Carbatec jointer and thicknesser

[Lenz]

Have been thinking about getting the small carbatec 6" jointer and the small 12" thicknesser.
Has many other members got them? Or know good/bad point of them?

I'm really only worried and the cutters being parallel/in line. They come with a good warranty, so I'm happy with that.

[derekh]

I'm watching this thread with interest, I have the same items in mind. Just waiting for Santa to bring more gift vouchers. I did pretty well ($400) for my birthday back in November

[mark david]

Hi I have been down this route and own both machines.
I have had them for 18 months fron new and am now selling as I have upgraded to the 10x6 combination machine with spiral head (this is excellent by the way)
The bench top 6" jointer is actually a well built machine and provided you dont want to join pieces much over a metre long due to the lack of length of the table this is a good machine.
My only real criticism is the weight of the machine which really needs to sit on a stand as you don't want to be carting it around much.it's a bit noisy too!

Regarding the the 12 1/2" thicknesser this is areasonable machine but I have had some issues;
1 very noisy
2 you can't lock the thicknessing height which tends to unwind itself when in use.
3 very short infeed and outfeed tables
4 rubber feed rollers, not a fan of these.
5 no anti kick back fingers.

[Milo]

I will throw my two cents in....

My novice opinion I struggled for a few years to mill flat, square wood. I made every jig to mill wood through my tiny carbatec planer with very mixed and frustrating results. I yearned for a jointer.....

I don't have a lot of surplus cash with baby on the way so the 10' and or 12' combo machines from carbatec were in my price range.

However, I had to mill massivly hard spotted gum slabs for my workbench build and after a lot of reserach, speaking to old heads, I bit the bullet and purchased the JPT-310 Helical Head Jet machine. It was on special $2950 and in my opinion is the best investment in woodworking I have ever made.

People will say yeah how do I afford that, bloody good question! I held off and saved for two years but I smile everytime I fire up the machine. The super hard tungsten blades just eat up this 100 year old spotted gum and I think IanW will agree the result is very good.

If you can stretch the budget I would highly recomend the Jet JPT-310 HH. The Woodfast is probably the next best thing and at $1600 its very good value. The build is not as good as the Jet but it still does a good job.

Its such a personal investment but I am stoked I went the extra, if you do you will never look back.

Good luck

Milo

[doug3030]

I have a 6" jointer, the tabletop model and I wish I had gotten a bigger one. It isnt the width so much, I rarely need more than 6" of width but the in and outfeed tables are too short. Will probably upgrade to 8" floor model sometime.

I had a 12" thisknesser and all that really did was help me recognise a need for a carbatec 15" one. if i was buying that today I would definitely go with those new spiral heads though.

Doug