JET - JJP-10BT 10" Jointer / Planer Combo (Rating: 1)

I was very excited to order this. A 10" Jointer/Planer for only $420? That's a great deal! And it's a JET!

Well, when it arrived, it looked like the box had been through hell. The top and bottom flaps were opened, the stand was missing, and all the nuts, bolts and washers were scattered all over the place.

I was ok with the missing stand, since I had an extra stand from an old Delta table saw I can use. I just had to make sure none of the other parts were missing. I proceeded to put the thing together and found I was missing a few things. I took note of the missing items so I could call JET the next day.

I get everything unpacked. The machine is not too heavy. The box says everything together weighs around 90 lbs.

I raise the infeed table on the jointer to check coplaner. Nope, it is off… way off, the front end of the infeed is about 1/8" low. So I check the manual to see how it is corrected, but there is no mention on how to correct this… ok, I add this to my list to call JET.

Now, I check the fence to see if it is flat… it is warped very badly. There is at least an 1/16" gap in the middle of the fence. ok, I add this to my list to call JET.

The next day, I call JET. The customer service rep is very nice and they send me the missing parts. They also send me instructions on how to adjust the tables to make them coplaner. For the fence, they want me to use a straightedge with a guaranteed accuracy, and some feeler gauges to measure the fence warp. I do not have these things, so they want me to go out and buy something to test their product? I can use a plastic ruler and see that it is warped! No feeler gauges necessary! Otherwise, they will not send a replacement. Luckily, my neighbor had a straightedge from Lee Valley that was guaranteed to something like 0.003", so I used it and put a stack of feeler guages underneath to find out how off it was. It turned out to be off by 0.09".

I also followed the instructions to make the tables coplaner. The outfeed table is not built like a regular planer where it travels on dovetailed ways. The outfeed is attached by screws at 4 points. 2 points (one on each side) near the cutterhead and 2 points (again, one on each side) near the end of the machine. You adjust the outfeed by the amount of play in the bolt holes. To adjust, I loosen the bolts near the end of the machine and pivot the table up/down. I was able to get it coplaner. Unfortunately, when I got it coplaner, the outfeed table is too low. When coplaner, my outfeed sat slightly above the cutterhead, but below the knives, so it was unusable. Because the outfeed can only pivot and not go up or down, I cannot fix this. The next day I returned it.

I probably spent close to 20 hours trying to get this to work, but it was a no go for me.

I ended up buying a Delta TP305 planer from Lowes on clearance and a Grizzly 6" jointer. It was a little more expensive, but both of these tools were much more superior to the JET.

When I set up my Grizzly jointer, it was obviously a better machine. Everything was dead on. The tables were coplaner, and can be adjusted. The fence was cast iron and flat. 3 blades in the cutterhead vs 2, the Grizzly included a mobile base, and if you include the shipping, the Grizzly was only a little more.