JET 6-Inch Straight Knife Jointer (JJ-6CSDX)

The jointer came in two boxes on one pallet, and the delivery was wheeled into my garage by the driver. The packaging is substantial, and nothing was damaged or missing. One box has the base, which is a heavy piece, but manageable by one person. My neighbor dropped by to help me carry the jointer itself into the basement workshop (you can not do this by yourself - so stop thinking about it). I believe the total weight is 260 lbs. It took me a couple hours to clean the parts, assemble, and do an initial adjustment. A good part of this time was assembling the HTC mobile base and getting the base to fit snugly. I did assemble it slightly different than recommended, but it works fine. The HTC base is strong and works well. The jointer is substantial and well made. Mine is a slightly different model and stock number than ordered, but not a material difference. I called the company Jet, prior to fully unpacking, and they helped me to know exactly what I had. I also searched their web site and found the owner's manual, which was very helpful. The main problem was that printing had not kept up with changing product numbers, and it scared me a little. For the home workshop the 6" jointer is probably the sweet spot. I looked at the 8" at Woodcraft, and they are a beast. I really like the cast iron construction for the bed and fence, which seem to be flat and true. The red finger shield is well shaped and functions correctly. I also like the turning handles on the front, that is a nice feature. I believe I read that there was no gauge to show the height of the infeed table, but mind does have a small gauge with measurement increments. This definitely works better than any portable or bench top jointer. I have two minor grips. It would be nice if the on / off switch was higher and easier to reach - the larger models do have an extension up above the beds, and I can see why. Secondly, on the fence, just at the outfeed table, there is a slight recess covered with a plastic plate. I am not sure yet what it's purpose is, but if the wood is a little bent, the leading edge can snag on that tiny edge. One of the keys to nice planing is a smooth consistent motion across the blades, so the snag is a small problem. This only occurs on the wide side, when jointing the narrow edge (holding the wide side against the fence) there is no snag at all. I could also be pressing the board too hard against the fence, so I am still learning. The photo shows the very first set up and use, I have since added a simple vacuum system. Jointing does generate some large debris. I set up a simple (cheap) cyclone system into a large plastic bucket and powered by a small shop vac. I had to get a 4" to 2" hose adapter, and had to go into plumbing parts to get a 4" to 4" flexible adapter to attach the first one to the jointer. I was concerned that my vacuum would not be able to keep up with the jointer, but it does clear the debris shut and the vacuum hose very well. The plastic bucket fills pretty fast this way. I am happy with this purchase, and hope to get many years of regular use out of it.

I did a considerable amount of research to arrive at my decision of purchasing this Jointer. I had a hard time choosing, since I am a bit of a perfectionist, but understand that this tool does only ONE thing for me...planes the board edge (I have a dedicated face planer). The struggle was the cost verses the utility. This was jointer was the result. Highest quality Jointer in this price range. The machine arrived with little fanfare and was on-time with no damage. It was on a pallet with two boxes shrink wrapped to the pallet. One box (the stand) was 74lbs and the other (the upper table/cutter head) was about 150lbs. I opened both boxes to verify the contents. The contents did not exactly match the assembly instructions; however, nothing was missing since some of the "described contents" were already attached to the machine. The stand box was best unloaded by turning it upsidedown onto the floor. It was actually loaded into the box that way (bag opening is on the bottom). This worked out well since I had also purchased the "Adjustable Mobile Base for Power Tools HTC-2000-$59.95)" since the unit weighs 225lbs assembled. Since the stand was upside down on the floor, I started by assembling the mobile base; and attaching it to the stand. This was helpful since I then didn't have to lift an assembled 225lb machine onto the mobile base. This took about 30 minutes. Once complete, I was able to lift the table portion onto the stand portion and begin the final assembly (This assembly was very straight forward with no surprises). It took about 30 minutes to accomplish this portion of the assemby. I then familiarized myself with the adjustment procedures for the in-feed and out-feed tables, and the fence. I then ensured the two fence stops were set for 45 and 90 degrees respectively and verified the blade height with the out-feed table height. This process took about 15 minutes. So from completion of opening and inventorying the boxes to planing a board edge, the time was about 1 1/2 hours. Perfect joint, no snipe, very smooth operation. Success.

This is a great jointer so far. This arrived quickly and I am very happy with shipping speed. Everything arrived as it should except for the base, which has two nice dings in it. This doesn't affect the performace, but it looks like someone smacked it with a hammer on the top left corner of the base, as well as on the right side. I am going to try and get a replacement base, so I'll update when I get that sorted out. Otherwise this jointer is exactly what I was looking for. Tunes up well, cuts well and looks good. I have only had it for about a week so I can't give an in depth review, but for one weeks worth of use I am pleased and can give some insight on this unit. When the unit is running it is pretty smooth in regard to vibration, when I turn it off it does have a fairly significant bit of vibration as the motor slows. I don't mind that as long as it doesn't vibrate while running at full speed, which it doesn't. I did order a link belt to try and lessen any vibration. The 90 degree stop is set with a bolt which isn't really accurate. This bolt tends to shift quite a bit as the stop is set, which makes it fairly difficult to set dead-on. I don't trust a postive stop and always check prior to use, so I don't really care but with a slightly better bolt and more finely machined threads this could be a lot more accurate. I didn't even bother to set the 45 degree stop since I don't trust it and I will be checking the angle prior to use anyway. Aside from that I am very happy with this machine. UPDATE: Amazon issued me a percentage refund for the damaged base and I am happy with this solution. Amazon was very polite and promtly addessed my issue. I would have prefered a perfect base but refunding me some cash suddenly made that dent go away! I bumped this up to the five stars for this reason. Thanks Amazon.