Customer Reviews

Jet JJP-10BTOS 10-Inch Bench-Top Jointer/Planer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Like many starting woodworkers, I really needed a jointer and wanted a planer, but both did not fit into my budget. So I considered buying a jointer and just doing without the planer. Then I saw this product, but buying it without a review was a real gamble. I was really concerned that as a jointer it might not be very precise and that would just be a waste of money (I can hand joint a board fairly precisely - it just takes longer). In the end I decided that it was about the same price as many portable planers, and if it did a decent job planing, I would just use it as such.

The machine arrived promptly and was well packaged. Good thing, as is usually the case, the outer packaging was pretty battered. One caveat, the planer extension table and jointer blade guard are placed loose in the cavity of the planer and bang around some. The red paint on the guard was chipped around the corners a bit.

Set up was about a 1-hour job. These are things to consider:
1. I would recommend two people to get the main unit out of the styrofoam. It weighs about 75lbs. and tends to stick in the packaging.
2. The directions recommend tightening all of the nuts for the stand and then placing the unit on it before running the bolts up into the unit. Don't do this. Flip the unit upside-down onto the styrofoam packing and place the stand on the bottom. That way you can actually see all of the bolt holes and adjust the stand so all of the holes line up.
3. The directions fail to mention the three lock washers that go with the hex cap screws for fastening the planer outfeed extension, but they are in the exploded parts diagram (and come in the hardware bag). I recommend putting in all three screws loosely. Then, starting at one end, align the top of the extension just barely below the outfeed table - tightnen lightly. Then do the other side. My first efforts were to do the center screw first, but then every time you lower one side, the other pops up too high. Lastly, don't tighten thes down until you adjust the set screws that adjust the angle of the outfeed (I stripped one that way - but I always make sure to find at least one excuse to go out to the hardware store :-)

OK now for the bottom line - performance.
As a jointer, I was impressed. I jointed some very rough walnut and it came out smooth, straight and square - but only after about 5 passes. the directions advise taking light cuts (1/16" or less) and as I've only had this for a short time, I haven't tried breaking it yet.

Same deal as a planer or surface jointer: nice, but it is a bit underpowered - take light cuts. After all, if you realy want a powerful tool, and could afford it, you'd buy a stationary 15" planer and an 8" jointer. Not much snipe (any?) with these light cuts and the surface is nice.

Four small con's:
1. The 2" dust connector is just barely too big for my Rigid vac - fixed with some sandpaper.
2. One of the extension table holes had to be drilled out to get the bolt to go through (but all of the tapped holes are spot-on.)
3. The stand is a little flexible. I'm going to bolt a peice of ply onto the lower brackets as a shelf - that ought to help.
4. the jointer fence does not have any adjustment for moving it across the table, so all jointing operations occur at the same side. That will end up wearing the blades uneavenly. I'll probably end up making up some spacers with mdf.

I recommend this product.

I purchased this jointer/planer two weeks ago. This was to be my first joining/planing tool beyond a handplane and I was quite encouraged by the reviews. Beyond Amazon I had a hard time tracking down any major woodworking magazines that had done any reviews on this tool, that should have been a sign.

I received it, spent the next several hours assembling it, became very frustrated with the poorly threaded nuts and bolts and especially frustrated aligning the unit, I could only get 3 of the 4 base screws tight, the 4th would not thread in. Before firing the unit up I threw up an engineers square and my infeed table was horribly out of alignment. After some inspection I noticed that a piece of the infeed table was snapped off. So I called up Jet customer service who did a fine job in getting me the proper replacement part. I wish they would have detailed that this would be a difficult job... it was very difficult.

I received the new infeed table 4 days later and had to completely remove the gears, chain and split the machine open in order to get the new infeed table in. This wasn't too bad, the problem became aligning the cutterhead, two rollers, a lock bar, and a chip guard all at the same time while attempting to hold up the new infeed table while tightening a bolt. After much frustration I finally had the unit back together.

