Thread: Jointers cost V quality

$1000. That must have cost you something quite precious.
6" or 8" depends on what you intend to make. Having said that, you can joint a 6" board on an 8" jointer but a 8" board on a 6" jointer
Get the longest bed you have room for. Don't forget about second hand. Jointers are usually solidly built and should last a long time.

Thanks NCArcher
The items that I had to relinquish were precious. I had been leaning towards an 8 inch which narrows the field to two main contenders the Carbatec and the Hafco P-200H if anyone has any experience with either of these machines your experiences would be greatly appreciated. Maximun stock length that i would be jointing would most probably be no longer than 3m.
Cheers

try for second hand older model as you often can get more bang for your bucks and wider is better

I'd tend to follow the advice of the other replies and focus on second hand. I had great success with the purchase of a second hand Woodfast 10" unit for much less than $1000. Its probably 30+ years old but works brilliantly. The older units have a lot of iron in them and are built to last two or three lifetimes. The motors are rated higher and run better than newer Chinese motors.

This discounts the possibility that you would prefer a sparkling new toy and an older unit will take longer to source (be careful the finance doesn't dry up!) but the end results are worth thinking about.

Regards,

Peter

We went through the same conundrum and walked out the other side with a 6" Jet long bed jointer from the local Jet outlet. Choice was limited by what we could get locally (regional town) as the freight costs outside a metropolitan area are deadly. And a drive to the nearest Big Smoke wasn't going to help either.

Loved to have been able to get one a bit cheaper (CT or Hafco) but simply wasn't going to happen....so we got over it and moved on.

In general, the new jointer is a great tool. I'm not worried about the cutting width as you can successfuly surface plane wider boards on the thicknesser using a torsion box and then finish off the edges on the jointer. I did find that the blades weren't properly set at factory - three different heights and not within cooee of each other. The other thing is that the footprint of the jointer is too small for the Jet mobile base (our shed is not big enough to have everything bolted down - so mobility is very important) that is supposedly the right one and there's a bit of wobble....but that'll be fixed by fitting the mobile base with a ply or compressed cement sled into which I'll bolt the jointer.

A fingerboard on the outfeed table would be a good accessory especially when jointing longer pieces on your lonesome too. Longer pieces are a bit tricky to handle properly on your own even with the long bed

I have a 6" jet longbed, for the money its a great machine. I agree with the posts above on the used equipment, and it just so happens that there is an 8" jointer on ebay in Brisbane. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/8-Carba-Tec-J...1%7C240%3A1318

I used the logic of the money saved on a 6 inch jointer compared to a 8 inch jointer could then be re-spent on a bigger thicknesser. The thicknesser could then be used (as mentioned above) with a sled to plane pieces wider than your jointer.

But if you can get a used 8 inch machine off the bat for less than your 1k, then go for the bigger machine. Don’t forget though to then earmark the remainder of your 1k for other essential equipment!

Thanks for all the info and good advise I am a bit of an ebayholic so I have noticed the 8" in Brissy and will most probably have bid although if the bidding gets too high I think I would sooner buy a new 6" or the alternative is to be patient and wait for a second hand one to turn up. The model on ebay is a Carbatec CTJ350 does anyone have any experience with this type of machine. I must say it looks in pretty good nick. To share a recent experience I just purchased a set micrometer magnetic setting jigs to set the blades of the 15" thicknesser. They were purchased from an ebay shop on ebay Canada and even with postage were half the cost of the cheapest I could find in Oz. The store is Woodworking Direct. I received the items in 5 days and have found them to be a great investment at $48 including postage.
Cheers
John

Again thanks for the info and advise