Advice Combo Jointer/Planer

[Scott Rathburn]

Hi everybody
I'm thinking about buying a 14" or 16" combo jointer/planer, but not sure of the brand, Mini Max, Felder or maybe Rojek. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Scott

[Cecil Arnold]

Based on my MM16, you can't go wrong with MM.

[Jamie Buxton]

Scott, the Search function on this site works quite well. Look back through many previous threads to learn more about members' opinions of these machines.

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,

There are many threads on here to help but one question I have for you is: What is your budget? The 3 brands you listed all vary from each by a fair amount of money.

Also, look at the very bottom of this thread and you'll see about 4-5 other threads that you can click on and read.

[Jeff A. Smith]

I'm thinking of the same thing. One you might have thought of but didn't mention is Hammer. Their 16" is base-priced at $5900-ish. MMs 14" in on sale for $5495 with free shipping, mobility kit, and extra Tersa blades. Be sure to remember to check the table lengths. Some have short tables on the jointer. (Neither the MM nor the Hammer suffer from this IMO.)

Hammer is http://www.hammer-usa.com, I think.

Jeff Smith
Athens, AL

[Jim Becker]

I own the Mini Max FS350 (predicessor to the current FS 35 Smart) 14" combo and love it. It was a good investment as I'm a believer in being able to flatten lumber before thicknessing and when the capacities of both functions are the same, it makes for great flexiblity in material selection. (I happen to like working with wider stock) I have a review on my site. The only updates I would add since that was posted a year and a half ago is that I did replace the "pork shop" guard with a Euro-style guard and added a DRO to the planer this spring. Neither are required, although I highly recommend investing in the Euro guard. Once you get used to it, you'll never go back to the spring-loaded do-jobbie!

What I like best about this tool is that I get "big-time" capacity in a compact space...I really would have struggled to accomodate a wide jointer and a separate heavy planer in my shop.

[Chris Padilla]

DRO, Jim?

[Jim Becker]

DRO, Jim?

Digital readout. See:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=19247

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20041