Jointers Buying Guide
| Average Rating | Average Price | Reviews | Products |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
$2106.08 | 532 | 132 |
A jointer does two things that make woodworking possible. The first is to make one side of a board flat. This includes those surfaced boards that were supposed to be flat when you bought them. They might have come out of the milling machine reasonably flat, but by the time they sit around the lumber yard and then your shop they probably twisted enough that they aren't flat enough for fine furniture without a few passes on the jointer.
The second thing that makes a jointer essential is making one edge of a board straight and square to the flat side. There's a big difference between a board that looks straight and one that really is. Jointers are also handy for cleaning up the edge of a board after it's been ripped on a table saw.
We've read articles about other cool things you can do with your jointer
like cutting rabbets and tapering table legs. We promise ourselves we'll try
them someday, but never have. The jointer does a few things very well and
the flat, straight, square boards it makes are essential to working wood.
Bed Width and Length
The two primary considerations to your jointer purchase are available space and price. The wider the jointer bed, the wider the board you can face joint. The longer the jointer, the better you can flatten long boards. Basically, the bigger the jointer, the easier it is to work large boards. But bigger jointers are heavier, take up more space, and cost more. Space is often a bigger limitation than cost. We were recently offered a 12" jointer with an 84" long bed. It was 90 years old, but for the price of a new motor, we would have had a sound two thousand pound machine you can't buy anymore. It would have been a great addition to our shop, but we had nowhere to put it.
Also remember that the space you'll need for your jointer is not all of
the space you'll need to joint boards. If you want to edge joint an eight
foot board, you'll need eight feet of clearance on each side of the cutter
head. You may need to move the jointer for long boards and that means a
mobile base which is impractical once you get above an 8" wide machine.
Take a close look at the space you have available and get the biggest
machine that is practical for your budget.
Power
Check to see if the tool uses a power-source your shop accommodates.
Jointers are available in single-phase 110V, single-phase 220V, and
three-phase 220V (see Shop Power).
Table and Fence Adjustments
You want a jointer with solid, flat surfaces for the in-feed and out-feed
tables and the fence. The in-feed table and the fence will be adjusted
fairly often so it should be a smooth operation whether the jointer uses
levers or hand-wheels. The fence should be easy to slide forward and
backward so that you can use different parts of the knives.
Cutterheads
This used to be an easy discussion because the variations were pretty limited. You had a cutterhead of a certain width that had two, three, or four knives that cut perpendicular to the jointer bed. More knives was considered better as the cuts would be smoother and knives would stay sharp longer (although it takes longer to change them).
Early innovations made straight knives easier to install and added cheaper disposable knives. Now there are spiral or biased knives that change the angle of the cut. There are also cutterheads with carbide inserts instead of knives. If a knife gets nicked, you'll need to replace the entire knife (and probably change all of the knives while you're at it). With a nicked insert, you simply replace the damaged insert.
These new cutter (spiral and insert) systems tend to run quieter than traditional straight knives. Manufacturers also claim that cutterheads that utilize spiral knives or inserts produce smoother cuts in figured woods, but it's not obvious that the increased cost is justified. In some of the tests we've seen, the best results came from old fashioned straight knives using a light cut. Don't spend extra money on fancy cutterheads without reading all of the available literature and knowing that your application warrants the expense. The same is true of extra knives on the cutterhead. The incremental benefit of that fourth knife may not justify a lot of extra money.
Changing knives on a jointer is not like changing a blade on a table saw.
It takes some time and requires test cuts to make sure it's right. The
easier the cutterhead makes the job, the more likely you'll be to change
your knives when they get dull. If you're not making heavy use of your
jointer you probably won't change knives very often, but if you plan to
flatten a lot of wood, you'll want a system that makes replacing the knives
easier.
Types of Jointers
4"
Used to smooth and square board edges, jointers prepare pieces of wood to be glued-up into wider panels. When this is its primary use, and stock is no thicker than 4" - this is your perfect tool!
The average rating of the 132 products in Jointers is 4.5 with an average price of $2106.08. Click the 4" Jointers product links for additional information on the specific models.
6"
6" jointers are probably the 2nd most commonly purchased to their 4" siblings. However, a larger jointer provides more length, width capacity, and is more stable. Everything a 6" can do, an 8" can do better.
There are 55 products in 6" Jointers with an average rating of 4. The average price is $585.95. The 132 products in Jointers have an median rating of 4.5 and an median price of $2106.08. Single product links have detailed reviews and information on the models.
8"
One of the biggest advantages to using an 8" jointer is a longer bed. Otherwise, a smaller and less expensive 6" may do the job just fine.
The 30 products in 8" Jointers have an median rating of 4.5 with an average price of $1568.24. The average ranking of the 132 products in Jointers is 4.5 with an average price of $2106.08. Individual product links have detailed reviews and information on the models.
10"
While these jointers perform the same job as their smaller versions, the 10-inchers are heavier, more precise, and have longer beds and fences.
The 13 products in 10" Jointers have an average rating of 4.5 with an average price of $2834.45. There are 132 products in Jointers with an average ranking of 4.5. The average price is $2106.08. Click on the individual 10" Jointers product links for more reviews and information on the individual models.
12-16"
Most of these are planer/jointer combos and are used in professional shops because of their large table surfaces, strong motors and precise cuts.
There are 33 products in 12-16" Jointers with an median rating of 4.5. The median price is $5442.76. The 132 products in Jointers have an median rating of 4.5 and an median price of $2106.08. The individual product links have more data on each model.
