Need Planer or Jointer/Planer advice

[Mike Zilis]

Congrats Matt. I bought my JJP-12 before they offered an HH option. If I can ever figure out how to justify upgrading the head or the entire machine to the HH version, I'll do it. Otherwise, this machine is terrific. The first time you joint a 12" wide board you'll probably get a smile on your face and realize that there's no going back.

-Mike

[Rod Sheridan]

Looks nice Matt, congratulations.

Did you buy a mobility kit with it or is it going to be stationary?

Regards, Rod.

[Matt Meiser]

I made my own mobile base.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...70#post1598070

Between myself and guys from my club we've made somewhere around 30-40 of these. I really like them because of being able to maneuver the machine so easily.

[Rod Sheridan]

I made my own mobile base.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...70#post1598070

Between myself and guys from my club we've made somewhere around 30-40 of these. I really like them because of being able to maneuver the machine so easily.

Very nice, I made a similar base for my old cabinet saw........They do work well.

I've now gone to the semi live skid design for my machines............Rod.

[Matt Meiser]

Very early impressions--I'm a happy camper. I easily slid it off the pallet onto board across my mobile base then lowered it into place. Lots of rags and DNA later most of the oil is gone. I grabbed a board from my shorts bin and jointed and planed it as a test.

Notes in no particular order:
- The only setup is installing the actual guard into the arm that holds it.
- I noticed that one of the spare carbide inserts is chipped up so I'm going to call and ask for a replacement but I won't get bent out of shape if they say no since its one edge of one insert. I also noticed that they appear to be identical to real Byrd cutters so sometime I may just order a supply of Byrd ones for both machines. Strangely I also get 2 of the torx drivers to change the inserts. I really need to get the recommended torque screwdriver.
- Changeover to planer mode is very easy. Undo the two locks, flip up the jointer tables, flip over the dust hood and crank the planer table into position. The last part takes the most time--15-20s maybe? Changing it back means just reversing the above, flipping a lock out of the way before lowering the jointer table back down.
- Seems to be pretty well set up from the factory. I borrowed my friend's straightedge so I can set the tables parallel to the head and each other, zero the outfeed table, but without doing that the board I tried looks pretty accurate to the naked eye.
- Planer seems all but snipe-free on my test board. I can see and feel the tiniest bit but it would sand out in one pass of the ROS.
- There's a lot of travel on the planer bed. Going to have to figure out what to do about a digital readout. Probably something like the iGaging strips. Can't go without my DRO!
- The footprint is smaller than I anticipated. With some minor DC plumbing rework I think it will actually go nicely where my planer was. Great news because there's already suitable power there.
- The fence is a little cheesy. But its solid which is what is important. Honestly I think that once I set it it will never get moved anyway. I remember moving my jointer fence once in the past but can't remember why.
- There's one small area on the edge of the planer table where they didn't get any oil and its got a little rust. Honestly I don't think I'm going to waste my time cleaning it up because its that small.
- There seems to be a bit of a dish end-end on the infeed table. I didn't get out my feeler gauges to measure it. I might talk to Jet about it, but honestly I can't see that its affecting flatness of the finished product so I'm not sure I want to go to the trouble of changing it out or having it changed out.
- The euro guard is going to take some getting used to since I have to step the push blocks over it. Once I do I could see fabricating something similar for the 6" machine because it does seem safer and I like that there's nothing slamming back into the fence once you pass it.
- I like the newer pushbutton controls over what was pictured on Jet's site.
- It looks good on my red mobile base.

For you guys that have one, what do you do with the tables? Do you still wax them? The corrugated surface seems weird but it is definitely low-friction. I noticed that right away. A 9" wide board glided across it like a smaller board does only when my 6" jointer's tables are freshly waxed. They also sure hold the shipping grease. I've cleaned them 3 times and still get a little black marking on boards. I need to clean a couple more times.

[Rod Sheridan]

Sounds good Matt.

yes I wax the tables on my J/P.

As for a height gauge can you put one of the clock type gauges on the elevation wheel for the planer?

regards, Rod.

P.S. I also like the bridge guard.

For edge jointing I set mine away from the fence a couple of mm smaller than the thickness of the board. That way it holds the bottom of the board tight to the fence..........Very handy.

[Matt Meiser]

Do they sell universal clock-type gauges? There are actually markings on the wheel which would probably be plenty accurate but I think they are metric. I suppose I should read the manual and see.

Good tip on the guard. That makes a lot of sense.

[Richard Gonzalez]

- There's a lot of travel on the planer bed. Going to have to figure out what to do about a digital readout. Probably something like the iGaging strips. Can't go without my DRO!

I put the new Wixey WR-550 (12 inch with remote readout) on my JJP-12. Will post some photos in a new post in a day or two. By the way, using the DRO I figured out that the markings on the wheel are not metric, but in thousanths of an inch. Fairly accurate, but an odd number per full rotation of the wheel.

Richard

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Matt, the digital readouts for the Hammer machines are available in metric or imperial.

The metric is 2.0mm per revolution.

Plane a piece of wood, rotate the handle 360 degrees in the up direction and replane it.

If the difference is 2.0mm the imperial or metric gauge will work for you.

The handle bore is 20mm on those handwheels.

Regards, Rod.

[Michael Koch]

Matt, I was in the same boat that you were about a year ago. I shopped around a bit and found aMiniMax FS 35 Smart at a real good price. I have never looked back. The combo machine is the most used in my shop as most of my lumber is rough. It makes life much easier..Mk

[John Coloccia]

I put the new Wixey WR-550 (12 inch with remote readout) on my JJP-12. Will post some photos in a new post in a day or two. By the way, using the DRO I figured out that the markings on the wheel are not metric, but in thousanths of an inch. Fairly accurate, but an odd number per full rotation of the wheel.

Richard

I didn't realize they made a 12" gauge. WhooHoo!

[John Coloccia]

I definitely wax mine. You'll find that you'll eventually have trouble feeding through the planer if you don't keep it periodically waxed.

[Matt Meiser]

I went ahead and ordered an iGaging 12" remote readout from Grizzly based on positive reviews here, including one from a JJP-12 owner who installed one.

[Curt Harms]

Hi Matt, the digital readouts for the Hammer machines are available in metric or imperial.

The metric is 2.0mm per revolution.

Plane a piece of wood, rotate the handle 360 degrees in the up direction and replane it.

If the difference is 2.0mm the imperial or metric gauge will work for you.

The handle bore is 20mm on those handwheels.

Regards, Rod.

Assuming the JJP-12 & JJP-12HH have the same planer bed elevation mechanism, the ratio is 4mm or 5/32" per turn according to the placard. Here's a pic of my iGaging DRO:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...2&d=1291130468

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks Curt, so the Jet has twice the table elevation per handwheel rotation compared with the Hammer machine............Rod.