Jet JJP-10BTOS Review

[Jeremy Greiner]

Before purchasing the Jet Jointer/Planer combo machine I did a bit of research and found a lot of mixed reviews. Many of the bad reviews on Amazon were complaining about broken, bent or dented parts some even admitted to heavy box damage.

I couldn't find a similar priced alternative I figured I'd give the tool a try. I ordered from my local Woodcraft store (for the same price) instead of through Amazon. This was for 2 reasons, the Woodcraft store get's the package directly from Jet via freight instead of UPS or Fedex and if there were any problems with the unit it would be easy to return.

Once I got the tool home, unpacking it wasn't very difficult and overall assembly was easy. The most difficult part was assembling the stand which is a shame because the stand is complete garbage. It is very flimsy and could tip if not weighted properly. For me this wasn't an issue because I knew that I was going to build my own stand going into the purchase. (The stock stand puts the tool much taller than I would like).

The in and out feed on the jointer were properly aligned and co-planar out of the box. The fence once installed needed some tweaking to achieve 90 degrees but that took all of 5 minutes to do.

The out feed for the planer table has some adjustment screws to help remove snipe. Running my test planes through and using my caliper I didn't notice any snipe issues but I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Most of the parts are steel and extruded aluminum, instead of cast iron but they aren't slouches either the parts are very sturdy and if treated properly I think will last a long while.

Changer over takes about 2 minutes, it could be faster if you were trying to beat a speed trial or something but I generally take my time with such things. I could see it being annoying if you jointed then planed each piece of wood separately but if you plan things out you can do all your jointing, then switch over and do all your planeing.

The dust collection worked very well, stock it outputs to a 2 1/2'' hose with a 4'' adapter. Using the adapter I was able to connect it to my dust collector and it sucked up all the dust. I think this can be connected to a shop vac I just don't know how well it would do.



Pros:
Price
110v (this may be a con for some people?)
10'' Jointer
Saves a lot of space

Con
10'' Planer (most lunch box planers start at 12'' from what I could tell)
Stand is crap
Time it takes to switch modes
Will need out feed support for more tasks than some of the larger jointers

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase we will see if it stands the test of time. If you want a good jointer/planer and are happy to stick with 10'' wide boards and are willing to overcome the major cons by making your own stand and using out feed rollers this is a good purchase.

If anyone has any questions or wants me to try something I'd be happy to try.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

That's a good writeup Jeremy. Write a followup after using it for a while, and let us know how it's performing.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Great review-- it will be interesting to see how you like it after using it a while. It sounds like it's certainly worth the relatively low price and may be a good fit for many shops.

[Jeremy Greiner]

I'm glad you guys liked it.

I added a reminder to my outlook calander to write a follow up review 3 months from now after I've put her through a few projects we'll see if she still holds up. I should hope so.

-jeremy

[Jim Voos]

Curious from youR uSe. Also can you joint a long board (say 5 feet) without additional tables?

[Jeremy Greiner]

Curious from youR uSe. Also can you joint a long board (say 5 feet) without additional tables?

Without additional support 5 ft might be pusing it, I have some 6 foot rough maple that I plan on jointing and planning this weekend, I'll take a lot of pictures and post my results here.

Personally I wouldn't do such a large board without support .. but I'll toss the board on there and see how it feels without the motor running just to see.

[Jaze Derr]

Thanks for this review! I ordered the 8" version of this last week (through Woodcraft as well, for many of the same reasons) and I'm waiting for my order to come in. I read all the reviews I could find on these two machines, but there isn't a whole lot of choices out there for 8 or 10" jointers otherwise.

I hope my little brother version turns out as well as yours did.

[Bob Betker]

Jeremy: I would really like to hear of your experiences. I purchased the 8 inch about 6 months ago but haven't had a chance to set it up and make the stand that I had hoped to do (the wife has been keeping me a little busy). For those of us who are space constrained these units may be the only viable option. Too often when someone asks about them all the responses are from people with no experience with the unit but plenty of opinions. A little fact based discussion would be helpful.
Also can you post some pictures of your stand, any ideas would be appreciated.
Bob

[Jeremy Greiner]

Also can you post some pictures of your stand, any ideas would be appreciated.
Bob

I'd be happy too, I should finish building it this weekend.

-jeremy

[Jeremy Greiner]

Finished the stand, and got to work on the maple I had laying around.

WP_000123.jpg
This is a picture with new stand, I use the drawer to hold the push pads and a few other peices for the jointer, the bottom holds the dust collection shield.

WP_000127.jpg
Here is a picture of the Jointer with a 6' board, I would need at least 1 infeed and 1 outfeed roller to do this, though I'm overly cautous and would want 2 on each.

I think safely you could handle 4' but that's max, without infeed/outfeed support.

WP_000129.jpg
This is a picture of the boards rough cut to a little over 2' you can see there is a cup (I think it's a cup, I dunno the board isn't flat!) on the board.

I set the jointer at 1/32'' removal, I found that to be the easiest and I didn't mind having to take a few extra passes

WP_000135.jpg
Here is the board after it has been jointed flat (left board only, right board hasn't been jointed yet), I'm very pleased with the results.

Could you get away without sanding, maybe .. with more practice and shallower cuts I think you could. At 1/32'' jointing it came out very smooth, had a scratch here and there but that could have been my inexperience with the tool as much as anything.

I ended up planing the boards down to 1/2'' that's what I needed. The deeper the cut, the rougher it came out. I was able to plane through fairly fast, then on the last few passes as I got close to 1/2'' I took very small cuts and it turned out very smooth, but I still think I'd want to sand it.

One thing I did notice was infeed snipe, this didn't show up in my earlier tests but it was visible in the maple I was running through. There was no outfeed snipe just infeed. Setting up an infeed table, or better practice at feeding in the wood may elimate this I'll have to try out some more.

Hope this helps, I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

-jeremy

[Curt Harms]

I think this class of machine has its place and I haven't seen any user reviews on it. Did you try holding up a little on the board as you start planing it? That sometimes helps with the benchtop planers infeed snipe. A rule of thumb for maximum jointing length I've seen is 1.5X to 2X the bed length e.g. a 3' jointer bed will comfortably joint a 4.5' to 6' board. I'm inclined to go closer to 1.5x without infeed & outfeed support. The Jet sounds like a good choice for the occasional/hobby user who wants to flatten and thickness wood without breaking the bank or taking up more space than necessary.