Anyone ever used a 20" Jet Planer

I had a chance to use the Steel City 20” while in a Woodcraft store. It worked like a dream and was a whole lot cheaper than the PM. Not to mention I the folks here seem to think pretty highly of the Mfg.

-- Chris

Not sure about the planers, but I think my Jet jointer works great. Machined well, tight, smooth, etc

-- www.greenheadsharpening.com

steel city is great.. also look at grizzly

-- making sawdust....

I think I can pick this one up for under $700. About half the price of a new Steel City.

-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas

Maybe he will let you try out the machine to see how it works. Then you can decide if is worth the money or not.

Those are some nice slabs you have to work with. What are you planning to build ?

Another thing to consider is a router flattening jig. Basically, you build a jig to hold the slabs level, with the edges to hold the router and a self made base. You then run the router across the wood to make it level on one side. Once done, you can turn it over and do the other side. I have seen them made, but not used it yet. They do work though.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I’m with Bill ask to try out the planer. A work around would be to have a cabinet shop run your slabs through their planer (for a fee). You would not have the control you would have with your own equipment however.

Dalec

Bill,

I haven’t figured out all of my projects yet, but when someone offers free lumber, I’m all about picking it up.
Ended up with some large slabs and boards of walnut, ask, oak, honey locust, osage orange, hickory, sycamore, hackberry, cedar, ... That’s all I can think of. Some of it I have a lot of, some just a couple pieces. A couple trailer loads.

There is enough that I really don’t want to have to pay someone else to plane it down. Also enough that it may stretch my patience trying the router.

I know, I could just do it by hand, I’ll let one of the hand plane guys come over and show me how easy it is to clean up that osage orange. HAHA

This Jet is about 45min from me and will be gone tomorrow if I don’t make up my mind tonight. I thought about grabbing a board and running up there tonight, we’ll see what my wife says about that one.

-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas

Well, the Jet sold for $860.

It may have been a great deal, but I have a problem buying something without getting to try it out first.

So, I’m back in the market for a large planer.

-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas

I have a 20” Jet…Like it very much.
The blades are a breeze to adjust, with the spring loading…I would recommend it. The downfall, is the infeed outfeed tables, the newer versions are solid cast (very nice), the older model has rollers…Easy to catch a finger in them….It took my husband about 20 seconds to verify that!
I’ve never had a problem with it…If you can pick one up for the price you mention…Go for it! I think I paid around $2,000 6 or 7 years ago.

-- Joni Hamari, www.HamariDesign.com

Well sorry you missed the deal. Now you can look at those planers with the radial cutter heads (unless that one had the same type of head too). A lot of little knives, but I hear they are much better than the single blades. You get 4 cutting surfaces on each one. Also, if you knick up one, you can replace just it instead of the entire blade.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Bill,

I’d love to get one of those. I’ll have to save up for awhile to get one of those. I may try to do that though.

-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas