What size, type of Jointer to buy?

[Jeff Duncan]

"For reasons I don't understand Euro Engineers can't picture a wood shop where you use a broom."
It's b/c in Europe they don't allow you to use a broom!
OK not exactly, but their machinery, (unlike ours), is designed to be used with dust collection. The regulations concerning workers health in many European countries are much stricter than anything OSHA has, and it shows in how their modern equipment is designed. In actuality we are behind the curve and it shows in the poorly designed retrofits manufacturers are adding to machines to facilitated dust collection.
If you really want to see something neat take a look at their some of the Euro dust collectors. Felder sells 2 or 3 models in the US and IIRC the filtered air is close to if not HEPA standards. Of course it will cost you if you want to breathe that nice clean air
JeffD

[Dave Avery]

I started out with a Jet 6" open stand jointer. After a few years of ripping boards down to six inches I upgraded to a 8 inch Grizzly with a four knife head. Later I swapped the head out for a Shellix spiral cutter head - loved it. Two weeks ago I took delivery of a Grizzly 0609X 12 incher. I doubt that I'll be upgrading beyond this Grizzly as it was a real bear (pun intended) getting this half ton monster down to my basement.

I love the 0609X, the tables and fence are dead flat across their full length. There is almost no vibration and while I think the Shellix head is better I'm happy with the quality of cut I get from the Grizzly spiral head.

-- Phil

Phil,

Do you mind explaining how you tamed the bear into your basement? Thanks and best regards. dave.

[Jim Becker]

Jeff is correct, but also consider that with a J/P combo, you don't have the option for a "dust chute" under the cutter head like you do with a typical jointer-only design. The planer table function is in that particular place. Further, the dust hoods on these wider machines spread out in such a way to cover the width that without the air movement that a DC brings, chips can easily get impacted in the hood entry. Remember, that space has to be calculated to be about the same area as the typical 120mm port carries and for that reason, it gets pretty narrow right at the mouth. If you make a little cut with the jointer, you're not really going to get in trouble, but any meaningful use of the machine really does require dust extraction.

[Phil Harding]

Phil,

Do you mind explaining how you tamed the bear into your basement? Thanks and best regards. Dave.

I took the easy stuff off - the fence, the sheet metal parts, and the stand. I was a little apprehensive about taking the stand off because this is a parallelogram jointer and I wasn't sure how the everything was bolted together. Turns out it wasn't a big deal to take it apart or put it back together.

I should mention that I have a Harbor Freight 2-ton shop crane (a great deal at $120) in my garage. I used the crane to lift the jointer onto a refrigerator dolly. It took four of us to push the jointer/dolly through the kitchen and to the head of the stairway.

I laid two layers of 3/4" plywood to form a ramp on the stairs. I used two layers because I wasn't sure a single layer would hold the weight. At the head of the stairway I have a coat closet. I bolted a 1200# capacity electric wench (another Harbor Freight buy) to the closet floor using lag bolts into the floor joist. We strapped the jointer to an appliance dolly and rolled it to the head of the stairway. I used two 2-ton lifting straps to connect the jointer/dolly to the wench.

The scariest part was pushing the jointer over the top stair onto the ramp. But by using the wench to lower the jointer down slowly and a couple of us on either side to keep it on the ramp it all worked out with no problems. I don't think I could have accomplished this without the shop crane or the wench as this thing was way too difficult for even four guys to lift unassisted.

Take care.

-- Phil

[Jim Andrew]

I bought the Grizzly G0609, wanted the 16" jointer, but settled for the 12". Price was about 1/3 so that was it for me. It weighs about 1000, and I used my skidsteer to set it in the shop. Also ordered the Byrd head for it, anybody need a 4 blade cutterhead? The Griz is as good a jointer as any other import, no issues with me. Jim

[Dave Avery]

I took the easy stuff off - the fence, the sheet metal parts, and the stand. I was a little apprehensive about taking the stand off because this is a parallelogram jointer and I wasn't sure how the everything was bolted together. Turns out it wasn't a big deal to take it apart or put it back together.

I should mention that I have a Harbor Freight 2-ton shop crane (a great deal at $120) in my garage. I used the crane to lift the jointer onto a refrigerator dolly. It took four of us to push the jointer/dolly through the kitchen and to the head of the stairway.

I laid two layers of 3/4" plywood to form a ramp on the stairs. I used two layers because I wasn't sure a single layer would hold the weight. At the head of the stairway I have a coat closet. I bolted a 1200# capacity electric wench (another Harbor Freight buy) to the closet floor using lag bolts into the floor joist. We strapped the jointer to an appliance dolly and rolled it to the head of the stairway. I used two 2-ton lifting straps to connect the jointer/dolly to the wench.

The scariest part was pushing the jointer over the top stair onto the ramp. But by using the wench to lower the jointer down slowly and a couple of us on either side to keep it on the ramp it all worked out with no problems. I don't think I could have accomplished this without the shop crane or the wench as this thing was way too difficult for even four guys to lift unassisted.

Take care.

-- Phil

Phil,

Yikes! Sounds like a well thought-out plan. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Best. Dave.