Jointers Reviews

I received this feather board for Christmas 2005 and have already used it on one project. Because I already own the Bench Dog feather board, and liked it pretty well, I used that as a benchmark to compare this model.

First the good:

1. The magnetic base is very strong yet releases easily with the tilting lever.

2. The flexible strip that puts sideways pressure on the board you are cutting is stiff enough to do its job, yet flexible enough to bend easily when adjusting the unit.

3. The price is fair for what you get.

As for bad marks...

1. I am disappointed in the flexible strip that holds the workpiece down to the table. It is not adjustable for height and seems to be pushed to its limit while cutting anything that is a full 3/4" thick. If you have thicker stock you will have to remove this for the cut.

2. When using on the table saw as I near the end of a cut, when the end of the board slides out from under the hold down there is a startling "SNAP" noise made as the plasic hold down slaps onto the saw table. Of course you never see that coming because your eyes are on the blade where they should be.

Overall, I like this tool and have found it to be great for jointing the edge of panels that are usually a challenge on the jointer. As for table saw use, its not a terrible design by any stretch of the word but I much prefer the Bench Dog feather board for that application.

I will let others extoll the virtues of this product. My message is that you should consider buying the complete "Mesa Vista Design GT2000 42" Magnetic Featherboard System". This comprises two Grip-Tites, a 4" high, 42" steel cover for your aluminum table saw fence, and roller guides that attach to each each Grip-Tite. Yes, at $150 it costs a lot more than one or two Grip-Tites, but it much more useful, and really essential for narrow rip cuts on your table saw. I started with two Grip-Tites, then bought the fence and roller guides. They are well-worth the additional cost. Please see my review, and reviews by others, of the GT2000 system.

I love these so much that I just purchased a second set. I use them on my table saw, band saw, shaper, and jointer, any place I want to keep my fingers away from moving cutters while holding material tight to a fence or table top.

The jointer bed is too small for this to be the perfect machine. The planer is excellent, but the total length of the infeed and outfeed bed is very short and makes it difficult to accurately joint long pieces of wood. The first thing that I did after buying this was to buy a 71" powermatic jointer. It is not the most economical way to go.

The exhaust tends to get plugged in both the planer and the jointer with wood chips.

The blades for the P12RA are what in trade referred to as "specialized" blades because they have custom slots and holes. Consequently, you are tied into the manufacturer for blades.

Despite reports to the contrary and the failure of these blades to appear in the documentation as parts or accessories, Hitachi does offer carbide blades for P12RA planer and the jointer. The Hitachi part numbers are: planer - 200001 and jointer - 401000. I just ordered both sets from an authorized Hitachi parts supplier, be ready for sticker shock, the MFG list price for the blades are $448.71 for the planer and $224.35 for the jointer as of April 7, 2006. The vendor I purchased from discounted my price to 80% of the list price.

The toll free number to Hitachi Power Tools Customer Service is 800-706-7337.

I've had my Hitachi P12RA planer for 8 years and couldn't be happier. Originally, I wanted to buy their F1000A cast iron planer/jointer but discovered Hitachi no longer exports it to the USA. Since the F1000A is SOOOOOOOOOOOO remarkable, I took the chance on this "little brother" and was very pleased- with the planer.

The quality of cut is outstanding, and boards come out dead accurate. In fact, I go to this planer over my 2 year old Jet 15" stationary planer almost every time. The Jet is a workhorse so that should tell ya something! Setup is simple. The knives are really beefy and all the other parts (castings, chains, bearings, adjusting screws) are heavy and well made. I get "slick-as-glass" results even on ebony. Since most of the components are aluminum alloy or stainless steel, I don't even have to fight rust.

Though the jointer is powerful and gives a fantastic finish to the wood, it's just too simplistic. There isn't a way to align the infeed and outfeed tables, which makes getting a flat board almost impossible. They are fixed except to adjust the depth of cut. In fact, holding a straight edge to the length of the jointer bed reveals both tables angle away from the cutterhead. Since I make guitars, this sort of thing drives me bananas. I actually sent the jointer portion back to the dealer for a partial refund.

My advice is to buy the planer portion only. Spent the money for the dust hood too. It's well put together and very effective. This planer has been featured in several books and magazine articles over the years, and for a good reason. You will be amazed with the results!

After recieving it from the shipping depot, I brought it home and checked it for damage. All parts had arrived in good condition. Tool Crib's Free shipping is a pretty good deal on a 600 lb. tool.

I used an engine hoist to raise the bed onto the stand. This beast is heavy! Final Setup and wiring were straight forward enough.

The two horsepower motor comes up to speed instantly on 230 volts. I decided to break it in with some 8 inch by 8 ft, 8/4 hard maple planks that I had purchased rough milled. The jointer was easy to operate. Jointing and surface planing put a prefect finish on the lumber with no struggle at all.

I would strongly recommend this product.

If you're even considering purchasing a jointer - this is the one to buy. I have a Powermatic model 60 8" jointer that was built in 1960 and it still runs great. I wouldn't remove it from my shop if you offered my a brand new jointer for free.

This jointer is absolutely outstanding. My previous machine was a 6" Jet jointer, which is a very good product. However, I wanted the capability to face joint boards wider than 6" and many many times, I wished for a longer bed.
In my quest to upgrade, I considered numerous options.
The Powermatic 54A is a 6" machine with great bed length.
The fence on it is superb. It's flat, accurate, repeatable, and rock solid. If I had purchaced that machine first, I probably could not justify upgrading to an 8". But I was upgrading and ocassionally needed the 8" capability.
Since I have a Delta Unisaw and 14" bandsaw, I was convinced that I wanted the Delta DJ20. It has the 8" blades. The in-feed table has a spring assisted parallelagram, which is silky smooth and effortless to operate. However, after operating a Powermatic 54A with it's fence, my expectations rose to a higher standard. I looked at several DJ20's, and each fence had too much lateral slop for a ($) machine. Which I demonstrated to and discussed with two Delta rep's who offered no solution nor a sound explaination other than it probably wouldn't effect the quality of cut. If I tighten everything up, I don't want it to move. I was woefully under impressed with the Delta fence. In contrast, the Powermatic fence is much easier adjust from (+ - )45 to 90 and has the added benefit of allowing you to skew the fence at an angle to the table. This is beneficial when jointing expensive highly figured boards that are succeptable to grain tear out. It's worth mentioning again, "it is rock solid".
I upped my price range from the DJ20 to the Powermatic 8" catagory. This seemed a little confusing initially because prices ranged from ($) - ($). The bottom line is that the higher priced version has 2 HP. It's a personal choice, but if you're stepping up to this class of jointer, for a couple hundred extra dollars you an additional 30% HP. I feel that 1-1/2 HP is most likely very sufficient but I opted for 2 HP. The fence on the 8" jointer is not an exact design duplicate of the 54A's fence but is equally great in all respects.
Look at the other Amazon reviews on the ($) and ($) 8" Powermatic jointers. I can not describe this machine any better than the reviewers of those items. All their positive comments apply to this machine. The primary difference is the power.

I am usually a Delta guy, but this Powermatic tool stand alone in a class ALL by itself.

I have been using mostly to keep my miter slots and table saw fence well lubricated. It does an excellent job.

It looks like a denser version of petroleum jelly and a little goes a long way. This one quart will last me most of the year, if not longer.

You should be able to use it in most any application that requires lubrication. Its also touted as a rust protectant, but I've been using the Boeshield Rust Prevention product for that.

A little dab will do ya. Go ahead and try it.

It has been a constant uphill battle to keep the cast iton surfaces of my tools (my table saw, band saw, sander, scrollsaw and jointer) from rust. It is just too humid down here in Houston, Texas.

To use this product, I did a thorough surface preparation (sanding and buffing), then wiped a coat of the Slipit on the cleaned surface, and voila, I have no rust for the months. I still keep my fingers crossed, but it seems that now and then by wiping on a very thin coat, I manage to keep the cast iron surface of my tools slick and free of rust. It is also economical since the quart of Slipit does go a long way. Give it a try.

This is slick stuff. It applies like a thin car wax, and looks kind of like petrolium jelly. It does not seem to leave any residue, and also seems to remove some of the oxidation on iron surfaces. It applies very easy, and once it's wiped dry, the surface stays slick for quite a while. I find it makes jointing easier, since I can concentrate on holding the piece against the fence and not be struggling to slide it forward. I haven't noticed it leaving anything on the wood. It would probably work well on saw blades too, but I havn't tried that.

