Using a 6" Jointer

Grant Curtis

Member
Messages
11
Hi! I would like to ask to hear some good talk on the uses of a 6" Jointer. I've searched many posts here and elsewhere about Jointers. And always those that can afford and have the space always say go bigger than 6". So I'd like to ask that those with positive input can point out the good things you can do with a 6" jointer, and say away from talk of going bigger.

I ask this because my search on 6" jointer input is frustrating when the posts all seem to go in the bigger is better direction. I'd don't have any jointer experience at all really but am thinking of adding one to my home garage shop. I've seen some good deals on used 6" jointer in the $300 +/-, which would be in my price range. And a more appropriate size for my garage.

What kind of things can you do with a 6" jointer? How would it improve cabinet making? I would like to get setup to do some remodeling of my small house. I want to redo all my kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, and built-ins, and some furniture. Currently I've accumulated these big tools. I have an older unisaw that I'm working on putting together and getting setup, a craftsman contractors saw that is for sale, a good 14" delta bandsaw, 15" drill press, 1200cfm 1 micron Delta dust collector, a Craftsman 10" CMS, bosch jig saw, etc.

Thanks!
 
Grant, if you don't want or intend to do face jointing, a 6" jointer is all you'll need. For the work you'll be doing, you'll need a jointed edge to start with for ripping rails and stiles and faceframe pieces or for gluing up narrow boards to make wide ones. Edge jointing on a 6" is a piece of cake, since you don't have as much bulk in the machine to deal with.

However, if you are going to try face-jointing your stock, you WILL want an 8" or bigger jointer. But if you aren't intending to face-joint, you'll also need a planer to clean up the faces of your stock. Depends on how you want to do things---everyone to their own opinion....

Nancy (16 days)
 
Grant,

In this case, bigger *is* better. You do need a jointer, but you can get the job done with a six inch model. That's what I have, and I got my little yorkcraft for about 325, after trying all the tricks people try to get along without a jointer: router table fun, table saw jigs, etc. You'll save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration by just getting yourself a decent quality small machine ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
A quality 6" jointer will do many tasks. The bigger is better syndrome comes from folks like me who do work that collides with the 6" restrictions. My 6" was perfectly acceptable for edge jointing but I can do that almost as well on the TS. It works fine for milling small lumber; table legs and stretchers, picture and mirror frame parts, small wall shelves, and small box parts can all be done on a 6".

If you want to stay with a 6" for space concerns, embrace it and don't scrimp on your features. As Bill mentions (and I can chime in here too) if you go small, don't go cheap; you'll just have to buy again and that's a false economy.

If you don't need the width, that's great but that is the only thing that should change. You'll want adequate power, good knife choices, long beds, great fence, reliable adjustability and good dust control. Fortunately there are several players in this field as space is always our enemy (it seems) and manufacturer's provide a solution.

Here's some examples but I would want to hear from owners and I'm sure some will chime in.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-Parallelogram-Jointer/G0604X
http://www.toolking.com/steelcity_40615.aspx
http://www.southern-tool.com/store/jet_6-longbed_jointer.html
 
Get a 6" if that is in your budget. There are a lot of good ones out there for very good prices. I had a Ridgid for a while and really liked it but when I got a chance to get an 8" at a good introductory price I moved up to the GO490. Now I wish that I had a 12" so it never ends. It sounds like to me that the 6" would do just about all that you might need to do. For the money that you would spend on a 6" you cannot go wrong unless you buy an off brand model. If you find that you do need a larger one you can always move up later and have very little to lose. The 6" is a space saver.
 
I'm chiming in again--because we own a 6" jointer. We have the Steel City 6" wedge-bed and it is a real honey. Extremely quiet as compared to most, it took all of about 15 minutes to get set up and running--just had to square the fence to the bed (it was about 2 degrees out of square). The great thing was that the bed came packed upside down in the crate, so no "blocking" was needed to keep it from rocking and rolling inside the crate. It took two of us to pick it up, turn it over, and put it on the base, but it really was a piece of cake. Fit and finish are impeccable, and I can not recommend the SCTW machine highly enough.

Nancy (16 days)
 
I've been using a 6" jointer for years. Sure, it has its limitations, but I really don't fine them too restricting. Most of the stock you'll buy is around 6" in width anyway, and unless you're buying rough stock, you'll seldon need to face joint.

