Best Jointers - Top Picks, Reviews & Complete Buying Guide

Jointers: The Ultimate Buying Guide

Before choosing the right jointer, you need to make a lot of small decisions related to the power and features that the ideal jointer should have according to your needs.

If you take a look at this guide, you will get all the necessary information which will lead you to the best possible solution.

Why do I need a jointer?

Many people who are not familiar with its usage and qualities may wonder why they need it.

However, those who are working with stocks know how important they are for all their projects as the work cannot be done without a surfacing tool.

The surfacing tools include jointers and planers and a jointer is used to make a surface flat.

The usage of a planer is to make two opposite surfaces parallel.

These two machines can help you remove bows, cups, and twists in rough sawn lumber.

You will get a stock in which faces are flat, adjacent faces are at a 90° angle, and opposite faces are parallel.

You mean that if I buy a jointer I would need to have a planer as well?

Any woodshop requires that you have both a jointer and a planer, if you think about serious work to be done there.

The jointer can do some parts of the work, such as eliminating the deformities, but that is not enough to make the wood ideal for the further usage.

A planer is needed to make all surfaces parallel.

On the other hand, if you possess a planer and use it without a jointer, the twist and bow cannot be removed.

Furthermore, there is always a solution to get these results even without using a planer or jointer, and it can be done with a router sled.

However, this is acceptable only if you are doing some occasional jointing.

The production scale is impossible without a jointer and a planer.

Are joiners worth buying?

In order to be able to understand this, the best way is to take a look at an example showing how the jointer pays off for itself.

If you want to switch from using 2” x 4” x 6’ S4S common-grade pine boards to rough cut pine boards of the same size, what you earn is about $5 per board.

So, you will pay $3000 for a jointer and planer, and only after 600 boards done, you will recover the cost that you had to pay for them.

And if you do just 1 board per day, after a year and a half, the machines would be paid off.

The more boards done per day, the faster will the devices pay off themselves.

Whether you will consider it worth or not is up to you, but the fact is that buying pre-milled wood can be quite expensive.

The advice is that you calculate the time necessary to pay off the cost of machines, and if it happens to be less than 2 years, then you should go and buy a jointer and planer instantly.

On the other hand, it this time period is between 2 or 3 years, you should still consider milling lumber by yourself.

What are the important parameters to pay attention to when buying a jointer?

If you have made a decision to get a jointer, these are the features that you should pay attention to:

• Table Length – How large the table you should choose depends on the size of lumber you work with. The jointer table size will also depend on the space where you are planning to set it.
• Table Width: The table width is also dependable on the width of the lumber you will mill. It can be a 6” jointer or an 8” jointer.
• Maximum Depth of Cut: The depth of cut is determined by the difference between the height of the outfeed table and the infeed table and it can vary from 1/8 inches to 1/2 inches. The most frequently used depth of cut is less than 1/8 inches.
• Cuts per Minute: Cuts per minute depend on the number of knives in the cutter head and the speed of it.  The power of the cutter head is determined by the power of motor which starts and makes it work, and usually the cutter head with 3 straight knives makes 18,000 cuts per minute. Of course, the number of cuts per minute affects how the surface will be finished. Additionally, the greater number of cuts per minute means shorter life period of the knives.
• Number of Knives: The knife configurations can be the twin knife cutter head and the triple knife cutter head. The advantage of the three knives cutter head is that it stays sharper for a longer time as the work is divided.
• Cutter head Type: The cutter head can be either helical or straight. The main differences between these two are that a helical cutter head is better thus the price is higher and a helical cutter head produces less noise than a straight knife cutter head.
• Warranty: The longer the warranty period is, the better jointer performance and longer life can be expected. The minimum warranty that is expected for a good jointer is a 3-year warranty.
• Adjustment System: When it comes to adjustment system, it is among the most important things to have in mind if you want to achieve high-quality surfaced lumber with your jointer. Easy calibration and being robust enough to maintain its settings during operation are the significant features of a good jointer.
• Build Quality: The durability and efficiency of any jointer depend on the material used in its construction. It is vital that certain parts – the adjustment mechanism, fence, table, and housing are made of quality material such as metal.
• Motor: When looking for a good motor on the jointer, it is important to check the wiring and socket as well as the current and voltage rating for the device. You should multiply the two values to get the wattage rating of the machine. Bear in mind that a higher wattage rating is followed by higher prices.

I think I got it, what are my options?

As the article has almost all the necessary information that you are supposed to get before making a decision which one to buy, you can rely on them, or just take a look at what the product official websites have to offer.

For your own study, the brands whose sites you can take into account are JET, Laguna, and Powermatic.

Conclusion

If we go back to the machines we spoke about throughout the article, we can say that the Powermatic 1610086K is definitely the best and perfect choice as it has everything you need.

It is expensive and unaffordable to many people, but the truth is that it would pay for itself in a short period of time.

Another expensive machine is the JET JJP-12 which is both a jointer and a planer.

However, for those who do not have such an amount to pay for it, our recommendation would be the Delta Power Tools 37-071.

By taking a close look at all the information in the buying guide and the products reviews, you are the one to decide which one is the best for you.

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