Scorpion - 12" Helical JOINTER/PLANER (Rating: 4)

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Shipping box


Just a quick review to let state my personal opinion, anybody interested in the spec's can look them up.
The basic's are it is a 12" (Helical head made by Stinger)
jointer planer combo machine that excels in the jointer department and really planes very acceptable, the conversion is a hassle. Procedure is easy and fast enough just a pain to switch the Dust Collection over. I do not use the planer function all that often so the gain in shop floor space more than makes up for it! I did run a lot of different woods of all shapes and sizes with no deficiencies detected.
Machine came set up to within my allowable specification so it scored some points there but the safety interlock switch on the table was not set and after no response from Dealer ( Canadian Woodworker in Edmonton) and no reply from Distributor I had to tear it apart to find the problem! ( After some ribbing from Kiefer yes it was plugged in. )
Also found some sort of guard/shield installed wrong and the feeder drive pulleys not installed, also forced me to install proper 220V plugs and receptacles!
In the end replacing 3 machines with 1 and clearing up some square footage made it all worthwhile, Going to miss my old Hitachi combo machine but with that new jointer 12" bed not for long. My other machines, the 6" Laguna Helical head planer was fantastic but always just a bit to narrow and my General table top planer was just too light and snippy for my likes.
As has been said many times get the best and biggest you can afford, in my case this Chinese knock off of the European machines at twice the cost will suffice nicely until I talk myself into the 16" version!