If you are buying wider stock, or rough stock, and need to face joint, you can make a sled for your planer (assuming you have one) that can act as a jointer for the first side. Then you remove the stock from the sled and plane the other side. Most of the small benchtop planers don't put enough down force on the stock to require an elaborate sled. A flat piece of mdf or osb is usually sufficient, with some wedges/shims to level the stock on the sled.

Bigger planers do have metal feed rollers than will press a board down against the table, so the require a beefier sled.

Along with my 6" jointer, I do have a 15" cast iron monster of a planer. As described above, I just use a sled for facing rough stock. I've done cherry, maple, and walnut up to 12" or more, using the aforementioned sled, with good results.

I generally use another sled on the tablesaaw to get a straight edge on rough stock; then 'finesse' the edge on the jointer. These methods have worked well for me for many years. Sure I'd like to have an 8" or even a 12" jointer, but I don't have room for one in my already crowded shop.

I've just learned to work around any limitations. I've built some really nice stuff over the years - using that 6" jointer. yeah, bigger may be better, but it ain't always practical...
 
actually I've got my eye on a 6" jet jj 6csx that is for sale for $225 firm, friend of a friend. From my research I think that is a good price. I't only has two sets of blades and and both need re-sharpening at this point. The guy says it is in perfect condition, just that he just purchased a larger one :huh: . It looks great and has no rust on the wings or fence at all. I'd have to get it on a mobile base but I have one that I could setup for it. Can you re-sharpen the Jet blades? They are sort of pricey otherwise if they are one-time use. How long do they last? The original owner says that he's gone through these two sets in about 8hrs of run time over the last 5yrs. Would he be selling it because the warranty has just expired (Jets 5yr warranty)?

I've had a Jet wet sharpener for some time, that I've used for chisels and knives but don't have a jig for planer blades and don't know if I could sharpen jointer blades well enough myself with the Jet sharpener. Or would it be better to take the blades to someone and how much should I be charged for having them sharpened? I don't see a Jet jig for blades on the Jet site. Also the guy said it is a pain to install the blades and get them setup right.

Also how can I learn the uses of a 6" Jointer? Are there any good sites that explain it's use to a newbie?
 
If you are buying wider stock, or rough stock, and need to face joint, you can make a sled for your planer (assuming you have one) that can act as a jointer for the first side. Then you remove the stock from the sled and plane the other side. Most of the small benchtop planers don't put enough down force on the stock to require an elaborate sled. A flat piece of mdf or osb is usually sufficient, with some wedges/shims to level the stock on the sled.

I don't have a planer yet either. I've been looking into both for some time and now have a jointer I can pickup. But I'm thinking that in the coming months I could afford a planer too if I get this jointer at this price.
 
Hi Grant :wave:

Other than table/board width there are no limits to a 6" jointer other than your imagination as far as I know. As has been said, don't skimp on quality, one always pays dearly for that.
Sounds to me like you would find many, many uses for one with all those projects coming up. They are little work horses for sure! :thumb:

DT
 
Also how can I learn the uses of a 6" Jointer? Are there any good sites that explain it's use to a newbie?

Jointers are really basic machines. They do one thing VERY well: Create a straight and flat surface where none exists.

Secondarily, using the fence you can get TWO straight and flat adjacent surfaces that are perfectly square to each other.

Why is this important? Because EVERY operation thereafter relies on a reference surface of some kind (planer references a face, table saw references an edge, etc).

This is what the jointer is designed to do. No other tool does it better, faster, cheaper AND safer (all of those combined). You can get a tablesaw or router table to joint edges. You can kinda get a planer to face joint. Jigs galore can stand in for a jointer, but the fact remains that the basic task of creating a reference surface where none currently exist is most fully accomplished by the machine designed for that purpose.

Now ... some folks have figured out ways to accomplish other things using their jointers. I haven't performed any of these operations (intentionally) but here are a few I've heard of:

Bevelling edges - by tipping the fence off of 90 degrees one can, with several passes, form a very very nicely bevelled edge. I've done this by accident when trying to get square, but I haven't found a practical reason to use my jointer for a 45 degree bevel when my table saw can do it in one pass, though.

