Jet JJP-12 Combo with helical head

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Curt,
I was going to request a quote from Byrd, but you are well ahead of me.

I agree, $1,000+ for a shelix head is a lot of ching. Especially considering the whole machine is currently selling for $2,000. I would have to do some serious thinking to come up with a justification. Perhaps one way to look at it: We would be buying a helical head for a jointer and a planer. That's only $500 each.

I imagine that the depth of cut can offset the fixed feed rate while planing? As far as the warranty, I'd be willing to take the risk. However, if another part failed that is unrelated to the cutter head (like a fracture in the hinge casting, or the knob came off on the crank handle), I doubt the warranty would be void. Besides, does Jet come out to your house to inspect the machine? Even if I have to pay for a replacement part (including the motor which appears to have a generic NEMA mount), so be it.

See...I told you I could talk myself into it!

-Jeff

[Chuck Tringo]

Curt,
I was going to request a quote from Byrd, but you are well ahead of me.

I agree, $1,000+ for a shelix head is a lot of ching. Especially considering the whole machine is currently selling for $2,000. I would have to do some serious thinking to come up with a justification. Perhaps one way to look at it: We would be buying a helical head for a jointer and a planer. That's only $500 each.

I imagine that the depth of cut can offset the fixed feed rate while planing? As far as the warranty, I'd be willing to take the risk. However, if another part failed that is unrelated to the cutter head (like a fracture in the hinge casting, or the knob came off on the crank handle), I doubt the warranty would be void. Besides, does Jet come out to your house to inspect the machine? Even if I have to pay for a replacement part (including the motor which appears to have a generic NEMA mount), so be it.

See...I told you I could talk myself into it!

-Jeff

That alone would push me to the grizzly, its less than $2500 to your door with a spiral head installed. Now all i need to do is win the lottery.....

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The Grizzly sure is attractive, but I see a few things that are a bit of a turn off for me...

1. The machine is not as compact because of the rack & pinion fence which prohibits it from being placed up against a wall;

2. I don't like the idea of having to remove the fence and the guard during every conversion;

3. It requires a 30A outlet which I don't have. But, perhaps this is what it takes to spin a spiral head.

On the other hand, I don't cherish the thought of taking apart a brand new machine (i.e., the Jet) to install a non-stock cutterhead. I have heard rumor that Grizzly may offer a 10" jointer/planer model. Does anyone know anything about this rumor?

-Jeff

[Scott Myers]

I've been looking at the various combo machines too. The one thing I don't like about the ones I have looked at (in the price range I have considered) is that the feed rate in planer mode is one speed (20 FPM typ), which seems a bit too high to me. This is unlike the dedicated planers, which usually have 2 speeds (16" FPM low speed and some other high speed). I understand that in order to get the prices down on these units, that they decide to make a trade off and just give them one speed. But for the home hobbyist (which I assume is the target market for these units), most would run them in low speed anyway if they did have 2 speeds, or at least I would think so. So by having a 16 fpm rate, you would think they could handle the helical head. But who knows? Perhaps there is more to it than that, but I wouldn't know what.

Could this be the reason the Grizzly unit is 5 HP, so it can handle the helical head?

[Matt Benton]

I just bought a JJP-12, and inquired about the helical head. I was told it will be available "after 1st quarter 2009". They also confirmed that adding the Byrd will void the warranty...

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Matt,
How do you like your new machine?
-Jeff

[Gary Venable]

I was looking for some info on the JJP-12 on the Jet site and I noticed it's not there. All they have under jointer/planner is the smaller 10" and 8".

http://woodworking.jettools.com/Resu...px?cat=2560693

-Gary

[Matt Benton]

Jeff,

So far, so good. I just got it last week, and am in the middle of setting up a 2-car garage shop in our new house. I got it off the pallet last night and fired it up, but haven't cut anything yet. I plan on posting a review once I get some time on it...

The fence, although aluminum, seems like it will be quite sufficient. As others have posted, it is easy to adjust and locks down tight.

I sold my Unisaw to fund this purchase, as I'm moving to a bandsaw-centric shop. Without the TS, I had to have a jointer for edging (and I could tell the planer sled was going to get old quickly for face jointing). For me, the opportunity to have a 12" jointer, as well as save space in a small shop was more than I could pass up.

Matt

[Matt Benton]

Gary,

They have it under "Jointers". They definitely need to move it...

http://woodworking.jettools.com/Prod...px?Part=708475

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, I bought the Jet JP12 a few months ago. It has some real pluses, and a few minor quibles. It is very compact, the fence is pretty nice, and the change over is one of the best I have seen. You may want to look at one before you buy it - they have a different surface on the tables then you are used to - it is hard to describe but the surface has ridges, it is not flat like other jointers - though it works fine. Negatives - the planer table is way too short, I had a longer table on my benchtop planer - they could have made rollers or extensions pretty easily, IMHO, so that the wood wouldn't fall to the ground as it comes out. ( The Jet table is about 21 inches long, the Grizzly is about 23 ) The instruction manual does a poor job of explaining how to set the tables coplanar. Overall, I think it is an excellent machine - when I bought it, it was much cheaper than the Grizzly straight knife equivalent. If your purchase price is in the neighborhood of $2,200, then I would look long and hard at the Grizzly spiral head 12 inch - the spiral head is a great advantage in not having to set knives. The downsides are the grizzly takes up a little more room and the changeover doesn't seem to be as easy. If money is tight and you can wait, I heard Grizzly may be coming out with a 10 inch combo - possibly with the spiral head, but I don't know when.

[Matt Benton]

Barry,

Thanks for the review, but I already bought mine a few weeks ago.

I had it delivered for about 1700...

Matt

[Dick Strauss]

How expensive can it be for Jet to add a 1/6 hp variable speed DC motor and controller to the Jet J/P like Woodmaster does for their 712/718 planers? Another option would be for Jet to follow Woodmaster's lead and use a 5 hp motor instead of a 3 hp model (though it draws 30A which might be a problem for some).

I'd think there would be an easy fix but maybe I'm missing something here????

FYI-I have no connection to Woodmaster though I do think they make a good product.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The Jet JJP-12 has one motor for the cutterhead and feed rollers. I'm guessing that a variable speed motor just serving the feed rollers would require a massive re-design and significantly add to the cost of the machine. It's likely that Jet has a target price of $2,000 for this machine. Further, in our current economic slump, I bet companies will be very cautious with their investments of new developments.

I came across an internet review on a pre-production Jet JJP-12 that apparently had a helical head in it. However, the link within the article to Jet's website for this machine no longer exists.

I also received a quote from Byrd for a helical head. It was $1,095 without bearings. The homeowner would have to install it. The machine is currently $2,000 (including a $100 rebate and delivery). That puts this machine over $3,100 which is entering Hammer A3-31 territory. On a positive note, Byrd said that this machine performs "wonderfully" with the helical head. Go figure.

-Jeff

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, thats a good price - how do you like it?

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, good score - how do you like it?