Yorkcraft YC-8J

Hi Ken, I have the 6" Yorkcraft, which I love. Plan to upgrade to the 8" eventually.

Tony

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tony1158
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Yorkcraft YC-8J Jointer

Price 649 Shipping 280 includes liftgate delivery Shipping Assistance -40 Total Price 889

Ordered 11-22-04 Received 12-3-04

Arrived in 2 boxes on pallet. One box contained stand. Other box contained everything else.

Lower box arrived with minor fork lift dents.

Assembly required about 3 hours.

Manual shows a picture of the Delta Professional Jointer and is accurate mechanically, but has problems with spelling and grammar.

Jointer is manufactured by JINTENG and appears to be a clone of the Delta 37-380.

The first (ultimately non-) issue was the mismatch between the documentation and expectation.

The documentation says the motor is 110/220 wired 110. The jointer is actually pre-wired 220. The plug on the jointer motor is 110. The switch has a 220 plug and accepts a 110 for the jointer motor. A check of the motor wiring (by removing the cover) and the switch (using a Voltmeter) showed that the switch passed 220 and the motor was wired 220. As long as the switch is only used on the jointer it shouldn't be a problem. Plugging in any 110 device to the 110 looking plug would probably be a disaster.

The shipping grease was easily removed.

The stand has a built in mobile base which requires one caster to be attached to it with 3 bolts.

Putting the bed on the stand was an adventure. It is heavy!

The bed attaches to the stand with 3 bolts. The front bolt is accessed through the dust chute. I dropped a piece of thread through the hole to lift the bolt and installed it upside down (per the instructions).

It took some time to line up the pulleys, with a second issue presenting itself. The bottom pulley has .034 runout. I called Wilke to ask them about that and they responded by saying that they would ship out a replacement pulley. The top pulley runout was less then .002.

The dust collector connector (4 screws) and the rear panel(6 screws) attach easily into threaded holes.

The fence (6 bolts) and electric switch(2 bolts) connected easily, as did the cutterhead guard, although you have to make sure the spring tensions in the correct direction.

As far as I can tell, the beds are flat. I was unable to find any 6 inch distance that was more than .001 different in height.

The fence has a .008 twist on the outfeed fence. I'm going to ask Wilke about it, but I don't think it is a big deal.

The base seemed pretty solid, but starting the jointer made it rattle. How much of that is caused by vibration from the bad pulley I don't know, but I suspect most of it.

The test board was a 3 foot piece of twisted hickory. Feeding it into the cutterhead with pressure on the infeed table and transferring the pressure to the outfeed table while feeding the board resulted in a nearly perfectly flat board. Laying it on the infeed table it almost felt like it was being sucked down to the table.

Fit and finish are pretty good, not a high gloss Delta or Jet finish but a nice soft gray. It looks good in the mostly gray garage. Everything went together fine and the machine seems to function well.

A 37-380 (1049) and mobile base (90) from Amazon would be $1139. Liftgate delivery usually adds another $75. I figure that puts me ahead $325.

Well, actually not ahead, but the difference paid for a Grizzly G1029Z dust collector.

As a side note, had Delta responded to me (who had never bought anything but Delta until this year), in the two days time they promised to (YES,I AM STILL WAITING), this purchase probably would have been a 37-380 and a 50-850.

BTW, SWMBO insisted I buy both. She's the best.

Ken Dibble

Reply to
Ken Dibble

I have Yorkcraft 15" Planer that I got on a very good price. I started to build my shop with Grizzly tools, but now I will consider Yorkcraft as a viable alternative.

Cheers, Ollie

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Ollie

Reply to
Dave W

I purchased the 6" model last week and had the weekend to put it together and try it out. In general I am happy although some things were disappointing.

Here are my thoughts:

Shipping was quoted at one price but when the shipper called to make delivery arrangements they asked $35 more than was quoted. Called Wilke to fix and they did, although they told me there would be a fuel surcharge which was not mentioned when the order was placed. Not a lot of money but one of those annoying lack of paying attention to details things that makes a difference.

Jointer arrived with all the shipping containers undamaged and properly palletized. When opened I found a dime size dimple in the stand and the blade guard paint was chipped, as it if had been dropped even though it was bagged in plastic.

Assembly was straightforward with the single exception of putting one allen screw into the base from under the stand. The only way to get this screw in was through the dust chute and it was impossible to see anything. It all had to be done by touch, including getting the bolt started and inserting an allen wrench. Man, that was a real bitch. And if you have big hands it would only be worse.

The unpainted metal surfaces were coated in grease - mineral spirits and a wide putty knife cleaned it off quite well. There was no oxidation on any surface. The knives were beautifully set and required no adjustment at all. The pulleys also lined up fine, although I don't like the belt and will probably swap it out for a link-belt in the future. I have yet to check the runout on the pulleys - have to do that soon. The fence was about .025" out of plumb and about the same for the 45 degree settings. Not particularly hard to adjust but time consuming to get right. I did not like the amount of play in the vertical stop but there was no way to reduce it and practically speaking the play had no impact on the reliability and repeatability of the setting.

The motor was advertised as USA but it was Chinese through and through. I liked the mounts and the adjustments - easy to access and easy to use. It is a cap start motor but with only one cap, so it is not a cap run. If you look at the Delta motor in their online user manual it is clearly USA cap run and cap start. Probably one of the reasons for the diff in price between the two. I wired it for 220VAC with the wiring diagram found inside the motor cover.

The tables and the fence were dead flat except for one small crown in the right rear corner of the infeed table. That created a dish in the table of about .005" which Wilke said was in spec and that seems right to me. I could probably stone this little rise down but I am going to wait to see if I notice it making a difference first.

The Wilke Machinery webpage advertised the USA motor and a "thumb release locking lever." Mine had neither. A call into Wilke found them surprised that their online catalog advertised those things and they said they would remove the erroneous information but did not offer to replace either the motor or supply the lever. They did offer to replace the blade guard and to send me an extra set of knives to make up for the dented stand.

As for operation, this is my first jointer so I was not sure what to expect. I like the rack and pinion adjustment and after considerable adjustment and tuning it is very smooth. The switch position on a pole is unnecessary in my opinion. The infeed table adjustment lever works efficiently but I think I would prefer a wheel - not a big thing really. The built-in mobile base is truly great and makes it very easy to move. I wonder about the life span of the adjustable legs as they don't appear all that sturdy. The tool works very well indeed and I made about 50 passes with walnut, sycamore and mahogany and found no discernible difference. Each of these boards was around 4 feet long and there was no problem balancing them on the tables. They were 6/4,

5/4 and 8/4 respectively. I trued up an edge first and then flattened one side. The sycamore had about a 1/4" twist/cup in it which came out very well. There was minimal tearout. The motor never even hiccuped, but I had to retighten the belt after about a dozen passes.

When all was said and done my thoughts were it is a good product but I questioned my decision to save a few pennies. The final price came in at $425 with shipping. The Delta version from Amazon with free shipping, the $50 rebate and the Amazon $25 credit would have landed on my door for about $35 more. Factor in a 5 year warranty, the USA motor and locking lever (but admittedly no mobile base - another $50) and I can see the value in Delta. As always your mileage may vary. Hope this helps and I have some pix of my experiences, if you would like to see them let me know.

Ken Dibble wrote:

rattle.

Reply to
diyguy

replying to Ken Dibble, R Dillon wrote: Do you have a user manual for a yorkcraft yc-6j. If so, can you email a copy to snipped-for-privacy@bellsouth.net? Tks

Reply to
R Dillon

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