Shopping 120 volt jointers

[Scott Winners]

I hope to have 240 volt at my next shop. Today my shop is all "120" vac, though my local utility delivers 110 volts.

I am looking for a freestanding machine, the benchtop jointers just don't look and review like they wil meet my needs. Budget is ~$1k.

I can get the Rigid 6amp delivered to my local team orange homestore. I have a regional hardware supply company that carries Grizzly/ ShopFox, though they don't stock jointers and I haven't asked about shipping on special orders.

All three of these are 800-1000 bucks with nominal 48" top, 3 knives, dovetailed ways and run on 120 volts. Is there a stinker or a sleeper in that group?

What should I watch for, or watch out for, on the used market place in the meantime? Powermatic with the 72 inch top of course, the one that currently MSRPs at $1400 before shipping to Alaska. Anything else to keep an eye open for?

Thanks

[Alex Zeller]

How wide are you looking for? My 8" Powermatic only has a 2hp motor in it. I have yet to need more hp. 2hp is kind of the cut off for induction motors running off of 120v. I see good old American made Powermatic model 60 jointers listed used quite often in your price range down here (yes I know Alaska is very different). They may not be 120v but swapping the motor wouldn't be an issue. Even getting a 3 phase one and a 120v VFD (but could go above your budget) could be an option. If you have the room for a freestanding machine I would look into swapping the motors and selling the 240v one to recoup some of your money. Almost every 2hp 120v new induction motor I've seen can also be wired for 240v so when you do get your new shop it could be swapped over if needed. However I don't live anywhere near Alaska so used may not be hard to find for you.

[Brian Runau]

I have an older grizzly 8 inch with 65 Inch bed straight knives. 1.5hp happy with it.not coplaner.

[Matt Day]

Do you have an electric dryer close to your shop? If so that’s 220V and you could plug into that. Your power company feeds your panel with 220V power by the way.

[Scott Winners]

Good points.

I do have an electric stove, an electric clothes dryer, and the house was originally equipped with an electric water heater. I could use the breaker the water heater used to be on, I get domestic hot water from the boiler for my home heating system now. But I really don't want to do all the drywall work to move the receptacle out from behind the hot water holding tank in the corner by the boiler. I technically could unplug the clothes dryer in the garage to plug in a 220v shop tool, but there is the wedded bliss angle to consider. I am sticking with 110/120 vac for this jointer purchase. If you want to buy a five bedroom house and carry 8 cords of wood up to the upper level every winter I will make you a screaming deal right now.

I am firmly convinced the various benchtop jointers are not going to work for me more than a few weeks. I think if I got one I would be reselling it quick and not do well on resale value. I am not doing much flat work at all, mostly chairs and sleds with an occasional table. I am looking at a jointer to deal with rough cut 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 ish stock up to 40-45 inches long. If I get good at making sleds I may need a longer table to handle longer stock, but I don't really see having to joint stock wider than 4 inches anytime soon.

In the future I could see buying a jointer with a wider cutter just to get the longer table, but for now a 6" cutter on a 48" table is about as big as I can fit in my shop, it will run on 110/120, I am not going to outgrow it in six weeks, and if/when I upgrade a 6/48 jointer is going to have better resale value than a benchtop model.

My current thinking is that if I buy a dud out of the box I would rather deal with team orange, but if I still have it in 25 years when it needs bearings I would prefer to have the Grizzly.

[Jim Becker]

Scott, it's perfectly acceptable to use an extension cord to get 240v to a 240v tool from an available 240v circuit like the former water heater location. It just needs to be of the correct wire size for the amperage and have the correct terminations installed. I'm using that technique in my temporary shop. A 25' 12 gage exterior extension cord reterminated with 240v connectors is the method I used since our local HD was out of 12-3 bulk rubber cord for awhile now. If you can route the cord without issue while using the tool, you could get the beefier machine now and you'll have it when you have the new shop up and running.

[Matt Day]

For the first year of my marriage I ran an extension cord to the dryer outlet. Just got in the habit of plugging in the x-cord on the way to the shop, and unplugging it and plugging the dryer back in.

Just pointing out it’s possible, and you’ll open up your choices greatly by using 220.

