Customer Reviews

JET 708457DXK JJ-6CSDX 6-Inch 1 HP Jointer with Quick-Set Knive System, 115/230-Volt 1-Phase

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a serious woodworker and choosing the right jointer was a quest of much research. I chose the Jet 708457DXK for some innovated features.

1-The quick set knives cannot be underrated. It amazes me that tool manufactures have not had this feature since planers have had it for years.
2-Long bed. This 6" bed is with 56" of length is only comparable to the Power matic bed length. All other 6" jointers have shorter beds.
3-Handwheels. I'm not a fan of the "stick" adjustment on other jointers. See for yourself at any woodworking store. Test the incremental in feed adjustment on a wheeled vs. stick adjustment side by side. Big advantage to the hand wheels.
4-Customer service. Jet is owned by WMH group and they own Powermatic as well. Customer service history is excellent.

I bought this jointer pre-assembled, so no review on setup. I only had to set the fence 90 & 45 for adjustment. The out feed table came factory set and is perfect. I bought the HTC mobile base over the Jet mobile base due to HTC base lifts the jointer and sets it down on floor pads. The Jet base only locks the wheels.

The cuts on the jointer were as expected, smooth and crisp. The noise level is average for this type of machine.

Pros: As stated above 1-2-3-4.
-Dust collection is also very good.
-Double sided knives.

Cons: The jointer has a spring loaded pin on the rear of the machine that engages at the 1/8th inch cut on the in feed table. This prevents cuts over 1/8" being made, (maximum recommended cut.) This is somewhat a nuisance for an experienced woodworker that knows jointer cut depths. It is used for rabbiting. Pull the plunger out; turn the in feed wheel past 1/8" release the plunger.

The fence slide works fine, but the Delta jointer has a better system, (rack screw.) *Not a feature to buy the jointer for however.

If you are in the market for a 6" jointer this Jet has features that other 6" jointers don't have. The only current exception is the Powermatic 6" with long bed/quick set knives. Priced at $900. If you like taking a lot of time setting knives with a jointer pal device and don't mind a shorter bed then save $100 and buy another jointer. If you want a full featured 6" jointer, then this is the one. *Current price as of this writing is $549.

I make my living building custom guns....so I demand the best tools. Poor quality just won't cut it!

This machine is very good. Excellent power, gorgeous finished cut, quiet and extrememly ACCURATE. I looked at many jointers costing several hundreds less and several hundreds more. I've also worked on many other brands over the years.

You will be very impressed with this tool if you take the time to set it up correctly. Quality is excellent.

I was able to perfectly square the most tortured, twisted pieces of hard, highly figured wood I had in the shop. Outstanding!! I'm very impressed and that's not an easy thing to accomplish.

I could not believe how fast this jointer went together. Really solid all around. Final decision to purchase this over the Delta X5 was the dust collection and location of the controls. Glad I did because dust collection especially works very nicely. Most adjustments were fine out of the box except the outfeed and even that was pretty close.

It's a great machine, very quiet and planes very well. Adjustment mechanisms are easy to use and the bed surface is as flat as glass... very nice. Easy assembly with minimal clean up and adjustment required as others have stated.

I'd have to disagree about the cheap plastic insert just to the left of the blade. It's just bad design and impossible to get flush with the otherwise perfect fence. Wood (especially shorter lengths) can easily jam on it, which is not a safe thing. There is no reason to have it where it is. They could have easily had a fully flush fence and mounted this plastic slider underneath to the rear as there is plenty of space for it. This is only a problem for material less than one inch high, but still a major screw-up by JET.

They could have also made the Off switch a little more sensitive so that a hard push is not required.

All in all a nice addition to my workshop and so much quieter than my thicknesser.

I think the other reviewers pretty much cover how great this jointer is for the price. I heartily agree, it was easy to set up (minus the weight, but then that's a good thing). Adjustments are easy to make when you need to, the 90 degree stop was perfect from the factory. On a mobel base it's easy to move around, and takes up less room then I thought.

It runs quietly and smoothly, the cuts it produces are at least as smooth and clean as the ones my Makita planer makes. Face jointing a 1/16" from 6" piece of maple, the motor seemed to have no difficulty. A very nice jointer. Once again JET has come through for me.

