Should I sell my Jointer and Planer and buy a combo??

[Larry Lukens]

I bought the Grizzly 12 inch J/P, partly because I don't understand having a 12 inch planer and only a 6 inch jointer, and partly because it's one machine instead of 2.

As I recall, the 10 inch J/P doesn't have a spiral head option, and when i went to the Williamsport store to look at them, I thought the 12 inch just looked better made.

I've put at least 100 bf of white oak plus a fair amount of other stuff through it so far. I love it. It will clean up a white oak board in almost no time. I haven't rotated the cutters yet, and they feel as sharp to my fingers as the new edges.

Conversion is only about a minute; and with a little planning, I can do all my jointing, then all my planing for a project. It's also nice to be able to clean the burn marks off a ripped edge or joint the board for a panel glue-up by taking off about 1/64. Sweet.

I would recommend this to anyone.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Paul, my planer works alright. I get some pretty bad snipe sometimes, even with the roller extensions on the table. Otherwise it works fine. I've had to fuss a lot with my jointer. I have it aligned correctly (FINALLY!), but now when I turn the cranks to raise/lower the tables, it takes a lot of effort... I don't know why... It seems like I have to force the tables to move. Not that big of a deal since I don't need to change the cut depth all that often. But it really bothers me.

My main 2 reasons for considering this trade is

1) 4" of additional jointer width, and
2) Space savings
3) Give my shop layout, I can fit the 10" machine in a spot where it would be stationary, vs having to roll out my jointer and planer for each use (my current situation).

The Jet 12" machine looks pretty darn good, as does the grizzly 12" j/p with the helical head. That's just not in the budget though. I can't justify spending a fortune on this machine, especially given the fact that I already have machines that do the job fine... maybe that's my answer right there!

Dan, my biggest concern is definitely the quality of the grizz. I'll have to make that determination when I see it. But even after looking at it in person, there's really no way for me to know how hard it will be to set the knives and adjust the tables if/when they get out of whack... And I HATE with a capital H having to spend my precious shop time fussing with my machines. I want to do woodworking, not tool maintenance.

As time goes on, I'm feeling more and more undecided on this issue... Maybe I should just give it another year or two and see how I feel then...

Thanks again for your input everyone.

[Peter Aeschliman]

holy cow. I was reading around about the G0675. I just read the owners manual, and in order to adjust the planer bed parallelism, you have to use a forklift to take the machine off of its base and place it up on sawhorses... just to access the components to be adjusted!!

I had to make a similar adjustment after doing a repair to my 13" planer... All of it could be accessed from the underside of the planer while it sat on the ground.

Inevitably, sometime in the coming years, I will need to adjust something. Renting a forklift just to do it seems like a HUGE hassle.

On top of that, it seems like adjusting the beds is no less difficult than my 6" jointer on dovetail ways... and setting the knives is the same procedure as well (set screws, depth gauge)

On the whole, this machine sounds like it will be more difficult to maintain than my current separate machines. I would much rather have a 6" parallelogram jointer with a spiral cutter head so that adjustment and knife-setting is a non-issue. Definitely something for me to think about. This is really a pretty poor design!!

I'm still going to drop by and check out what Grizz has to offer at their store, but I'm pretty turned off by the 10" machine at this point.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I checked out the machine in Bellingham, WA this weekend.

I really like everything except the fence. The size is great, the tables are nice and wide, and the change over is easy. Two things about the fence bothered me, which are clear deal killers.

1) The fence deflects like crazy... You can move it almost half an inch over its length, and probably an eighth of an inch vertically (i.e. it doesn't stay square to the tables). That's a pretty big problem since the whole point of a jointer is to make two flat surfaces that are square to one another

2) The fence clamping mechanism doesn't hold well at all. It's a t-square type setup with the fence rail running along the end of the infeed table... pretty similar to a TS fence. When I was testing the deflection by lightly pushing on the fence, the lever/locking mechanism kept coming loose and the fence would move! Maybe the display model had something wrong with it or was abused... The locking mechanism worked better when I moved the fence to a new location, but there was one spot in particular where it just wouldn't stay locked down.

