Jointer purchase decision

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[Lee Gordon]

For about $350 you can get a very nice 6" jointer at your local Home Depot.

Lee

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[brianlanning]

He probably means a Rigid model. They have a 6" floor standing jointer that would serve your needs just fine.

Look, just buy this:

's the delta JT360. Looks like with the right code you can get either $40 off the price or a free reciprocating saw. There's also a $30 mail-in rebate and the shipping is free. So it looks like you can have it for $280 delivered.

If your patient, you can watch ebay or craigslist or the paper or something like that and pick up a good used one for probably less.

brian

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I watch ebay but upu have to find something local because of shipping. What is craiglist?

Is this Delta verry good for longer boards? I think Lowes has this for

349 stand and all. Is it better to buy something like this online or in a actual store?

[brianlanning]

dags for craigs list

For longer boards you want longer tables. The longer the better. Brand doesn't really enter in to this.

Yeah, it's probably the exact same model they have at lowes. The stand is included with the machine. Only the bench top models don't have a stand.

Whether to buy online is up to you. There's no tax online, but there's usually a shipping charge. In this case there isn't. Amazon is also having a good sale right now. The down side of online is that if you want to return something, you have to ship it. You're not likely to have those kinds of problems. Just make sure there's no shipping damage when you unload it from the truck.

brian

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I read a few bad reviews online of this jointer. (And several good). How does it compare to the RIGID? I went online and they reviewed jointers. The Sunhill rated very well but I dont know anywhere that sells it locally.

[brianlanning]

At that price, none of them will be perfect.

brian

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[brianlanning]

It's a floor model. They're notorious for being way out of adjustment. Also, It could have been dropped, or sat upon. Then again, sometimes you just get a dud. And why it's not flat matters. Is the top not flat or is one of the tables just sagging and correctable with shims? If you really want to be sure, go over to woodcraft and buy the jointer from them. They'll probably set it up for you and make sure it's flat. And if it's not, they'll take it back and make it right. You won't pay $280 though.

brian

[W Canaday]

Nope ... assume that the fence was not set square to the table. That's the end-users job to set and verify each time you begin working and occaisionally afterward if you are into a big job.

Bill

[B a r r y]

That's an excellent point.

For some reason, the floor model of every tool I've ever checked out has been assembled finger tight, is missing parts, occasionally has a nice soda can ring on the cast iron...

[brianlanning]

They're usually assembled by kids in a hurry. I bet a lot of returned machinery end up as floor models also. I'd expect a place like grizzly or woodcraft to have a properly set up floor model in case someone wants to run a few boards through it. But home depot is just the opposite. It seems like every time I play with a rigid band saw, the blade (if it's there) is off the wheels and jammed between the wheel and the case.

brian

[CW]

Or do it the easy (faster) way. Take a strait board and do whatever needed to mount it to the router table. Put a notch in the middle of one edge for the bit. On the outfeed side, use a piece of double sided tape to stick a piece of plastic laminate, plastic sheet, sheetmetal or anything else about the right thickness. Jointer fence, fast and simple.

[CW]

[John Santos]

Norm just showed exactly how to do this on "Router 101" part 2, which aired yesterday on my local PBS station. The "slide the outfeed side against the cut edge" method looks a lot easier than trying to get the two halves of the fence precisely parallel and even with the bit by measuring first.