Right now I'm leaning heavily toward a Grizzly 6" jointer because they've gotten very good reviews and shipping is much cheaper than ordering a Yorkcraft or Bridgewood from Wilke Machinery. However, the Sunhill looks very attractive because its 52" table is by far the longest in its class. Shipping is only slightly more than Grizzly charges.
However, on epinions.com both reviewers said the base is too small, the result being that the jointer is very top heavy and moves during use. If someone with the Sunhill jointer could tell me what they think about this complaint it would go a long way in helping me make up my mind. Thanks.
I read that same thing when I was considering my purchase. However, having had mine for about a year now (and I use it for every project -- just love it), I have no problems with it being top heavy. In fact, it looks like the Z series grizzly jointer base anyway. If you are going to have problems with the base on the Sunhill you'd probably have them with the grizzly too.
The only thing I can think of is perhaps they have a very uneven floor. I can see how that would make the base unstable and any Jointer is top heavy (wait until you try to lift the table to put it on the base -- a friend is a MUST, I did it by myself and I was sore for days and a little afraid I'd blown out a disc, bad, bad, bad...). A possible solution would be to mount the base to something else (plywood maybe??) there are welded tabs at the bottom with holes that must be for exactly that. A better option (in my opinion) would be to mount the base to a rolling base -- you'll get a wider stance and convience of moving it around.
Oh, and one more thing to point out about the extra long 52". You'll need to buy some feeler guages to get those extensions to fit flat with the infeed/outfeed tables. Also you'll need to grind part of the washer off (where it will hit the top underside of the extension) otherwise when you tighten it down it tends to force the extension upwards as the washer is pressed against the top. But once you've done that, you've got a 52" table and you'll never mess with it again.
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