I put all of my machines on mobile bases, and have had mixed luck with various manufacturers. By far my best experiences have been with the bases made for specific machines. They're a cinch to get together and start using. This one was no exception. Its very sturdy and with a good push you can jump on your DJ-20 and surf it down the driveway (just kidding). It isn't the one shown in the picture here (obviously a joiner won't fit on that) but it is better- with a foot pedal for lifting/lowering. Highly recommended.

All of my shop machines are on mobile bases. Some are home-made but the heavy pieces like the DJ20 jointer are on Delta bases. Like the other Delta bases, this is top quality. I had some initial concerns about putting this heavy jointer on a mobile base, but I am very pleased that I did. The mobile base moves the jointer very easily across some oversized garage floor expansion joints. You can't go wrong by purchasing this base.

I have several machines on Delta mobile bases. After discovering how well they are made and how well they work when I got my first one with my Unisaw, I don't even think twice now when I buy a new machine, I always get the Delta base to go with it. I just got a DJ20. This is one big, heavy jointer. It's about 475 lbs, about the same as a Unisaw, but this jointer is very long and possibly awkward to move. But my DJ20 is really easy to move and manouver around my small shop using this base. One Hint: when you set up your jointer, place the cabinet in the mobile base first, before you but the jointer assembly on th cabinet.

I have an Minmax 16 bandsaw, it was suggested to use this base.

If you have an MM16 this is the was to go you can turn on a dime in less space then the mobility kit you can buy. and you don't have to find a place for the handle.

Unless you have a large shop where you will never need to move your jointer, you need this item, the rack and pinion on the fence takes a bit of room. I was a bit hesatant due to the price but I am glad I purchased it. The Jointer is now easy to relocate, a single step on the pedal and one hand is all that is needed. With the pedal up it is as solid as if it were on the floor.

I was ready to pull the plug and buy the Delta 37-380 when it dawned on me I should at least check out the Grizzly web site before buying. I bought the X5 Unisaw 36-L31X BC50 last November and have been very pleased with its performance. Smooth, quiet and remarkably precise, I thought I'd stay in the Delta family for my 8" jointer. But wait! This Grizz looks identical to the coveted DJ-20 at virtually half the price. Come to find out it's built on the same line in China as the Delta is.
The Grizz came well-packaged. Like many reviews I have read, my cabinet was slightly bowed in, but if it doesn't effect functionality it's OK with me. Assembly was straight forward, and the manual is written in easy-to-understand english. Yes you need a friend to help. Yes you need gobs of mineral spirits to clean away the protective goo. Yes you are going to love your newly faced 8" boards.
Once the unit was up and running, it took me a while to get the outfeed table dead perfect, and I attribute that more to my not-so-straight straight edge. I finally used my width markers that came with my router and they helped me get it just right.
Wow does this puppy hum. It is solid, quiet, and a total beast on my cherry. I am getting some chips ejecting out from under the guard, but it does not get in the way of the cut nor back onto the board. I'm running a new Delta 1 1/2 HP 1200cfm DC system with about 18 feet of tubing.

I've been shopping for a large jointer to replace my 6 1/2" Craftsman doorstop and finally broke down to spend the money on this one. This is Grizzly's version of the Delta DJ-20 8" jointer but at half the price ... yes I said HALF.

After I got the boxes open I had to remove two bolts that held the jointer beds in place on the crate box. Unfortunately it took me twenty minutes to figure out how they were attached. When you get it, just look at the crook under the bed arms and you'll see the silver bolts, you'll need an open ended wrench and a ratchet.

The outboard bed needed a tiny adjustment to get it level with the knives, but that was easy to remedy. The outboard side of the fence is out of square by about 1/64th of an inch even though the front half of the fence is dead on. Not sure what that's about but it's not bad enough to effect anything and it's miles better than my previous jointer. The built in castor wheel is a little bit of a pain, it doesn't quite want to turn unless you've already got the jointer moving. Luckily I purchased my jointer shortly after it was packaged up, as the grease on the beds had yet to harden ... thankfully a couple of towels took care of it without any cleaner.


The knives were set at the factory and shipping hadn't moved them. The motor runs perfectly smooth and I can put a nickle on its side while it's running and it won't vibrate over. Right now it's set up to take super light passes while I true up the soles of my wooden hand planes, and its working perfectly.

All in all worth much more than it's price would indicate. A definite buy. Stop shopping around, this is the one for you.

