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Thinking about saying goodbye to my 6" jointer

2K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  controlfreak 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
One of my first power tool purchases was a 6" Craftsman jointer. I de-rusted it set new blades and it works well. Ironically I also bought my first plane for $20 from the same family. This weekend I started to take a cracked rough cut cherry board and make two S4S boards out of it using only hand tools. I finished last night and felt like I had a great workout. I am getting pretty damn good at using winding sticks and marking gauges to dimension stock. I even bypassed the table saw in favor of ripping the long edge on each board. As I look at my jointer and the real estate it occupies I ask myself "is this worth it when any board over 6" can't be face jointed anyway and edge jointing is getting easy with a plane?". Should I pull the plug on it?

I have two options 1) Sell it and let someone else do the heavy lifting or 2) move it to my office to store it till I make up my mind. Let me know your opinion.
 
#2 ·
I never owned a 6" jointer, mainly because everyone I talked to said to go straight to 8". I joint so many 6-8" wide boards that I can't imagine making do with less capacity on mine.

Given how many 6" jointers end up being sold on Craigslist/wherever, it seems I got good advice.

I'd ditch it and look for a bigger one, or if you're good enough to not need one at all and just use hand planes, then go that route.
 
#3 ·
I went from a 6" to a 12" but just picked up a old Delta 6" to restore? LOL! we won't talk about how many
hand planes are in the shop, for me have started to downsize most projects but still like the option to pick what method suits my mood? Sometimes slow and quiet places me in a better frame of mind:)
 
#4 ·
Until I commit to expanding the shop an 8" is out of the question but I agree that the 6" is just too limiting. Right now it is such a pain to bring out of the corner (that it hogs) and juggle the dance of misfit tools. I just feel I can part with it. I also love the fact that I can put on a podcast (Mortice and Tenon lately) and work without hearing, lung or eye protection. The old girl also has no dust port so she is a messy girl. Of course when I left the shop last night the floor was full of long wide shavings, I like it like that.

I hear ya Andre, I have two more planes inbound. I am just starting down the rabbit hole of molding planes. Wish me luck.
 
#5 ·
At this point I feel like I can edge joint just as fast with a hand plane than with a power jointer. If I had to pull the power jointer out, maybe connect the dust collection, I'd be done with a hand plane before I even turned the power on.

If you need to face joint a lot of narrow boards, then maybe it's useful. But if you have a thickness planer it doesn't take much effort at all to hand plane one side enough for reference. Again, I'd say any board under 6" wide, I could get one side good enough for referencing for the thickness planer before I'd get the the power jointer out of the corner of the room. You don't need one side perfectly flat. You just need a side decent enough for the thicknesser to reference.

I'll put it this way: if someone offered me a FREE 6" jointer, I'd turn it down.
 
#6 ·
At this point I feel like I can edge joint just as fast with a hand plane than with a power jointer. If I had to pull the power jointer out, maybe connect the dust collection, I d be done with a hand plane before I even turned the power on.

If you need to face joint a lot of narrow boards, then maybe it s useful. But if you have a thickness planer it doesn t take much effort at all to hand plane one side enough for reference. Again, I d say any board under 6" wide, I could get one side good enough for referencing for the thickness planer before I d get the the power jointer out of the corner of the room. You don t need one side perfectly flat. You just need a side decent enough for the thicknesser to reference.

I ll put it this way: if someone offered me a FREE 6" jointer, I d turn it down.

- chriscarter
The last line speaks volumes! As I get more into hand tools I can get a plane or a saw out faster than I can get the power tool set up and running (due to limited space my table saw stays folded up). I think you have pushed me over the edge toward putting it up for sale. I also agree with flattening one side of the board for prep going into the planner. I have never gotten the build a sled thing. Thanks for your input Chris.
 
#7 ·
I have had a 6" jointer for 20 some odd years and rarely use it. Most of the hardwood stores near me only sell S2S or s3s. So I usually just use my table saw and hand planes in some combo. And even still, my Stanley #8 is tuned to joint an edge pretty effortlessly in stuff the size I normally use.
 
#8 ·
I have a 6" and it is probably the least used power tool in the shop. It was initially the go-to tool for getting a straight/square edge on boards as designed, but various table saw techniques have all but eliminated that need. Aside from a few other uses, the one I still keep it around for is small log processing.
I like the colors of apricot for small boxes/frames, but any trees I come across are 90% small logs in the 8" diameter range and under. A dozen passes over the jointer will cut through the bark and leave a good "flat" for riding on the band saw.

I could use it more, but even with a mobile base it just ends up being left where parked, holding various stacks of small boards and other shop surface eating knick-knacks.
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
First off let me say this isn't dismissive, this is purely meant to be educational.

Some folks don't let the absolute width of a jointer determine how wide the max width of a board they can run across the jointer. Everyone wants access to a 16" wide jointer at their disposal just when they need it. Fact is, this visiting jointer doesn't exist, so making use of the one you have is often done in other ways.

