# Jointer advive



## onethumbless (Aug 28, 2017)

Looking for advice on buying a desktop jointer. I am a novice at woodworking but I know a hammer from a nail!! Built a few things but slow at building because I am in a wheelchair. I have adapted quite well to working from the chair. 

I have 4 possible choices for a jointer..Delta 37-071 6 in. MIDI-Bench Jointer,,,Porter-Cable PC160JTR 120V 6" Variable Speed Two-Knife Bench Jointer,,,CUTECH 40160H-CT (with HSS tips),,,CUTECH 40160HC-CT (WITH CARBIDE TIPS).

Any advice would be welcome!!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

All I can say is I've had very bad luck with porter cable tools in general and bad luck getting replacement parts for Delta.


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## Bob Mcpeak (Sep 9, 2017)

I've looked at the Cutech and other bench type and this will be my next purchase.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

I have a friend who just bought a new benchtop Cutech joiner with a spiral cutter head. I haven't seen it operate but it looks well made. 
In the '70's I knew a woodworker who worked from a wheelchair. His workbench was a thing of beauty and made specifically to accommodate his work from the chair. 
It's good you're taking the time to review these benchtop joiners because many benchtop tools are made very cheap with fewer features than stationary tools.


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

I looked at Cutech and noticed that some of their spiral cutter heads are high speed steel, not carbide. I looked for Cutech products with carbide spiral heads and discovered that the small cutters had only two sides available, not the usual four sides, which effectively reducing the lifetime of the cutter by half. Whether that makes enough of a difference to @onethumbless and @Bob Mcpeak, I don't know.

I dislike companies that make their products appear to have the same desirable features found on more expensive competitors' products, but they take cost-saving shortcuts that the buyer may not recognize. Cutech is "wordsmithing" their feature descriptions to include keywords that attract buyers. They are standing in the shadow between cunning marketing and outright deceit. I would not be surprised if Cutech had its lawyers review their feature descriptions to ensure that a claim of false advertising cannot stick.

When the buyer finds that the feature doesn't match expectations, it is too late. In this case, the buyer may be replacing the small cutters (or the entire spiral "blade") on their Cutech products far more often than they expected.

I am a Tool Agnostic, without loyalty for any one brand. Cutech may or may not offer a good value for budget-minded buyers, but I hope those buyers read Cutech product feature descriptions carefully and look at their "real" specs, with the goal of truly understanding what they are buying. 

The bottom line is: You get what you pay for.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

I got the CuTech 40200 over a year back - it came with HSS inserts; had carbide available - which I purchased figuring to change over 'when needed.' 

since then they offer same model equipped with carbide.

I'm a hobby shop, I've done bunches of red oak and maple - several hundred BF. 
the carbides are still in the box.....

I'm quite satisfied with the performance, build and quality.
the only glitch I had (turned out to be . . .) oak flour build up under one side of the platten. I thought it had gone out of parallel - called to find out how to adjust - as I started that process I noticed the gaps in the plate brackets were not equal. bingo, ten minute, one tool fix....


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

High speed steel was all we had for many years. My jointer has high speed steel and the blades were last sharpened about 12 years ago. 
Carbide is a wonderful upgrade for table saw blades, Radial arm saws, Miter saws, and router bits but not necessary for every machine.


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

Toolman50 said:


> High speed steel was all we had for many years. My jointer has high speed steel and the blades were last sharpened about 12 years ago.
> Carbide is a wonderful upgrade for table saw blades, Radial arm saws, Miter saws, and router bits but not necessary for every machine.



It sure is nice for a planer, I have a 20" that I installed a Byrd head in it will cut through knots with very very little tear out, and it is about 90% quieter, with the straight blades in it, it was deafening when I turned on the dust collector, sounded like a cop siren on steroids LOL


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