# Purchasing jointer advice



## rookiewoodworker (Sep 10, 2012)

Hey everyone, I am planning to buy my first jointer soon. I'm looking at the Grizzly G0814. I looked a few months ago and grizzly had a couple options I liked more but looks like they were discontinued. I am a hobbyist working in the garage so no need for an 8" or large jointer but I want something that will work well and last a long time while being somewhat cost conscious as well. So what do all of you think? Is this a good tool or would you spend more and get a different one?? Thanks for advice.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

That model looks alright to me however I would be reluctant to buy a new machine that has been discontinued. These companies seem to quickly discontinue making parts for equipment not in production. On the other hand I have a 6" jointer I bought in 1972 and haven't needed any parts for it. Woodworking machinery tends to last a lifetime if not abused.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

My 6" jointer is 1950's vintage. I've never had to buy any parts got it. 
My opinion is todays jointers are all still built on 1950 designs. Very basic machines.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

I think the size of a joiner should be determined more by the size and weight of the pieces you will be using it for and less determined by whether you are a hobbyist or not. If you intend to make furniture, an 8" joiner would be much more appropriate. 
However, other important determining factors are cost and actual room available in the shop. 

Note that the difference in performance between 6" and 8" is phenomenal. I had an older Grizzly 8" joiner and it was the size of an aircraft carrier and weighed probably over 600 lbs. it was an incredible tool.


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## Kansas Gary (Nov 13, 2014)

Just one word of advice........If you can afford it that is...... Really consider upgrading to the 8 inch jointer if at all possible...... I know you say that you don't need the 8 inch but take it from someone that went from a bench top 6in model to a floor 6in model now up to an 8 in long bed jointer and if I had the room I would upgrade to the 12 in. long bed jointer in a heart beat if I wasn't out of room now...............


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

rookiewoodworker said:


> Hey everyone, I am planning to buy my first jointer soon. I'm looking at the Grizzly G0814. I looked a few months ago and grizzly had a couple options I liked more but looks like they were discontinued.


I was told by a friend thats a Grizzly salesman in the Springfield store that changed a lot of equipment being made from China to Taiwan (I think that's the country). With doing that, the old model #s were discontinued and they assigned new model #s to the replacement versions. Therefore, what you were looking at before may well be essentially the same as a different model.

Mark


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Burb said:


> Therefore, what you were looking at before may well be essentially the same as a different model.
> 
> Mark


Id believe that in a heartbeat. I cant say for certain, but looking at the pictures the 'new' 6 inch jointer looks pretty near identical to mine, an polar bear series 0452. Its a good tool to be sure, little rough around the edges but does its job well


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## rookiewoodworker (Sep 10, 2012)

I'd love an 8" and I think I could probably make it work space wise and budget wise. Grizzly has an 8" jointer that is fairly reasonable priced. I haven't seen any 8" jointers that run on 110/115, only 220 and i don't have a 220 outlet in the shop. All of my tools, even the larger ones can run off of 110. Would u install a 220 outlet just to get the 8" instead of the 6"????


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Where is your shop? Is in your house or a separate building? If it's in your house and you have space in your breaker box a 220v outlet isn't difficult to do.


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## Quickstep (Apr 10, 2012)

I have sort of strong opinions on this. (I'm not an expert, I just have strong opinions 

Once you get a jointer, you'll never settle for board that's not flat or edges that aren't straight. There are two things you get with a 8" jointer - one is obviously the extra width, but usually the beds are longer too making jointing long boards easier and more accurate. The other thing is to have a Shelix cutter head. No more knife sharpening and no more blade setup. I put a Shelix head in mine after spending a backbreaking day trying to get new knives aligned. It's also quieter and a cleaner cut. Man, what a difference. If you're tight on space, the mobile base is a bonus, 'cause you ain't moving it around otherwise. I got my Delta a decade ago, but if I were buying one now, I'd get the Powermatic if I could talk myself to spending that much money.


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## BZawat (Sep 21, 2012)

Like other guys have said, if you can afford it (and have space in your panel for a 220/240v circuit) go with the 8" machine. You will absolutely not regret the decision. My first jointer was a used 6" Ridgid from the early 90's; great machine for what it was but I was quickly frustrated by its lack of size. The tables are short, which makes flattening/straightening boards longer than 5' very difficult. Also you are limited to 6" in width, obviously. 

Since moving, my shop is now located in the basement and machinery must be moved in through the exterior Bilco doors in order to keep my wife from killing me lol. That said, if i could wrangle a 12" long bed jointer down those steep concrete steps I'd do it in a heartbeat! I settled for a mid 80's Delta DJ-20 which is an 8" machine and the model for Grizzly's parallelogram jointer design. 

Just a word about Grizzly tools. I have several that I love, a g0513X2 bandsaw and a g0544 planer - that were made in 2003 and 2005 respectively, and both in Taiwan. 2 years ago the shop I work in bought a brand new g0609X 12" jointer. Made in China. What a piece of crap! The castings are lousy, the assembly was haphazard at best, and the machining flaws made it VERY difficult to tune the machine to within reasonable tolerances. When I say very difficult, I'm talking I had to disassemble half of the machine, shim things that should never need to be shimmed, grind away iron here and there to allow proper clearances, drill new holes in the steel cabinet bracing to re-mount the motor, etc etc. All told I spent probably 16 hours re-tooling this hunk of junk and then adjusting the table parallelism. Now it works great, but for $3,000 and a brand new machine that headache should never have existed. 

Maybe their reason for shifting production back to Taiwan was on account of similar horror stories and a damaged reputation. I dont know, and we can only speculate. I also dont know if their new machines with the "w" designation added to the name are any better, but this experience pushed me away from buying a new 0490XW and into buying a used tried-and-true Delta in need of a bit of TLC for 1/3 of the price. Just food for thought!


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