Thread: Recommended Jointers?

Sherwood uses the good SHELIX style cutter heads while the smaller Carbatec machines use the inferior segmented spiral cutter heads. If you want to give Sherwood another go then I'd consider them the better machines on paper, but I've been hearing more and more stories of new Sherwood machines being junk, in that case then yeah Carbatec is probably the best choice unless you can find something old on marketplace.

Honestly I know you said you don't want to use jigs and stuff to do it, but it's really easy to face joint with a thicknesser and then make a table saw sled to edge joint.

You won't find too many spiral head Jointers for $1500. I have an older Carbatec brand 6" Jointer (equivalent to one of these) that in recent years I converted to a spiral head. It was well worth the money as it just keeps cutting and no setting up blades or adjusting tables now.
If you were able to pick up a cheaper secondhand unit I would recommend the conversion. I got mine from here and it was the CTS brand rather than the Shelix.

i've got a mix of Sherwood and Carbatec stuff in my shed. In my experience the Carbatec stuff is no frills machinery that just works (and lasts). Sherwood on the other hand tries to do the same but undercuts the market by making machinery that appear to be the same or better with bells and whistles. They seem to do this by using components that might not otherwise be initially apparent as an issue, ie poorer quality motors, thinner workbench surfaces, cheaper fences, guides etc. This is my view on Hafco stuff as well

So my vote would be to go Carbatec, if the budget can't justify spiral head, there's no issue with straight knife jointers. For home user (or those with limited budget) i'd recommend straight knife jointer and spiral thicky.