All Replies on 8" (Correction) JOINER or 12"

buy the widest one you can afford and have room for my first one was a 12, my current one is a 15, when I build my retirement home and shop in a year or two I will have a 24. If you are into building things like tables the wider planer is a big help for glueing up table tops just leave the boards as thick as possible and plane them after the glue is dry.

-- A tube of calk and a gallon of paint will make a carpenter what he ain't

Just to be clear, are we talking a planer or a jointer?

For a jointer, 8” has suited me very well and I really don’t see a need for anything bigger at this point. For a planer, I have the dewalt 13” lunch box planer, and I ofter wish I had something a bit bigger for the same reason sprucegum mentioned.

I’m with Marcus, wondering if we’re discussing planers or jointers. I have an 8”, and have been quite happy with it (jointer). Still, I keep wishing for a 12-16” one, for reasons I can’t quite justify. My planer is 15”, upped from my first 12”......and I’ve been quite content with it.

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

for a planer , i have a twelve inch but would like wider. to start over i would have gone to a fifteen inch minimun.

-- rob, ont,canada

I never heard of an 8” planer, do you mean jointer?

-- Bondo Gaposis

Bondo -

I think Jet makes a 8” combo jointer/planer, but thats all I’m aware of. I think it get’s less than stellar reviews for reasons unrelated to the cut size though.

I’ve had both 8” and 12” jointers.

Bigger jointers tend to have long beds, which
come in handy if you’re making entry doors and
other millwork but you can get furniture made
with shorter beds.

I currently have a 10” jointer and it’s adequate for
furniture making. It’s an INCA combo jointer/planer
(I just use it as a jointer) – RIKON makes a knockoff
of the INCA design now.

If you have a big shop a big jointer and planer
are nice to have, but the space they take up
is an issue in a smaller shop.

An argument for a smaller option….

I was looking at a $1000-range jointer and found that I could spend about $1200 and get the Jet 6” Helical or for around $1900 get the 8” Helical. Considering there are a lot of 8-12” jointer less costly I think the quality, noise reduction and ease of blade rotation of a Helical head is worth it.

So, I might eng up with a 6” and when I get a board that is 7-10” It can be sawn long ways and then have two boards that fit on the jointer and glue them together. I like crossing woodgrains anyway. Looks cool.

Anyone say a cheaper larger unit is better?

BD

-- Stop thinking, let things happen... and be the ball.

Like the others have said, get the biggest you can afford or wait until you can get it. I’ve got a 6” jointer and 13” planer and wish both were twice as big and complemented with a bandsaw with 12”+ resaw height. Then I could do ANYTHING. As it is, I’m limited and it’s really not a bad thing. Since my options are limited, I find I’m able to just do more with what I have.

But an 8” planer? I would pass on that unless you are a box maker exclusively.

If you meant jointer like we think you did, there’s a gigantic difference in price from 6-8” and so much more from 8-12” I could do a lot more if my 6” Grizzly jointer had the 6’ table and I wish I had the helical heads… mostly because mine is freaking loud

-- JC Garcia, Concord, CA : "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission..."

Well, I’ve also wrestled with this question since I don’t have a planer but I’m fixing to build my dream shop. After much thought I have come up with this answer: the bigger the better. I know that’s not much of an answer. My final answer is don’t let your planer be bigger than your pocket book. You know there are a lot of old planers out there that still have a lot of good life in them and maybe they are built better than what you can buy knew. Maybe that’s the way you need to go. Who am I to say? I hope that you make the right decision and get the planer of your dreams. May you always be happy in your work and God Bless.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

Dooohh!!! Man, I’ve been waiting all day to get home to see what you folks had to say about my inquiry. Then I finally get here and realize that I asked about the wrong machine.

Man, major league brain cramp on that one, I had just been reading up on planers for a couple of hours and evidently had them stuck in my brain.

So very sorry for the confusion. I meant to ask about 8” or 12” JOINER….
I do appreciate the replies fellas, seems as though a couple of you figured out what I had intended to ask despite my best efforts to mess it up. Thank you.

Alot will come down to how much space you have for the machine in your shop, yes it’s nice to have a wide jointer but an eight inch is usually sufficient for most projects and there are other tools for flattening table tops.
Now six inch jointers on the other hand, well I don’t like those, they aren’t as easy to use and you can do less with them.

As for planers, wider is always better :P

-- The mark of a good carpenter is not how few mistakes he makes, but rather how well he fixes them.

OP you may want to edit your title. I clicked on this only to find out more info about an 8” planer I’d never heard of.

-- It's made of wood. Real sturdy.--Chubbs Peterson

Thanks Ben, hadn’t thought about that, title corrected. Thinking about changing my name here to “DipStick..”

Nah, “dipstick” doesnt quite fit.

How ‘bout “BrainFart” .... because we ALL have those now and then :-)

-- Perform A Random Act Of Kindness Today ... Pay It Forward

TopShelf -

Are you looking at the 2 Jet machines?

I started out with a 4” jointer and went to a 6” within a year it is nice but lately i have been looking for an 8”.
the only reason I see to go bigger is for bed length. I have never run a board wider than 2” across it.
I plane the front and back of a board on my 20” surface planer then joint 1 edge, then rip it to 1/16 wider than needed and finally one more pass on the jointer.

Keepin mind both of them were used delta’s the 4” was $45 (sold for 75$) and the 6” was $110. now it has a noisy bearing so I am going to go through it new bearings and paint I was thinking when it is done probably around $225. If I am crazy let me know.

I have always upgraded as I had the money. that is why I stick with used machines at the lowest price I can get for a quality machine with resale. it then gives me wiggle room for repairs and resto’s. a few bucks in bearings and paint is usually all the old Iron will ever need.

No matter how big a jointer or planer you get, you will always have a project where you wish you had another inch or so of width.

Good Lord, made the correction and even then spelled JOINTER wrong. Yep, definitely need to look into changing my handle here to something more appropriate…

Well, after looking around, I think that I’m going to go with an 8”. To step up from and 8” to a 12”, literally doubles the cost of the machine, I mean, starting out a shop….that’s an entire other machine that I could pay for rather than paying for 4 more inches on a jointer. Seems to me that the better option would be to go with the 8”.

Thanks a million for the advice folks
TS

I RARELY have a need to joint something larger than 8” , and when I do it’s probably a better idea for mr to split the lumber into smaller pieces.