I was looking at a real good 12'' jointer used and the guy wanted $3500 for it,so I looked a little more and found a 16'' Italian made jointer for $2400. That took about a nano second to make that decision,however as rod pointed out since that decision I have added a bigger bandsaw and planer. I am done buying major tools/machines and starting to watch for wood and build way more stuff,seems like the building the shop phase is finally at an end and I am good with that.
For those wondering about wide lumber, here's Lou Irion's take.
https://irionlumber.com/working-with...atched-lumber/
If wood is going to cup over time (due to changing conditions), it's going to cup twice as much if it's twice as wide. Basic wood technology (see Hoadley e.g.) This puts more stress on the wood, (cracking it perhaps) that can be avoided for almost no esthetic cost by ripping and gluing. Irion's notion that a modern glued ripline joint is not as strong as the wood is hooey. Why he's promoting this point I can only guess.
Doug, while it's true that wood that wants to move is going to move, I agree with Irion with the exception of the glue joint strength point you bring up and there really is an aesthetic cost to ripping and re-gluing...it's very rare that those joints are not going to be visible unless one is working with vertical grain that is pretty darn parallel with the boards on both edges. I much prefer to work with wide lumber and actually seek that out as much as possible.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
I saw that too on the glue joint, maybe he was just referring to the hide glue thats how it reads at first - a typo perhaps...
"Furthermore, we saw more trouble with the pieces with glued up lumber, probably because the original hide type glues are not as powerful as modern adhesives"
As he's using it to justify wide boards for use nowadays, and not just talking about the past, I think it's more than a typo.
Note that the "ancient" furniture we see today is the furniture that _survived_. :^) For the average piece going out the door, the "professional" back then likely had the same pressure to streamline his work that he does now.
I must confess that I didn't read all the previous posts on this rather simple question but I will tell you why I went from a 6 inch jointer to a 12 inch jointer. For decades, the 6 inch worked okay. After I got a CNC router, I began carving plaques, trivets, signs and other wooden items in some quantities for sale. This requires both flat and uniformly thick material. There are all kinds of time consuming and inaccurate work arounds, but the easiest and most accurate way to achieve that goal is to use a jointer and planer of the necessary width, followed by a drum sander pass or two to improve dimensional precision. My point is that if you don't need a wide jointer then don't buy one but if you do then nothing else will do.
I'm just curious . . .How much does a Felder 12" combo jointer/planer with helical heads cost and weigh? I guess I can find the weight online, but sure can't find a price. I purchased an 8" Jet helical head jointer and have owned a 13" Dewalt 735 planer (for years). Together they provide me with sufficient capability to do whatever I need done. If I do encounter a wider board that needs flattening, I have access to at least 2 hardwood suppliers that have equipment. For a nominal price they do what I need done a lot less expensively (given the rarity of this need) than investing in a Felder combo. When I bought my 8" jointer, the prices for the combos available were excessive for my use; not to mention the weight of the combos would have made it extremely difficult to get the machine into my basement shop. So, just curious on the economies these days, especially for a non-production shop.
Go to the Felder US website and register to see the MSRP price, weight, and everything in term of dimension, features.
If you look for a Hammer machine or a Felder machine that is not option-able such as base RL dust extractors, the price is directly on their US Felder shop web site (including the current discount), no need to register.
You can call Felder in your area to see what are their current promotion for option-able machines
There are other substantially cheaper alternatives to Hammer or Felder. I own a Jet JP12-HH that works well for me. I had issues to start with but they have been worked out.