Makita 2030 J/P or the 8" Jet combo?

The Makita is going to be a way more satisfactory machine for you.

The problem with the Makitas is the feed roller covers fall apart
and it costs some bread to get them recovered.

The Makita and Hitachi combos come up for sale in so-cal on a
regular basis. There’s a Hitachi available now in the area. I don’t
know of the Hitachis have the same feed roller issue but back
when these machines were popular the Hitachi was considered
the better of the two.

http://ventura.craigslist.org/tls/3082562971.html

Also there’s this machine:

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/tls/3165243836.html

I had one and it was a good machine and way more
powerful than the Japan jointer/planer combos.

About the only thing that can go bad on the Makita are the original feed rollers which will fall apart eventually. And that makita listing indicates new (newer?) feed rollers, so it’s probably good for another 30 years or so. As for the other one (for $250), that isn’t a bad deal either and you can use the rollers to get the seller to go even lower. You can get both rollers recovered for under $200 and they are easily removed/installed, so figure that into the price when negotiating. Here is a picture of the original (black) and recovered (yellow) rollers:

In my opinion, there is no comparison between the Makita and the Jet.. the Makita wins hands down.

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

Thanks for the imput; that Hitachi one looks real nice but I read they don’t make parts for them anymore although I am sure you can still find what you need.

The Makita was the guys dads who passed away a year+ ago and the rollers were changed, plus he said it wasn’t used much. Hopefully I have a short day tomarrow or have it off and can check it out, it’s 50 miles away but in bad traffic.:(