# Great Idea but Poor Design



## lanwater (May 14, 2010)

Pardon my french but I am glad you returned that piece of junk!
I looked at it in the store and it appeared very flemzy. 
A friend of mine have and seems to curse everytime it comes up during conversation.
I bought a dewalt planer and acquired the delta 6" jointer.

After a false start with the jointer, I am now a happy camper.


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## Xtreme90 (Aug 29, 2009)

Not to shoot down planer/jointer combos, but I have always been one who likes dedicated tools for thier dedicated job.


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

Thanks for the review and welcome to LJ's. I seriously considered buying this machine; it seemed like a great solution to my small shop/small budget problem. After reading some of the reviews on this site though, I came to the same conclusion as you, the Jet seemed to have a lot of potential, but was poorly and cheaply made and wasn't worth the effort.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

The concept of an affordable planer with an even more affordable 10" jointer has a good deal of appeal. It is good to see the bad experiences with these machines as well as the good. They look like such a good idea, especially for a small shop. But design and construction flaws should be known before folks plunk down hard earned cash on a machine…


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## rbterhune (Jul 31, 2009)

I too drank the cool-aid on this one. The concept is great, especially for new, hobby woodworkers such as myself.

Machine #1…I ordered a 10" machine and found one of the rods you spoke of broken in the box. The same machine had a warped fence and tables that are not coplanar. After doing some reading I found Jet's 'fix' for the coplanar tables…the adjustment being only the little bit of wiggle room afforded by the bolt running through the hole in the machine. Guess what, the tables were still not coplanar…I sent it back thinking I'd try another machine.

Machine #2…still had a warped fence and the tables were still not coplanar. At this time I saw Charles Neil's You Tube review. I emailed Charles to see if he had similar problems and explained the ones I was having. He was upset and had Woodcraft pull his review.

Machine #3…still had a warped fence and the tables were not coplanar and the rods looked "worn" where the infeed table had chewed on it. By this time Charles had put me in touch with a big whig at WMH/Jet…they said they would let me come into their factory (Nashville, TN…where I live) and would set one up personally for me. I thought about it and then decided I had had enough. By the way…Charles Neil is a GREAT guy. He had no idea who I was, yet he went through all that trouble to help out a new guy. Thanks, Charles.

Again, great concept with terrible follow-through….why bother if you're not going to do it right? Also, why not put a freakin adjustment on the outfeed?

I have a Jet ProShop saw and love it, so I still have a soft spot for Jet tools…but this particular tool…horrible!


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## Cato (May 1, 2009)

Sorry to hear of your experience with the machine, especially since you had already been prepared to deal with less quality for the price. Learning/pain/frustration curve we all go through at some point.

Not just Jet, but almost everyones low end tools will often yield low end performance.

Not that you always get what you pay for, but the manufacturers will often make a budget machine, for the casual hobbyist and its crap.

Bumping up a tier in price can put you into a well made easily adjustable machine that does what its supposed to day after day for years.

Cars, tools, lots of machinery same concept.


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## Julian (Sep 30, 2008)

I dont know what reviews you read before purchasing that thing, but the ones I have seen don't talk well of it at all. It looks like a toy and not something that will work. Case in point.


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## dbol (Mar 11, 2010)

I too was swearing at my jet jointer planer. I on the other hand think the jointer works fairly well. I can get the boards very flat. then I put them through the planer and they now wobble. I wish I read the reviews. The Charles Neil review is why I ended up getting the thing. I should have got seperate machines used somewhere.


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

I have the 8 inch version of this. I am not 100% pleased with the product and would not recommend it to another, but I have understood it well enough to get my money's worth. I have spoken to Jet tech support a few times on the plane and I think those guys are also ready for the company to revamp it. I think if they would have made the table out of iron and made the inner workings more solid, they would have a pretty well designed and efficient machine. Material quality is a very big issue with the machine.

I chose the smaller model because the majority of complaints were directed to the 10 inch version. They both have the same motor and I believe the larger table has more of a tendency to be warped and 10 inch boards put more stress on the motor. Not that the 8 inch models do not get complaints, there are plenty of complaints to be had, but the 10 inch version does seem to field more.

I get decent results from both the planing and jointing operation, but it was not without the expense of time and really getting to know the machine. If I had to do it all over again, I would have invested in the Grizzyly iron table bench top jointer and the Ridgid planer. If the Ridgid jointers were on sale at the local HD like they were in ones out of state, I would have already bought that one.

Thanks for the honest review. Hopefully Jet will listen and work on revamping their product.

David


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## jmichaeldesign (Oct 12, 2010)

I ended up finding a used grizzly jointer and a used ridgid planer for the same cost as this machine. I haven't had a chance yet to do more than give them a quick test. I'm just glad to be done with this POS. Anytime I could have spent working on projects for the last month was spent messing with this machine.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

I've done some Googling after reading this review to find some interesting information.

The most important thing I hope people walk away from seeing this is. Just because a tool has brand name X, Y, or Z stamped on it doesn't mean it is worth a hoot. I have seen reviews praising, and slamming each, and every manufacturer I can think of from the lowly Harbor Freight all the way up to Powermatic and Laguna… The entire price spectrum…

IF you can I would try to lay hands on a particular tool before buying it to check it out.


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## lighthearted (Apr 30, 2009)

I sadly made the same mistake. Now this piece of crap is collecting dust in my shop.
I have since purchased a dewalt planer which has been great, and I am shopping for a real jointer.


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## GusGia (Jan 20, 2017)

Hi I`m a hobbiest, and I leave overseas, I plan to visit USA on february and I want to buy and JPP planer jointer. and I know that the measurements of the machine exceed the 62 inches (L+W+H) that you can send in the airplane..

So I want to know if I can take the table the jointer infeed and jointer outfeed (To reduce the volume) so it is not so bulky and be able to dispatch it in the hold of the plane.

Hope somebody could help me with suggestion or pictures of the planner where I could disambled and I need to buy tools as will be a tourist (with all my tools at home)

Regards Gustavo


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