Jet JJP-12 Combo with helical head

[Matt Benton]

Jeff,

With people putting Byrd heads in a portable planer with a universal motor, adding one to the Jet may not be that far fetched (although I admit to being apprehensive about it myself).

[Curt Harms]

Jeff,

With people putting Byrd heads in a portable planer with a universal motor, adding one to the Jet may not be that far fetched (although I admit to being apprehensive about it myself).

If a universal motor can power a Byrd head---only thought I had is a universal motor can produce more than rated power-for a while at least. I had a thought like Dick about a separate feed motor but probably a major attraction of this machine, bang for the buck, would diminish. If you're gonna spend around $3K, might as well go Euro.

Looking at the existing planer feed roll drive mechanism I don't see much opportunity to slow the feed rate by changing pulley/sprocket/gear size. There's room in the base for a jackshaft speed reduction mechanism to drive the feed rolls. I have no idea what it would cost Jet to add such a mechanism or what impact adding such a mechanism would have on serviceability. I'm also not a mechanical engineer so there may be an economical solution. If there is, I suspect Jet would like to hear about it.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

At 220V, the Jet has a 12.5A motor and the Grizzly has a 25A motor That's quite a difference. Also, a 12.5A motor designated as 3HP is possibly stretching the soup a little. But that's nothing new with non-industrial motor ratings these days.

Perhaps a bigger motor can be provided. An engineering analysis of the drive trane would likely need to be done to see if the power can be reliably delivered to the cutterhead (e.g., belt size & quantity, minimum pulley diameter, etc.). However, it may be an issue of cost again. Also, a bigger motor may also mean breaching the 20A electrical circuit requirement which can be a deal killer for some.

My name is Jeff, and I sit on a fence.

[Matt Benton]

Jeff,

I sat on that fence for a short while as well. One thing that makes things easier for me is that i went from no jointer to a 12" jointer, so I'm not spending much time looking back.

I too was going between the Grizzly and Jet, and for me, the difference was in not feeling I needed a spiral cutterhead (at least not right now). I'm just getting started with woodworking, and I think the straight knives will work, at least for now...

[Curt Harms]

At 220V, the Jet has a 12.5A motor and the Grizzly has a 25A motor That's quite a difference. Also, a 12.5A motor designated as 3HP is possibly stretching the soup a little. But that's nothing new with non-industrial motor ratings these days.
<snip>

My name is Jeff, and I sit on a fence.

Ah So! I didn't recall that the Grizz units were 5 H.P. The Jet is 3 H.P. That could explain the difference.

[Dick Strauss]

Strangely enough...the variable speed DC motor makes the spiral carbide head a moot point for planing figured woods (but not for longevity and ease of changing inserts vs blades). I found that I could plane the curliest of hard maple on a neighbor's WM712 with no tearout after finding the right (albeit slow) speed. I had no luck planing curly maple on my friend's 15" Delta planer (even with freshly sharpened knives).

I'd be willing to pay extra for such a feature on a J/P combo!

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

A friend advises me to avoid the combo machines that use a single cutterhead because when you flip it from jointer to planer (or the opposite), things go out of alignment. He says every time you switch you will need to realign the machine. I say that a company like Jet would not market a machine with such an obvious flaw. Comments?

[Matt Benton]

He says every time you switch you will need to realign the machine.

I wonder which machines your friend has actually used, and for how long...

[Steve Rozmiarek]

A friend advises me to avoid the combo machines that use a single cutterhead because when you flip it from jointer to planer (or the opposite), things go out of alignment. He says every time you switch you will need to realign the machine. I say that a company like Jet would not market a machine with such an obvious flaw. Comments?

Arnold, no offense to your friend, but he's not correct. There are many combo users, me included, and to date, I have not seen even one report of this happening.

[Chris Padilla]

A friend advises me to avoid the combo machines that use a single cutterhead because when you flip it from jointer to planer (or the opposite), things go out of alignment. He says every time you switch you will need to realign the machine. I say that a company like Jet would not market a machine with such an obvious flaw. Comments?

I can only speak to my Minimax J/P combo machine but switching back and forth, I have no issues with any alignments whatsoever.

The cutterhead is stationary as you know and the planer bed is what raises up and down so there are no alignment issues there.

For the jointer portion, I can see how one might think that the cutterhead may not line up but proper engineering of stops and security points make this a moot point. My jointer bed portion is fine....

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Here's an article in Woodshop News on the proposed new Grizzly 10" jointer/planer that was mentioned earlier in this thread...

http://www.woodshopnews.com/index.ph...-jointerplaner

The jointer tables are only 41", which is 7" less than my current 6" jointer. The article only mentions straight knives with no option for a spiral cutterhead (at least, not yet). The price is around $1,200.

Very interesting. Given the price point, I see this as a strong alternative to a stand alone 6" jointer and portable planer. Optional jointer extension tables would be very desirable though.

-Jeff

[Curt Harms]

A friend advises me to avoid the combo machines that use a single cutterhead because when you flip it from jointer to planer (or the opposite), things go out of alignment. He says every time you switch you will need to realign the machine. I say that a company like Jet would not market a machine with such an obvious flaw. Comments?

The only time I could see this being an issue is with knife changes. If the knife to cutterhead orientation were to change in "slope". i.e. one side of all 3 knives extending out of the cutterhead further than the other end of the knives, it would require realigning either the knives or planer bed. I haven't changed my knives yet so I have no experience. Does anyone make a jig shaped like a "U" where the ends of the "U" rest on the cutterhead and the curve of the "U" has a dial indicator? Such a gadget would reference off the cutterhead instead of off the outfeed table. Referencing off the outfeed table is fine as long as the outfeed table and planer bed are exactly parallel side to side. Because the outfeed table moves, it seems like it could shift a tiny bit. The cutterhead is very unlikely to move at all barring bearing failure, it seems like. Just thinking out loud here.


Curt

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I just sent Jet a follow up email again as to whether Jet is considering a spiral head for the JJP-12. This time, Jet reponded that they intend to introduce the JJP-12 with a spiral head sometime during the first quarter of 2009.

I'm ready.

-Jeff