[AndyJ1s]

In the long run, I'd get a good jointer/planer combo with carbide insert cutterhead. They are much cheaper, and take up less room, than equivalent capacity separates, with one motor and one cutter head. And you can face joint any board that will go through your planer, without a sled.

In the meantime, a lunchbox planer with steel blades, a planer sled for flattening, and a table saw sled for jointing will get you through. As will hand tools.

The Grizzly mentioned has a 5 HP motor, which is, IMHO, overkill for a 12" machine in that price range. Sure it'll let you hog off an eighth of an inch per pass, but you'll need 220V, 30A service for it, which you likely don't have in your shop. It also has angled ways, which are harder to align for table coplanarity than parallelogram/eccentric types. The changeover between planing and jointing also takes longer on the Grizzly style, since you have to remove the jointer fence.

You might also consider whether you prefer the American "porkchop" style jointer guard, or the Euro style guard. I like the Euro style, especially for face jointing, but plenty of folks prefer the porkchop.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Have you checked out jointing on the router table?

 

[CWWoodworking]

Have you checked out jointing on the router table?

- JIMMIEM

IMO this is going about it backwards.

The first step generally is to get a flat, straight face, then an edge. With a router, you will be extremely limited in size of lumber.

 

[NateFinch]

Given what else you're planning on buying, I would plan on a jointer, too. Keep an eye on craigslist and facebook marketplace for a used one… you can usually get them for a couple hundred bucks. Well worth it, in my opinion. It's just so much easier and faster to get good results. You can start with a cheapy used one and upgrade later if you need to. The great thing about tools is that they retain value really well, so it's not hard to trade up.

You don't need a massive floor-standing 12" one. A benchtop 6" will work just fine to start, or an older floor-standing 6" (that's what I have).

 

[Digelectric]

I had a Powermatic jointer and donated it to a school and use a router with a downcut bit and an edge guide to straighten edges now. It takes longer but I don't mind. there are also hand tools that can accomplish the same thing. So yes you can get by. It's just a matter of where you want to put your time and money. for me, the jointer took up a ton of space and it was hard to get it adjusted perfectly and I found that more often than not what i really wanted were parallel edges and it was of no use for that, so kids in a local junior college are probably slicing their fingers off with it now but learning some good skills with it otherwise

 

[WalkerR]

I usually flatten side A by hand with a scrub plane, flip it over and use the planer to flatten side B, then flip it over again to smooth side A with the planer. For a couple of boards it s faster than messing around with sleds. If time was money I would have a jointer.

- theart

This is what I do too. I have a 4" benchtop jointer which is good for small pieces, or to clean up blade burn. But for the larger rough cut boards either the No 6 for the first face, or the No 8 for the edge gets it close enough to be a reference. Then the power tools take over from there.

The thing about space for any tool with a fixed cutter (TS, planer, jointer, etc) is if you want to process an 8ft board, you need 16ft, with 8 ft in front of the blade and 8 ft after the blade. Plus outfeed tables and room to move yourself and the workpiece around the machine. With a hand plane an 8ft board only requires 8 ft of space.