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.