Jet Power Tools

Hi. Jet JWP-12 Thicknesser at about £210.

1800W, max width 318mm On epinions it has 3 fair-to-middlin reviews.

Does anyone know a better deal for a thicknesser for not much more money?

Thanks.

Arthur

Reply to
Arthur2
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Ebay..... Ryobi,Sip.Charnwood

Reply to
George

It depends on what you mean by "better deal".

There was a review of benchtop planers in Fine Woodworking a few years ago which included this planer among nine others in a side by side test.

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can download it as a PDF.

There are several machines that are U.S. specific by name but can easily be recognised as being sold under a different private label here. The reviewer split the machines into three price groups (< $300, $300-400 and >$400. Jet, DeWalt and some others were in the middle price group, with Delta and Makita in the top price group.

In terms of results, the reviewer graded all of them as able to produce good results. Not a great deal is said about the Jet either way, other than it is relatively expensive compared to the others on the cost of knives and has two handles to lock the cutter block rather than one. In the mid range group, the reviewer preferred the DeWalt. He doesn't rate any others in the mid range group apart from Ridgid (which is Home Depot's private label brand).

I looked at portable planers as an option a few years ago and learned the following from researching them:

- The results can be good and can be improved if you arrange good additional support, especially on the outfeed side. The attached tables are limited. So especially if you intend to plane long pieces, it's pretty much essential. There have been numerous projects which incorporate the possibility to place a portable planer in a multi-functional bench.

- There is going to be snipe. It is worse on smaller machines than the larger cast iron jobs but can be reduced with outfeed support. Nonetheless, it may be necessary to allow for perhaps an extra 100mm or so on the length of material and cut this off after thicknessing.

- There is going to be a lot of noise. Hearing protection mandatory. Early Sunday morning not popular with neighbours.

- There is going to be a lot of waste shavings and dust. Friends who have portable thicknessers say that dust collection is necessary or there will be a mess over a wide area. Normally a thicknesser, especially a portable one, is run with 1-2mm cut at a time, larger machines will do more. Even at 1mm, on wide board, there is a lot of waste production very quickly. It's possible to just about get away with a large shop-vac type of cleaner with a wide bore (50mm) hose as long as passes are thin, but much more and it will block easily which is very frustrating. Really, it is necessary to have a proper dust extractor with at least a 100mm hose unless one is willing to put up with the inconvenience and mess and use is occasional.

If you are going to need to do planing as well and space is available, then a floor-standing planer-thicknesser is a better proposition. After trying out various things, that's what I ended up doing.

Equally, I do know people who are getting good results with portable planers, albeit with all the caveats.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Thanks very much, Andy. I'm not really set up to handle mounds and clouds of shavings and dust. I've had another think and I'm going to find a joiners shop that will run the boards thru their machine.

Arthur

Reply to
Arthur2

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