I buy most of my wood rough-cut and mill it myself. I chose this jointer because I wanted something heavy duty, longish bed, with an easy blade set-up. The jointer requires 2 people to set it up, unless you are a lot stronger than I am, but with some help it went together quickly. The instruction manual is a little vague in a couple of areas, but I was able to figure it out without much difficulty. None of my other machines have magnetic switches, and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to make it work. I agree with the other reviewer, that the cutter guard setup isn't the greatest. There doesn't seem to be enough tension on it and it is difficult to make it tighter. Also, the depth scale is directly behind the guard pivot, making it difficult to see. Otherwise, the machine was easy to put together and square up. It has plenty of power, gives good, clean cuts, and has a nice finish. I would definately recommend this machine to anyone.

I ordered this jointer solely due to it's spiral cutter head and extended bed length. Yes, I know it isn't a true spriral-helix ("Shelix") head. But it does feature the tiny and individual cutter blades. So when a blade gets knicked, I pull it off, rotate it (all 4 sides are usable) and reinstall it. No realignment needed, and the blades are inexpensive, and sold in tubes. This is a wonderful design.

I did have a couple setup issues. First, at a little over 200 pounds and 60 inches long, find a friend to help you lift the unit onto the base. This thing was a mother to get on by myself. At least it was balanced well for a 200 pound chunk of iron . As to real manufacturer issues, I had two problems.

First, the spring assembly for the safety guard on mine doesn't align well with the pre-bored hole in the bed. That means that the guard won't freely move under spring tension. A call to tech support, and they sent a new spring assembly, which basically has the same problem. So the real problem must be in the alignment of the bored hole and the screw holes around it, which retain the bracket with the spring, I surmised. My workaround was to grease all that area up really well, and also back the retaining screws way off so that the retaining assembly can freely "wobble" a little and allow the guard shaft to move easily. If the screws back out further on their own, a touch of thread-tite should put them back in order.

The second issue was found over the weekend while adjusting the setup, and after tech support was available. Some gorilla with an attitude at the factory, had cranked two of the large locking nuts together. These nuts set the +45 degree angle on the fence, and were set at about 50 degrees. I couldn't break them using penetrating oil, wrenches AND a three foot long pipe over the wrench. Anyway, a call on Monday to tech support and they shipped out two nuts, plus the assembly they were locked onto. After that, all went well. Their support staff are friendly, informative and process repair orders quickly.

The machine is well constructed and the wheels allow easy and precise table adjustments. The cuts are remarkable as compared to other jointers I've seen. If this is a compromise to the "Shelix" style cutters, I'd love to see what a Shelix does, because this is just flat out impressive on it's own.

I highly recommend this specific jointer, and I must say I've had only good experiences with the folks at Grizzly. They kept 5 stars due to the speed in which they addressed the problems I had with my unit, and also due to the performance I experience in actual operations.

This is a solid addition to your Hitachi P12RA planer. It can be installed and removed in seconds, and connects to a standard 4" dust collector hose, without the need for adapters. The pictures you may see online or in catalogs don't do this product justice. It is fairly heavy guage steel and about as perfectly formed as it gets. The most important feature is that it works extremely well. It's worth every penny!

If your in the market for a planer - you should know that they produce MOUNTAINS of shavings in no time. Using this well made, all steel dust hood will help keep your shop a little more under control and will certainly help keep your breathing air a little healthier too. (Do I need to mention that you need to hook it up to a dust collector or a shop vac... it does nothing by itslef...)

Before I purchased this 8" jointer, I researched all manufacturers to find the best quality and features. The American woodworker magazine conducted reviews on 10 different models (April 1997 issue). The Powermatic model 60 is the only 8" jointer made in the USA. Its weight is listed at 584 lbs. The next heaviest was the Jet. It weighed 466 lbs. A difference of almost 120 lbs! The weight ratings go down from there for the other models. The castings are thick with ribbing for additional strength. The extra weight deadens vibration. Powermatics outstanding feature is its cuts/minute. 21,000 to be exact. This provides a very smooth finish. Much superior compared to other models. My jointer arrived 9 days after placing the order with Tool Crib of the North with no shipping damage or problems. It was crated all around with 2 x 4's to prevent shipping damage. (An excellent pre-cautionary measure). The 1-1/2 HP Baldor motor is wired for 110 volts. I rewired mine to operate at 220, which runs much more efficently. An easy procedure...just follow the schematic on the motor. The infeed and outfeed tables were "deadflat" and have true "parallelism". Overall, I rate this Jointer at the Top. It's very heavy duty and produces excellent work. The price is high, but if you want a top rated machine, this is the one to get. The competition sells for less, and you get what you pay for (dont buy junk!). I'm very satified with my purchase.