[Mark Rainey]

Scott, I bought the Ridgid from the orange store last year. Works fine right out of box - no problems at all. Face & edge joints spot on. I wanted 8 inches or more of width, but 120 volts and half the weight & a smaller footprint are advantages. Still daydream about something bigger but glad I have the Ridgid.

[Christopher Charles]

I have a blue vintage Jet 6” and have built a lot with including a 7+ foot roubo. I’m sure the rigid or grizzly would be fine.

[Thomas Wilson]

I have a Powermatic 6 inch jointer. It came wired for 120 v but can be rewired for 240 v. I have been using it on 120 v. It is fine. Eight inch or wider would be better I suppose but I get by with what I’ve got.

[roger wiegand]

How wide a jointer do you need? An older Delta DJ-15 (6") or DJ-20 (8") (or their Powermatic equivalents) can be had for $3-800 and will, I think, outperform and outlast any Asian-made jointer. Most have 120/240 v motors, just look at the nameplate on the motor, it's trivial to switch them between the voltages. Either can be upgraded to a segmented cutter pretty easily with off the shelf parts should you desire.

[Scott Winners]

How wide are you looking for? (yes I know Alaska is very different). However I don't live anywhere near Alaska so used may not be hard to find for you.

Yup, all good points. I visited my regional vendor today, besides grizzly and shop fox, they also can special order jet and powermatic. I have been haunting Craigslist enough to figure out how to set it for notifications in the next few hours.

How wide a jointer do you need? An older Delta DJ-15 (6") or DJ-20 (8") (or their Powermatic equivalents) can be had for $3-800 and will, I think, outperform and outlast any Asian-made jointer. Most have 120/240 v motors, just look at the nameplate on the motor, it's trivial to switch them between the voltages. Either can be upgraded to a segmented cutter pretty easily with off the shelf parts should you desire.

I looked at that just today. How wide do I "need". The real question is how long do I need. I am looking at building a few dog sleds, each runner and the brush bow (looks like a bumper) are each made from nominal ten foot long stock. There is no jointer I have seen with an 8 foot infeed table and an 8 foot outfeed table. So I am going to have to build extension tables even if I have infinity budget.

Prices for me today, (MSRP + 35 cents per pound for shipping), with a new straight knife jointer at a retail store here in Fairbanks, rounded up to the next $10.00:

Rigid 6A, 6x48 table $800
Grizzly G0814 6x48 table $920
ShopF W1745 6x48 table $1090
Jet JJ6CSDX 6x56 table $1300
PowerM 54A 6x66 table $1520
Grizzly G0490 8x76 table $1700*
Jet JWJ-8CS 8x72 table $1850*

*The Grizzly 8x76 runs on single phase 220 and utilizes the parallelogram mechanism instead of separate tables on dovetailed ways. The 8" Jet uses dual handwheels, requires 220 volts. Either would be a someday reasonable upgrade when I have a bigger shop with 220 in the walls.

This minute I am leaning towards the Grizzly G0814 as an item that reviews reasonably well here, I shouldn't take too hard a hit on resale value when I upgrade, and if it does meet my needs it should last a good long time. I think the Rigid will be lacking in crediblity at resale, I certainly would not pay a lot for a used Rigid; and getting the $400 upcharge for the 6x56 Jet (compared to 6x48 Grizzly) back at resale will be a hard investment to recoup.

Dang it. I have used the space bar to tidy up my data table twice, and the formatter takes the spaces away. When I use the tab key to format my text that key jumps me out of the text entry field to "post icons." Sorry. I did try. Now to go set up CL notifications for "joiner" and jointer"...

[roger wiegand]

Long tables are a wonderful luxury, but I successfully jointed many 8-10 foot boards on my old DJ-15. For heavy boards that I couldn't keep flat on the table I used a couple of freestanding roller supports to take the weight, one on the infeed side and one on the out. A bit fiddly to set the heights just right, but it worked well and didn't take up shop floor space when not in use.

Of course now that I have a J/P combo that approaches the size of an aircraft carrier I wonder how I ever got along with a 6" jointer.

[Marc Jeske]

Used 60's to 80's Craftsman 6", USA made.

Just a possible option, typically $250 and less in the lower 48.

Be aware outfeed table does not adjust.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...2-99b2282b0255

Marc

[Mike Kees]

Scott set up "planer" in your notifications too. Always amazes me how many people call jointers ,planers in adds.