Which Jointer would you buy?

I looked at those when I was in the market for a jointer. There are many people that have mixed opinions about the helical cutters and the granite tables. I read several bad reviews so I opted for a used Jet on craigslist.

I purchased that Steel City Jointer from Lowes several months ago. It was a special order item, when the box arrived it was destroyed and parts were missing ( thanks UPS)
So, after contacting Steel City, getting the missing parts, I was ready to make some chips.

At first the Jointer gave a butter smooth cut, then it began to go out of co-planer. After several festering minutes it was perfectly co-plane, several board ft latter….out of co-plane. This cycle happened 4-5 times, the reason was the how the in-feed and out-feed tables are secured to the unit. There are 4 set screws that adjust the plane,wth an attachment bolt that screws into the set screws.
I returned the unit to Lowes and purchased a 8’ grizzly jointer, It was my last pc of equipment from Steel City
On a good note, the Helical cutter head is amazing!!!!
Good Luck

Russell, of those…the full size one is far better. I have a delta benchtop somewhere in my basement. Good for small projects. When I upgraded to the ridgid 6” model it was HUGE step up. I know where you can get a good deal on a gently used delta : )

I would take into consideration the length of the table. Some of them looked pretty short.
I bought a Grizzly 6” 1 1/2 hp with a standard cutter head and it is 46” long and I love it. It has the switch up high and the fence tilts either way. Knives are not hard to change and it has parallelogram tables.
Look at the Grizzly model G0452. It is up to $550 in the new catalog- page 37. It is solid cast iron table and fence. The helical head model is $750.

The 1 hp model G0654 is $425. Both are 3 cutter heads. Nice machines.

That Steel city one with 6” width and helical head sounds pretty cheap. I have heard that with a helical head, you cannot take off very small amounts with it, but I have never had one

I don’t see an out feed table adjustment on the porter cable and steel city machines. That is very important to set it up right after changing blades.

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!! Variety is the Spice of Life!!

I have used a small benchtop planer and they are far too light to do a good job. In this situation I would reluctantly suggest the HF option…it could be a HF gem..you never know

Shane, Sure, what do you have?

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

I have the delta benchtop unit. Looks exactly like the PC pictured above. The table length is the drawback. Its about 3 or 4 yrs old, about 30-40 bf total on it. Been in the basement for at least 2 1/2 yrs.

Shane, now I’m leaning toward this one.

Grizzly G0654 6” x 46” Jointer

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

Sure is a nice Grizzly Russell, it well serve you well for years.

I’m mostly going to use it for WRC. Hand planing works, but when you make as many Adirondack chairs as I do, you need something that will make it smooth quickly.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

Grizz, if not then the HF

-- Norman - I never never make a mistake, I just change the design.

Shane, show me some pictures.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

For the same money, you can step up quite a bit in size and quality by going used on Craigslist. I picked up a 6” Jet for $275 last year and with just a bit of maintenance and time to set it up correctly, it’s an outstanding machine. Any of a number of machines (Jet, Ridgid, Grizzly) in this category would serve you well for many years to come.

-- If it ain't broke, take it apart and find out why

Russ, the two bench top models are pretty good machines but I think they are way too small for the Adirondack chair business. I have used the HF dozens of times over the past 5-6 years and can say that it is the best value for the money from the machines you have posted. The Grizzly is almost a exact copy of the Craftsman 6” jointer series but with a different paint job. The fence system on these models suck! The fence on the HF is a bit twitchy also but a hell of alot simpler to set than the Grizz.

I think the HF is a very underrated machine.

V/R….John

If price is the driving factor, without question get the stationary model. The capacity, mass, and stability will give it the upper hand in performance. It also has a belt drive induction motor vs a direct drive universal motor.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....