessary for my work. The changeovers are not difficult but a little more up front planning than what I used to do is advisable.

[Shiraz Balolia]

I've had my table saw a couple months now and it is great.

Now looking to add a second piece of equipment to the shop. Based on responses to my previous post, it seems
my next purchase should either be a planer, bandsaw, or jointer.

Of the three it seems to me a planer would make most sense?

Grizzly has the G1021Z 15" planer for $1632 + tax (most expensive of the three by the time you add freight, lift gate service, and a mobile base) and the G0453 15"planer for $1550 + tax (free freight and includes integrated mobile base). Rockler has the Jet JWP-160s 16" planer $1599 + tax + base ( an hour away so I can pick it up=no freight).
The other brands: laguna, PM, Rikon, etc are more than I want to spend.

Any thoughts on the above or recommendations on other options I should consider are welcomed.

Frankly, I am leaning toward the jet so I don't have to deal with Grizzly dumping the unit on the road at the end of my driveway about 60ish yards from the entrance to my shop or transferring from their truck to my truck.

For a newbie, are these overkill? I've seen good comments on the dewalt 735 also at about 1/3 of the price. Although, I'd rather spend more now once than save now but have to upgrade in a couple years.

Thanks in advance to all who respond.

Just FYI - the G1021Z is currently on sale. Made in Taiwan and in stock at both facilities.

Also, you can pick up the machine at your local freight terminal to avoid the hassle you mention above.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Griz...t-Stand/G1021Z

[Matt Day]

Can’t believe nobody has suggested buying used. If you have a decent CL area and have patience, you can get an 8” jointer, 14” bandsaw, and 15” planer for the price of that Grizzly jointer you’re looking at.

[Van Huskey]

There is so much to unpack here but I will start with something I haven't seen mentioned, what dust collection do you have? If you don't have a dust collector it needs to come into the picture before/while buying a 15/16" planer, you can get away with a shop vac with the Dewalt.

I agree that the planer would be the next purchase IMO. One thing to note is an awful lot of people get away with using the Dewalt long term. If I were building a shop on a budget I would get the Dewalt and move on to other machine acquisitions and revisit the planer issue much farther down the road if you decide you need more. The roughly $1,000 you save goes a long way to getting your jointer and BS in the shop.

[Jim Becker]

What Van said and doubly so for a combo...DC is required, not optional.

[Van Huskey]

Can’t believe nobody has suggested buying used.

Because people get tired of saying it and so few bite until they come to it as a natural conclusion some time down the road?

[Ryan J Carpenter]

You may also consider the Grizzly G0815. I picked this up with a Byrd head a few years ago for the same price you are looking at on the stationary model. Not having the stand was also a huge selling point for me as I have it mounted to my lumber rack which gives me a free 8' outfeed rollers plus storage above and below in my two car garage shop. I seriously looked into a combo machine when buying but kept things simple and lower cost by buying a separate jointer and planer and couldn't be happier with the result. I will put yet another plug in for a dust collector as these planers generate a ton of chips. I also can't state enough how pleasant the larger induction motors are to listen to compared to my old lunchbox.

[andy bessette]

Can’t believe nobody has suggested buying used...

...I'd be looking for a heavy duty, used, Delta 13" planer...

Someone already did.