Not good! In fact, I would consider that a big safety concern because the cutterhead is covered by one of those euro style guards... meaning it's fixed. So if you're edge jointing, the fence slides out, and you lose your balance, your hand could go right into the cutterhead! yikes.

So I think it will pass on the G0675. The 12" combo machine was MUCH MUCH nicer but that's not in the budget. I'll stick with my little 6" jointer and 13" planer. They work fine and there are other shop projects that require my attention first.

I bought a shop fox fence while I was there though... 7' rails. I'm super excited to install it...

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks for the update Peter, it's great to learn things about equipment.

Your observations make sense, to reduce costs that much requires some sacrifices.

Regards, Rod.

[Larry Lukens]

Funny thing about tool purchases, it seems you only regret buying the compromise options, not the ones that actually offer everything that you want. Nothing against Griz, but I'd spring for the Hammer if at all possible. Felder makes great stuff.

Since I don't have a commercial shop, and have no commercial aspirations, The 12" Grizzly J/P wasn't a compromise. The spiral cutterhead is great, and switching back and forth takes less time than a bathroom break.

Great thread. Some of us obviously have bigger budgets than others.

[Peter Aeschliman]

The Jet machine looks really nice, and it's essentially the same price as the Griz. Maybe someday.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Since I don't have a commercial shop, and have no commercial aspirations, The 12" Grizzly J/P wasn't a compromise. The spiral cutterhead is great, and switching back and forth takes less time than a bathroom break.

Great thread. Some of us obviously have bigger budgets than others.

Larry, it's only a compromise if you think it is! Sounds like you got the j/p that fits your needs, so for you, it's not a compromise. For someone else, it may be though. I bought a Felder because I wanted a bit different specs. Nothing wrong with either, glad we have an increasing pool of decent combo machines to choose from as there is really no one size fits all combo machine.

[dan lemkin]

still loving my minimax fs35, especially after my digital gauge mod.

[Mike Goetzke]

Peter - I currently have a 6" jointer and 13" planer in my tight spaced garage shop. It takes some practice/technique and extra time but I have used the rotate the board trick to join boards over 6". I too looked at the combos to get more jointer width capabilities and save space. Sorry if I'm repeating but on my current project (entrance door) I have another problem with my planer - it's short beds and light weight made it difficult to face join my long 8/4 stock. These combos seem to have very short beds and might limit the length of board you could work with.

Mike

[Rod Sheridan]

Peter - I currently have a 6" jointer and 13" planer in my tight spaced garage shop. It takes some practice/technique and extra time but I have used the rotate the board trick to join boards over 6". I too looked at the combos to get more jointer width capabilities and save space. Sorry if I'm repeating but on my current project (entrance door) I have another problem with my planer - it's short beds and light weight made it difficult to face join my long 8/4 stock. These combos seem to have very short beds and might limit the length of board you could work with.

Mike

Hi Mike, most of the combo machines offer quick detachable bed extensions as an option.

I haven't needed them yet, although the longest stock I've jointed is about 100 inches long.

Regards, Rod.

[Mike Goetzke]

Hi Mike, most of the combo machines offer quick detachable bed extensions as an option.

I haven't needed them yet, although the longest stock I've jointed is about 100 inches long.

Regards, Rod.

Wow - which brands/models have the extensions?

[Rod Sheridan]

Wow - which brands/models have the extensions?

I don't know about all the brands because I can't remember what MiniMax and Rojek offered, although I looked at the when I bought my Hammer.

Felder and Hammer offer different length extension tables for their machinery.....Regards, Rod.

[John Harden]

Felder sells a variety of them. I bought a 20" long cast iron one for the outfeed of the saw/shaper and a wide aluminum one (same length) for the outfeed of the planer. Jointer bed is 78", so I doubt I'll need one there.

They also sell one that is about 35" or so long that has a support leg. These come in handy for jointing/planing/sawing/shaping those REALLY long boards, especially on the infeed side. You can easily make a fully supported surface over 9" in length if you want.

They work with Felder and Hammer equipment and you can buy bolt on brackets for like $70 or so so you can use them on other machines. I got an extra cast iron one to install on my MM20 band saw.

Regards,

John