I finally got the Ridgid jointer (JP0610) out of the box and put together... out of necessity. I had built a sled for large panels using some MDF doubled up as the fence. After looking at a few of the panels I realized they were a hair out of square. So I assembled the jointer and made a real fence out of some 2" poplar stock. It'll hold for now and the panels are square as square can be.
The jointer is pretty nice. It went together easily, although it was more of a pain to assemble and true up than the new table saw. It was easy to get the fence square and the tables were coplanar out of the box. Im happy with the purchase. I will say that even though it came in several pieces, my back is still hurting from carrying the main assembly down the stairs. Thats one heavy SOB. I wouldnt even attempt to do it alone with anything bigger.
I finally got the Freud Dado (SD208) blade on the new saw (Craftsman 22114) to cut some 3/4" dados.... all I can say is 'sweeeeeeet'. There are certainly some better dado sets out there, but I cannot complain about this set. The bottom is dead nutz flush. The edges are as clean as the cuts the WWII is making. And it was easy to setup for the width of the oak plywood I'm using.
All in all, Im as happy as a lark with the recent tool purchases I've made. I haven't had this much fun since I was in college. SWMBO is happy too. Part of the deal with me buying the tools was that I would build her a few pieces first. She is so far satisfied with the progress I have made... I have made a few rookie mistakes (not to be made again) but luckily I am currently still under budget... could that mean another tool?
I will have a website with pictures soon. Stay tuned if you're interested.
Thanks.
Mike W. mike dot witters at yahoo dot com