Comparison between Grizzy and Jet Combination Jointer and Planner.

[Mark Henshaw]

I have owned the Grizzly 12" J/P for a year and have been happy with the machine. I will echo previous posters who have stated that if you have the money and space, seperate machines will be a better route. The carbide spiral head does a very good job of both planing and jointing smoothly, even some very figured birdseye maple that I ran through last month. As I am just a hobbyist, the change over time is not crucial for me but as with all of these J/P machines, it does slow you down. The tables are much more difficult to get and keep completely parrallel then a standard jointer.

[Gary Venable]

I have had the JP-12HH for several years now. No complaints. I have never had an issue with the motor being underpowered and the beds staying parallel has also not been any trouble at all. The changeover does require you to plan out your milling but once I got used to that I have not even noticed the change as being an issue.

-Gary

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

"Hi Ed
Have you ever had a problem with ability to lift and return the jointer tables to dead flat and parallel? What I understand is that the Grizzy has a 5 HP motor compaired to the 3HP Jet.

Thank you

Warren"
Short answer - never. But I always clean and vacuuming bed and supports. Once in a while checks table for parallelism.

Ed.

[Ryan Mooney]

Im like you not sure about the Euro Guard looks a little strange. If you had the room and the extra money would you go seperate peices?

I have the A3-31, and after my initial "hmmm" on the euro style guard (which is similar to what you are looking at) I love it. It actually helps hold the stock down some (obviously don't count on this, but it does help) and generally leaves less blade exposed which my fingers appreciate.

I would second the DRO or equivalent for the planer. I added a "digital" dial to mine (~$100ish) and it makes repeating cuts much easier due to having to move the table up and down (always seems like you cut enough and then sure enough need one more cause ... ooops!).

Separates might be nicer in some cases, but I don't really feel its been a big deal. If I had separates it would be to get more features besides changeover (a bigger planer perhaps) although if I was in a production shop I think I'd feel different about the time (I spend vastly more time navel gazing to figure out what to do next than any possible amount of time I could spend flipping the tables up/down).

[Erik Loza]

I have the A3-31, and after my initial "hmmm" on the euro style guard (which is similar to what you are looking at) I love it.

You know, I prefer the American-style guard, since my hands never have to leave the board during the pass (the whole "lifting the hand as you pass over the bridge guard"-thing is still weird to me after all these years...) but will be the first to say that having the pork chop on a jointer/planer can be awkward, especially if you keep the mortising unit mounted on the machine. If a customer tells me they plan to use the mortiser a lot, I always suggest getting the Euro-guard. Just my 2-cents.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Ryan Mooney]

Its kind of like coffee versus tea, you either like one, the other, both or neither I guess I'd advise "don't rule a machine out because of it and give it a try if you can - who knows you might like it". I can certainly see the more control argument, and like I said I did have a bit of "hrrrrmmm..." conversion time when I first got it so ymmv.

[Curt Harms]

Thank you Curt.. Just walking around in high weeds trying to make the right Decision .

One thing I noticed on the Grizzy it does have a 5 HP motor instead of the 3 Hp.

Thanks again
Warren

Here is my take on the 3 h.p. vs. 5 h.p. thing. When Jet introduced their helical head machine, they reduced the planer feed rate from 20 feet/min. to 12 ft./min. Grizzly stayed with the 20 feet/min. feed rate and bumped the motor to 5 h.p. There was someone here that replaced the straight knife head on their JJP-12 with Jet's helical head. He said he had no power issues, 3 h.p. worked fine with a helical head. Perhaps limiting depth of cut is helpful. It doesn't seem like Jet would redesign the planer feed mechanism (and delay getting the JJP-12HH to market for several months) without a good reason to do so I'm not sure about the real story.

[Paul Johnstone]

If you can do seperate machines, I think that's the better solution.
Sure it takes up more space, and I understand that's a problem for some.
Even if you have to put the planer and jointer on mobile bases, I think that's a better solution than a combo machine.
A dedicated jointer will have longer tables, which is really nice for longer/heavier pieces.

Hi David
Do you believe that the Grizzy has a better solution for that? You think this might be a issue with these type of machines? I can go with seperate units just be more money and more space. Was look to save on both.. But if that will be a issue ever time I change ,,, might not be worth the risk.


Thank You

Warren

[James Baker SD]

Several have mentioned the desirability of separates, which is what I have now (the typical 8" joiner and 15" planer). I am seriously thinking of going to a combo, partially to save space in a garage which needs to house a car at night, but mainly to get a joining capacity equal to my planning capacity. Don't think there is anyway I could fit a 12" or 16" joiner in my shop. I joint wide boards (or at least I want to joint them) a lot more often than I joint really long ones.

James

[Warren Humphries]

Ryan
thank you for your Input. I have just never seen the euro gaurd in action.

Thanks

Warren

[Warren Humphries]

Thanks Erik for your input... I really appricate your time to respond.

Warren

[Warren Humphries]

Thanks Paul
I appricate your input, thats what I really want to do if i can swing it.

[Warren Humphries]

Curt

Thanks again ..I understand what you are saying. Some great info and some things i have yet to think about..

Warren

[Warren Humphries]

Hi James

Thats is a great thing to think about as far as what you can Joint with the combo machine.
Makes alot more sense to be able to joint the same thickness as what you plane.

Thank you so much for your input.


Warren

[Warren Humphries]

Thanks Ed
I appricate all your info..

warren