This poster mentions a work around a lot of users of 6" jointers have had good luck with.

Popular Woodworking blog, about several different ways to flatten a wide board, including tooling held by hand.

Wood magazine showing the wide guard I speak about below.

Perhaps a better question to ask yourself is if everything you made was less than 6" wide, would you keep the jointer? If your answer is yes, perhaps you just need to be more inventive with how you use your jointer. I have done this using both halves of a board on my jointers through the years, and there is an easy to make fence that makes it as safe as running a jointer is normally. The thing you can think of this is sometimes you do need a swipe or 3 up the center to remove a ridge, but all together time spent to flatten a face is much less than a hand plane alone.

I used to do quite a bit of stair work, so a hand held planer wasn't something I didn't understand how to use, so for me it would always be quicker than a hand plane, YMMV on that, because I have seen some really mess up a piece of stock trying to use one.
 
#10 ·
I guess you have to go by what you need and what your capabilities are. For me, the 6" jointer is my go to tool for straight lining boards to glue or send through the table saw. My shoulder will not take stroking a plane as long as it would take to do what that jointer does. I only use a plane on wider boards to get them flat to go through the planer. I started with a 4" jointer 24" long and now have a 6" Grizzly 55 "long . Some times I wish I had an 8" or 12" but I don't have any room for a bigger machine.

If you need the space and enjoy flattening and straight lining by hand, then the jointer really isn't needed, I guess.

Cheers, Jim
 
#12 ·
Thank you for all the comments. I have decided that because my hand plane skills have improved I would benefit more from the added space. I also detest needing to move every other object including my bench to accommodate room for it. It is going on craigs list as soon as I get some pictures taken.
 
#13 ·
Bought the Dewalt planer. Sold the jointer. Too many alternatives that don't take up valuable floor space. In the ten years since it left the shop, it hasn't once been missed.
 
#14 ·
I'm sorta in the same boat as you CF. Except I have known for years I don't need the jointer yet it still sits taking up shop space… For me, face jointing is normally done with hand planes for smaller projects or on a simple sled I made to send through the thickness planer for larger boards or when I have a lot of lumber to do. Edge jointing is either done with hand planes or using a straight edge ripping jig on my table saw. The jointer just sits sadly in the corner observing all of his better siblings enjoying their recreation time. I can't recall a single time in at least two years that I've used the jointer.

If I had an 8" jointer with long tables, it may be a very different proposition. But my 6" 1940s Atlas is a looker, not a user. Which is why I can't bring myself to part with it. It was one of my first vintage power tool purchases and the first I restored.

As purchased:
Window Table Saw Wood Flooring


After restoration:
Bumper Automotive exterior Wood Gas Machine


I wish I could find a good way to use it to justify its footprint so I could keep it. I have pondered the idea of fitting a sanding drum to it and using it as a kind of surface sander. But that's probably a lot of fiddling for a tool I don't really need and will probably never really use.

Anyway, I say all this to say: Don't fall into my trap and loose shop space indefinitely for sentimental reasons or "just in case". Kick that sucker to the curb. Old 6" jointers are not hard to find if you change your mind later ;-)
 

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#19 ·
Anyone know the best method to sell a heavy tool that can t be shipped? The only two I can think of are Craigs list and Offerup.

- controlfreak
I have been putting stuff up on everything. I have found lately I get hardly any or no response on Craigslist, not even scammers. I actually double checked a few posts to make sure they were published since I kind of missed the scammers.

Offerup I get a lot more responses, but the majority are people who want to pay half of your asking price so they can flip it for profit.

Facebook marketplace is hit or miss on the item and your area.

Overall though I think people are favoring Offerup and Facebook because it's not as anonymous as CL.
 
#20 ·
Facebook MP is probably the most common these days, though people do still list larger tools on CL. Fewer scammers on FB than CL, though my wife has had a few people try on FB recently. At the end of the day, it is going to come down to how many people want it whether any of the sites work for you. Note that searching on FB has gotten to be a pain because they automatically assume you want to see national listing that require shipping. After each search, I have to go into the filter and recheck the local listings only or you see stuff from all over.

BTW, I bought a bench top jointer because I don't have the floor space. I can put it on a shelf when not in use. There are some decent 8" bench top jointers with spiral or helical cutters now that would be handy when you have a bunch of boards to joint or flatten.
 
#21 ·
Craigs list was the first hit and soon followed by three on FB Marketplace. OfferUp was zero hits. I got a little frustrated with the back and forth and finally told the guy if he didn't set up a meeting time by 2:00 PM I was going to tell the others it is still available and the first one to plunk the cash in hand gets it. He ended up getting his son to meet me and the jointer left the shop yesterday afternoon. Time to rearrange the shop to see if I can make things flow better. I may even get lucky and make it look better too.
 
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