Is This Jointer A Waste Of Money?

[fyb]

You can get 6" jointers for $200ish, but it's usually a pretty big step to hit 8" and they become very heavy and cumbersome. If you want to joint halves for solidbodies though, a 6" won't cut it. Harbor Freight has a 7" jointer for $259. Do you think something like this is worth the investment? Have any of you had any experience with these?

[MiKro]

You can get 6" jointers for $200ish, but it's usually a pretty big step to hit 8" and they become very heavy and cumbersome. If you want to joint halves for solidbodies though, a 6" won't cut it. Harbor Freight has a 7" jointer for $259. Do you think something like this is worth the investment? Have any of you had any experience with these?

Personally I would save my dollars or look at Craigs list or some of the woodworking forums and buy a used Jet 6" or delta 6" for the same price as the HB.

Just my .02cents

mk

[fyb]

You can get 6" jointers for $200ish, but it's usually a pretty big step to hit 8" and they become very heavy and cumbersome. If you want to joint halves for solidbodies though, a 6" won't cut it. Harbor Freight has a 7" jointer for $259. Do you think something like this is worth the investment? Have any of you had any experience with these?

Personally I would save my dollars or look at Craigs list or some of the woodworking forums and buy a used Jet 6" or delta 6" for the same price as the HB.

Just my .02cents

mk

But my whole issue was being able to do 6 1/2"-7" for body blanks. You can get some nice 6" jointers for reasonable prices, but the 8" get pricey.

Edited September 24, 2007 by fyb

[Kenny]

heres my personal opinion.

you shouldnt need to joint and ends that are wider than 6 inches, ive never needed to anyways that is.... if your going to ive used the jet ones, and they work pretty nicely, never had any experiance witht eh delta but ive heard good things about it. plus they always make a really quality product and tends to be true from the manufacturers. if moneys an issue and your using wood that thick, you can always resaw your body blanks and joint them seperatly.

dont knwo if that helped.

oh, also....i wouldnt get the less expensive way out, save up for a better tool cause power tools arent something you wanna have crap out on you...

kenny

[Rick500]

I have a 6" Jet jointer, but it works fine for 2 piece bodies; their thickness is never more than 2" or so. The planer (or a router jig) takes care of the face/back. You wouldn't be able to get the face and back surfaces parallel with a jointer anyway. Flat, but not parallel.

[Kenny]

exactly

the delta planer 13" finishing planer i use workes amazingly well . i found it has trouble with ebony and bubinga though, but i think thats only cause the blade is dull (and im trying to do fine dimensioning with the finishing speed) and its cool that it has 2 speeds, the finishing speed is like running it through one of the sanding planers....its the best planer ive ever used, and only for 500 bacon cheese burgers...as that old wendies commercial would say.

jointed faces is a very inefficent and inaccurate way of trying to get you lumber square...to do that just take it to a table saw, then planer, then jointer or whatever...

Edited September 24, 2007 by Kenny

[MiKro]

You can get 6" jointers for $200ish, but it's usually a pretty big step to hit 8" and they become very heavy and cumbersome. If you want to joint halves for solidbodies though, a 6" won't cut it. Harbor Freight has a 7" jointer for $259. Do you think something like this is worth the investment? Have any of you had any experience with these?

Personally I would save my dollars or look at Craigs list or some of the woodworking forums and buy a used Jet 6" or delta 6" for the same price as the HB.

Just my .02cents

mk

But my whole issue was being able to do 6 1/2"-7" for body blanks. You can get some nice 6" jointers for reasonable prices, but the 8" get pricey.

Jointing the edge for glue up is not a problem for the 6". Now if you are trying to joint and square one surface to the other. then yes if you want to do boards larger than 6" wide you will need to go to the 8" or larger. If you have one good surface, then a good table saw, setup properly will do the jointed edge, then a properly setup rip fence to parallel the other edge. Then using, a planer to resurface the opposite face for thickness and parallel. I don't really use a jointer much as I really have no need for one. I recently sold mine. Unless you are buying rough or undimensioned wood, there are otherways to accomplish the tasks.

Just my .02cts

mk

[Vinny]

fyb, why are you going to run the wide sides on a jointer? Typically the narrow 2'' sides would be run on a jointer and the flat wide sides (6-12'') would be sent through a planer. I run both machines (both delta) and I dont believe either was over $225. -Vinny

[Jon]

I prefer my table saw as well, but it's a very big hassle to switch between my jointing table saw blade and my fret slot blade if the fingerboard isn't jointed. So to keep things efficient, a jointer is very helpful towards me.

[orgmorg]

I would steer clear of any Harbor freight machinery. It is generally the worst of the chinese stuff.

Newer chinese machines are getting pretty good, but this is not one of them.

If you are jointing wide faces, the tables really need to be aligned perfectly.

This can be tricky even with a good quality jointer, sometimes impossible with a crappy one.

[Woodenspoke]

I would steer clear of any Harbor freight machinery. It is generally the worst of the chinese stuff.

Newer chinese machines are getting pretty good, but this is not one of them.

If you are jointing wide faces, the tables really need to be aligned perfectly.

This can be tricky even with a good quality jointer, sometimes impossible with a crappy one.

You want tools on the cheap Grizzly, Grizzly, Grizzly, did i Say Grizzly. The best supported chinese tools. HF has zero quality control, they just move boxes. Unfortunately most cheap jointers are a setup project even the Grizzly. I have an old powermatic 6" model 50 jointer and I am still tweaking it to make it perfect, but it was free and had some issues (you get what you pay for I guess). I generally just use a good hand jointer for glue joints after the table saw. Fingerboards I use a thickness sander because of the hardness and width. Even a good jointer has issues with very hard wood.