Tapering - several people use various methods for tapering legs using their jointer, too. Some use the "plunge" method and a LOT of passes, while others will drop the infeed table WAY the heck down and do some fancy work with 2 (maybe 3) passes. I think there's a video out there somewhere of Glen Huey demonstrating the latter.

Curves - it has been mentioned to me once or twice that by intentionally misaligning your feed tables you can "joint" shallow curves. I'm sure there's a formula, but holy cow why would you wanna??? :p

Other uses? Probably ... but I can't say I recall many others.
 
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Thanks to all for the insight. Sounds like I'd be good to get a 6" Jointer. And from my reading posts on the various forums the Jet that I'm able to get locally has good reviews. And later I could go larger, as most that push the go larger stance started with a 6" themselves anyway. I have to start somewhere.

Anyone have insight on this Jet Planer at a $225 price-tag. Sounds about right to me. Roughly half the price of new. And especially any insight about getting the blades sharpened or doing it myself? I'm in Oceanside CA, North County San Diego if there is a place to get blades sharpened. It would need sharp blades to work good.
 
....I've had a Jet wet sharpener for some time, that I've used for chisels and knives but don't have a jig for planer blades and don't know if I could sharpen jointer blades well enough myself with the Jet sharpener. Or would it be better to take the blades to someone and how much should I be charged for having them sharpened? I don't see a Jet jig for blades on the Jet site. Also the guy said it is a pain to install the blades and get them setup right...

Actually, with the planer/jointer fixture for the Tormek (or Jet - most Tormek jigs are usable on the Jet, I'm told) will do a better job than most sharpening services. Unless the blades are severely nicked, they can be sharpened in just a couple minutes each, and you'll be removing way less metal than the commercial services, so you'll get more sharpenings per blade.

If you send them out, expect to spend between 50¢ and 75¢ per inch, per blade, for sharpening.

Changing blade on a jointer isn't hard, but it can be time consuming - especially the first couple times, until you get the hang of it. It's really pretty simple, though, and if the jointer has jack screws instead of springs, it's an easier task. Also, don't waste you money on 'blade alignment' jigs. All you need is a straight piece of hardwood and some patience.

Get a book. I think there's one by Mark Dujinske called "Understanding you Jointer" or something like that That'll explain all you need to know.
 
Grant, 3 points:

1 $225 is a great price.
2 you should have the blades sharpened by a pro shop. figure $15-20/set, or you can buy superb replacements for about $40/set. Do a search and see what you find.
3 a jointer can be a very dangerous machine. Please have an experienced user go over safety issues with you. If it doesn't come with push blocks, make or buy them before you try it.
 
actually I've got my eye on a 6" jet jj 6csx that is for sale for $225 firm, friend of a friend. From my research I think that is a good price. I't only has two sets of blades and and both need re-sharpening at this point. The guy says it is in perfect condition, just that he just purchased a larger one :huh: .

That is a good price on that jointer if it is as described. One just went on another forum for $350 local pick-up but came with two new sets of knives. Maybe some 6" owners here could talk about HP and how it feels power-wise to help you out(?).
 
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actually I've got my eye on a 6" jet jj 6csx that is for sale for $225 firm, friend of a friend. ...
I was just getting ready to suggest looking at the used market, since a lot of folks upgrade from a 6" jointer to something bigger, and you can often get good 6" for better prices than cheap new ones. The $225 Jet sounds like one of those deals. At the very worst, you can very likely sell it for the same amount it costs you.

And to address Glenn's question about power...I've got a Grizzly 6" jointer with a 1 hp motor, and I've never had any problems with it bogging down. Granted, I'm not face jointing 6" stock and taking 1/8" off per pass, but for my needs, the 1 hp has been plenty.

Can't really help you on the blade sharpening question, but I'll echo the advice to make sure you have someone familiar with safe jointer operation walk you through things if you've not used one before.
 
I'd grab it ... as long as floorspace isn't a problem.

I was given a height measurement and it would fit under the mid 70s Unisaw that I'm setting up. I put the Uni on a raised mobile base because I'm 6'3" and it seemed kind of low. So I know that even with the mobile base I'll use for it it will fit fine, I might even raise the jointer a tad too. I'll be checking it out in person today :thumb:
 
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