[OP]
Member
I was about to order an 8" Grizzly jointer until last night when my bench top planer blew up! I have an old 6" jointer which JUST gets me by, so I have to make a choice, old jointer and new planer or go with a combo unit. I would appreciate hearing from those of you with combo's and what your experience has been. TIA.
Jerry
Contributor
I have a combo. If it walked off in the middle of the night, I'd get another. The combo is a good solution for a shop with limited space. If I had a shop large enough that space were not a consideration, I'd get separates.
Member
I've had my Jet 12" for just about a year now and I'm happy with it. I was worried about changeover but it's not a big deal at all. I love the wide jointer and the huge fence. Spring for the helical head--well worth the money.
Member
I think you will find most people with full sized combo units are completly happy with them, but I think if money and room were not an issue the same people would probably have seperates. Just reading between the lines of your post I wonder if you are talking about a full sized J/P. You can get a 8" jointer and 15" planer from Grizzly for about the same price as their 12" J/P. If you are talking about the 8 or 10" Jet combos be aware they are not well reviewed and the 10" Grizzly J/P doesn't have the best reviews either. The cheapest J/P combo I would consider is the Grizzly G0633 which is about $1800. What is your budget?
Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.
Deep thought for the day:
Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.
Contributor
I absolutely love my Combo machine. Mine, however, does provide me an unusually large jointer (20"). But, if space and cost were not an issue, I would probably go with separates.Assuming I could get similar specs in both. If I were looking at smaller machines I probably wouldn't want a combo. Jointers and planers are fairly simple machines that can be produced fairly inexpensively and still yield excellent results. Combo machines introduce a lot of other tolerances that have to be met to yield good results. Hinged tables that return to within a thousandth of an inch or so of there original positions every time they're moved don't seem to be the type of thing that can be produced inexpensively.
Contributor
As Johnny said, there is a big difference between high and low end combos. If you don't want to pop for the big precision units, go separate. There are used jointers and planers for small bucks or you can replace each as funds develop. Dave
Member
Ditto what David and Jamie said. I too have a high end combo (20") and when I move to a larger shop, I'll keep it.
Member
I have a 12" euro combo and like it alot, for a fairly small shop I think these work out pretty good. There a couple of different versions Grizzly sells, what is in your budget? You could drive to Grizzly to check them out.
Contributor
I have a Hammer A3-31 and really like it, I would buy it again..................Rod.
Contributor
Agreed. I don't have the helical head but my Jet J/P does what I bought it to do. If space is not an issue the decision becomes tougher. An 8" jointer & lunchbox planer are sure cheaper but wide jointers can be useful for face planing. Having a planer powered by an induction motor has its benefits, less noise & probably more durability. I know people say you can face plane not quite twice the width of the jointer by doing one half then the other. I've tried it and didn't care for it. Maybe I was doing it wrong. The jointer bed length comes into play. My jointer beds are 55". Using the rule of thumb that you can easily joint 1.5 X the bed length that means 7'. I try to cut any long stock to rough length before face jointing, doing so often means having to remove less stock to get one side flat.Originally Posted by Matt Meiser
Some people have had an issue with Jet J/P jointer beds not holding their settings. I've not seen that and have checked periodically. I have a mobile base but built it so I don't have to push & pull on the jointer beds. I don't know if that is the reason I don't have jointer bed problems or not but it seems to me like hinged jointer beds shouldn't be used as handles. I didn't go for the Grizzly J/P because of the jointer fence mounting. Grizzly had a long tube that stuck beyond the side of the machine and the fence had to be removed when changing from jointing to planing. I see the new ones have an end mounted fence that the tube is no longer an issue.
Last edited by Curt Harms; 12-20-2011 at 8:38 AM.
Member
I got a Hammer combo for space reasons, but if I had a bigger shop I'd have separate units. Certainly two units are more convenient, but the main reason is that the beds don't seem as stable as on a stand-alone. For the price of this combo at least, you could afford a decent jointer and separate planer.
Contributor
Price and space would be my first considerations. I'm limited on space so I went with a Hammer A3-31, could not be happier with the performance of this machine. If I had unlimited room, I'd prefer stand alone machines. Having a jointer with the same width capacity is also a must for me now, going from an 8" jointer to a 12" is really nice. I dont face too many 12" boards, but when the time comes its great to have the ability.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.
[OP]
Member
Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'm going to go with separate units. I can't afford to go to a 12" unit and don't want to limit my planing ability to 10". I saw a Dewalt DW734 at the borg for $374, which will do what I need for planing. I think I'll go ahead and get a Grizzly 8" jointer. I have the room for both, ( I had built a dedicated cabinet for my planer years ago) so I gues that's the best route for me.
Jerry
Member
Assuming you don't want to increase your budget about $700 that is indeed the route to go.
Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.
Deep thought for the day:
Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.
Contributor
I'm late to the game here, but thought I'd pass along my experience with an Inca J/P. It's the lightweight among the others listed above, but it's done thousands and thousands of BF for me, and I'm the third owner, with only one new belt needed in the 25 years I've owned it. It's only 10-1/4" wide, which is a little small for a planer, but not by most people's standards for a jointer. You can sometimes find a used one for less than $1000, which might seem expensive compared to the price of a new Grizzly, but not when you look at the precision and thoughtfulness with which the Inca was made. It's probably fair to compare Inca with Festool in these regards - Swiss precision. Change-over time is 30 seconds and when you put the outfeed jointer table back on it's absolutely back at zero, no maybe. The thing looks like a toy; mine weighs less than 75 lbs off the motor/stand. But that means it's easily portable as well, and I take it to jobsites when needed. The short tables have never been an issue for me, and I regularly face and edge joint boards over 8 feet long. IMO, technique is more important than the length of the tables. The only downside to the machine, besides that it's no longer made/imported to the US, is it's relatively low power compared to stand-alone planers. Mine has a 1.5 HP Baldor motor and you are pretty much limited to about 1/16" per pass at 10" wide when planing most hardwoods. For me this isn't a big deal, but for the impatient or pro it would be. All in all, my Inca has been a great machine and a pleasure to use.
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