Update:

So they've raised the price quite a bit since I wrote this review. At this point, I don't know. I probably would have spent the extra cash and gone with the Powermatic.

Excellent value

I have owned this machine for 10 months now. I have jointed several thousand board feet of hardwood so I've kicked the tires and taken it around the block. The knife alignment system is excellent and works as advertised. Adjustment of depth in feed and out feed is excellent and easy.

The only thing I can fault is getting the fence 90 deg to the bed can be finicky. After locking the fence it moves just a bit out of square. This is really common for jointers of this design. Get yourself a digital tilt box and it's much easy; but if you're using a t-square it can get a little annoying. I also believe this machine is a bit underpowered at times; I have actually ground it to a stop on several occasions.

After several sets of knifes I decided to ditch the stock head with the Byrd tool SHELIX head. Very easy upgrade; just have Byrd install new bearing and it's a 2 hour job to install the new head and reset all tolerances.

First jointer I've owned, but not the first I've used. One of those tools that are considered expensive but not used so much to justify plunking down large cash for one. I was used to using the 2000 dollar jointers, and seemed I would never justify buying one, then along came Jet with this unit.

Everything everyone has said positive about it, is true. After easy assembly, 15 minute setup time to using it.

Dust collection is the best vs any machine I own. After running 5, 10ft boards through it, hardly a speck of anything anywhere. Knife setup is truely a 10 minute or less job.

Nylon slider on the fence so the bed doesn't get scarred up...Gee, who'd a thunk it!!! Delta didn't, thats for sure.

Not a 2000 dollar jointer, but an extremely impressive 550 dollar one. Big bang for the buck. From what Delta X5 owners have told me, they all wish they had bought this one instead, I now understand why.

This is a great jointer so far. This arrived quickly and I am very happy with shipping speed. Everything arrived as it should except for the base, which has two nice dings in it. This doesn't affect the performace, but it looks like someone smacked it with a hammer on the top left corner of the base, as well as on the right side. I am going to try and get a replacement base, so I'll update when I get that sorted out. Otherwise this jointer is exactly what I was looking for. Tunes up well, cuts well and looks good. I have only had it for about a week so I can't give an in depth review, but for one weeks worth of use I am pleased and can give some insight on this unit. When the unit is running it is pretty smooth in regard to vibration, when I turn it off it does have a fairly significant bit of vibration as the motor slows. I don't mind that as long as it doesn't vibrate while running at full speed, which it doesn't. I did order a link belt to try and lessen any vibration. The 90 degree stop is set with a bolt which isn't really accurate. This bolt tends to shift quite a bit as the stop is set, which makes it fairly difficult to set dead-on. I don't trust a postive stop and always check prior to use, so I don't really care but with a slightly better bolt and more finely machined threads this could be a lot more accurate. I didn't even bother to set the 45 degree stop since I don't trust it and I will be checking the angle prior to use anyway. Aside from that I am very happy with this machine.

UPDATE: Amazon issued me a percentage refund for the damaged base and I am happy with this solution. Amazon was very polite and promtly addessed my issue. I would have prefered a perfect base but refunding me some cash suddenly made that dent go away! I bumped this up to the five stars for this reason. Thanks Amazon.

Great price and great service. Delivery was a breeze and there were no shipping charges. This is what gets me to amazon vice the local woodraft store. My stand had a dent and they offered me a 10% price break since it was not a critical function. They offered to do either. Set up was easy but it is a heavy piece. Just needed someone to help me put the jointer on the stand. You are likely to scratch the top when you manuever the jointer into position. If that is a concern put something under the jointer as you position on the stand. I checked squareness and the level and with the exception of tweaking the installation of the fence all was perfect. Opted to test it at its limit from the start. Squared a piece of 2.5 by 6 inch white oak. Whisper quiet and a perfect cut. I would recommend to any who need a medium to heavy duty jointer. Had a free mobile base from a previous Amazon promotion the that was the ticket for ease of movement. I have found nothing that stops this from a 5* rating. Long time home woodworker. B

I am extremely pleased with the smoothness of the Jet jointer; it purrs like a kitten. The longbed tables allow jointing of longer boards without tipping and the dust port allows me to hookup a shopvac. I'm glad I chose the Jet jointer over other machines on the market.