I've been pleased with my experience since I ordered my Powermatic model 60 jointer this spring. It shipped two days after my order, well within the advertised availability. It was delivered a few days later by a lift-gate equipped truck. This kind of delivery service was one of the reasons I ordered from Amazon.

Assembly and setup was straightforward. The jointer itself was completely assembled, and just needed to be bolted to the stand, and the V-belt installed between the motor pulley in the stand and the cutterhead pulley on the jointer.

Another reason that I chose this jointer was its table size and cutterhead specs. The cutterhead is spaced closely between the tables, so the workpiece is supported close to the cutterhead. I haven't had the knives out for grinding yet, but anticipate the replacement process to be smoother with the jackscrew height adjusters for the knives. The 3-knife cutterhead turns at 7,000rpm, yielding 21,000 cuts per minute. If you take your time, you can get a very smooth finish. Both the infeed and outfeed tables are adjustable for height. The infeed table is adjusted by lever, the outfeed by handwheel.

The 1-1/2 horsepower motor seems to be a good choice. Even taking heavy cuts (for me, a heavy cut is 1/16") off a 7" wide tropical hardwood (sustainably harvested!) or oak, I didn't experience any bogging down of the motor. The jointer is available with larger motors, though. A larger motor wouldn't be a benefit to me, but someone who needs to quickly hog off a lot (e.g. 1/4") of hard or green wood might be able to get something out of a larger motor.

The fence is straightforward to adjust. Once adjusted, it is also stable and holds its position well. It has a positive stop at 90 degree that really works, i.e. it repeatedly returns the fence to 90 degrees. After the first couple weeks or so, I realized this and stopped feeling the need to frequently check it for squareness. The fence can be set at an angle across the table for skew cutting, which can be helpful in some situations.

This is definitely not a high-tech machine. Its design and construction is simple and basic, using time-tested iron castings and steel. However, I suspect that Powermatic utilizes some high-tech grinding equipment when machining the table and fence surfaces and dovetail ways. Since I don't get to buy new equipment too often, I have some experience measuring things like table flatness, parallelism to cutterhead, etc.. Those things are useful when evaluating the condition of a used machine. When I unpacked this jointer, I thought I'd measure everything carefully, so that I could keep track of wear and tear over the years. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the machining. The tables and fence were flat to within .002" longitudinally and within .004" diagonally. I have more measurements, but they're all boring. Nothing stands out. The cutterhead is parallel with the outfeed table (well, within plus-or-minus .001"). The tables are parallel, the fence is flat. Etc.

Like they say, that's the good news. There's also a little bad news, but it all came out well in the end. The motor is supported in the stand by an adjustable mount. The mount pivots around an axis that is parallel to the motor shaft. This permits the belt tension to be adjusted. The supports for the pivot are welded to the frame. When I went to install the belt, I discovered that both welds were broken. My guess is that the welds weren't up to snuff and the weight of the motor on them, in the pre-assembled stand, caused them to break in transit.

At any rate, I reported the problem to Amazon. Their response was the best customer service I've had in recent experience. They needed to ask a couple of questions to ascertain some details (e.g. the fact that the stand was a welded assembly, so it wouldn't be easy to just replace the motor mount). They then had Powermatic send me a replacement stand. The fact that Amazon interceded between me and Powermatic was very helpful. The replacement stand arrived in a timely way, comparable to the jointer's original shipping time.

Since then I've used the jointer fairly heavily and it's served me well. I considered other products, mainly Delta's DJ-20 jointer. In my research, I'd heard of some quality concerns about the Delta DJ-15 (that it had gone down in recent years) and was concerned that the DJ-20 might also be affected. I'd used an older Powermatic model 60 jointer at a woodworking school. It was used heavily, and sometimes abused. It held up well, and produced good results consistently. That experience, plus not hearing of any problems with recently produced machines, and Amazon's delivery service led me to my final decision to order my jointer from Amazon. It's worked out well for me and I recommend it to others.