I threw the engineers square back up and all looked well. I fired up the motor and that worked also. All seemed good. I adjusted my depth of cut, tightened the infeed table lock and PING, the shaft that locks the infeed table snapped. This tiny shaft, approximately 1/8 inch diameter ran from one side of the machine to the other and was locked by a handwheel that you used to snug it, mine was hardly able to take finger tight before snapping.

In the end I was able to use Amazons excellent return policy and it is going back to them. It is unfortunate that Jet has made a product that is targeted at entry level woodworkers which cannot accomplish the very simplest of tasks. I would not recommend this tool to anyone.

Jet 10" Jointer/Planer Combo. It makes lot of sense to have both jointer and planer build into one machine. I have tried the jointer with hard red oak, and some soft wood for the planer. Both worked fine to my satisfaction. But there are a few "small" things that needed to be taken care of at the beginning after received the machine thought UPS:

(1) Shipping box is broken badly, luck me that the contents inside is not lost.
(2) The instruction manual (pictures and instructions) is not clear; it says the extension table should be installed higher than the planer but it does not say how much higher it should be. Also, for people never used a jointer or planer (like me), the manual should mention the basics steps operating a jointer and planer to get fine results. I have to find answers from other sources.
(3) This was the most bothering thing for me at the beginning: the out-feed table and the in-feed table are not parallel to each other (off by about 2 mm), and the manual does not mention how to fix it. After contacted the customer service, I got instructions to get it fixed (take both plastic panels off and there are 2 screws on the out-feed table which can be adjusted), even though I cannot say both tables are dead-parallel now, it is very close.
(4) While operating the jointer, the cutter guard keeps touching the surface of the out-feed table; there seems no way to adjust it. I guess the rotating axle is probably not perpendicular to the guard so as it turns, it getting closer to the surface of the out-feed table (but not 100% sure). I have sent email to customer support; hopefully will get some help on that. I think the worst case for me to get it work is to re-drill 2 holes and raise the guard.
(5) The fence could be designed to be a bit sturdier. Would be nice if it could be moved across the tables so that the cutter can be fully utilized.
(6) Would be nice if a shelf is design into the supporting frame/stand which cost basically nothing but would be useful for those with limited space.
(7) The quality of the cutter seems is not top of the line. After short period usage, I noticed a few small notches.
(8) The way that the planer extension table get installed (by 3 screws) and "adjusted" (by 2 smaller screws) is kind of joke. Even a non-professional woodworker like me can see its ridiculers.
(9) Some screws are too short, they are barely long enough to hold the tightened nut and washer.

Issues above are just some small imperfections I have noticed and which I can live with, over-all, I like this machine very much and I think it is well worth the money ($420).

Length:: 4:21 Mins

The Jet 10 inch jointer-planer is not capable of properly jointing a board. The in-feed and out-feed tables are not co-planar. This is not a small deviation from parallel planes, but a LARGE one. The out-feed table slopes away from the blades, and the in-feed table slopes up toward the blades. I contacted JET and was promptly emailed the instructions for adjusting the out-feed table. The in-feed table can not be adjusted. The adjustment on the out-feed table diminished the slope by about 1/2 of the distance it was out of position. Obviously, this did not fix the problem. In reality, there isn't really an adjustment built into the out-feed table. Jet is simply using the fact that the holes bored into the out-feed table sides, two on each side and which are used to attach the table to the bed of the jointer, are a bit loose. The four bolts (two on each side) are loosened, then the end of the out-feed table is lifted up, pivoting the table around the two bolts nearest the blade and sliding the other two sloppy sized holes upward around their bolts (see video). The bolts are then re-tightened to complete the "adjustment." Unfortunately the end of the out-feed table would need to move about 1/2 inch to correct the problem, and the "adjustment" yields only about 1/8 to 1/4 inch movement. As this was not a designed mechanism for adjustment, but rather a stop-gap utilizing sloppy machining, the method is NOT included in the manual.

It seems apparent that this is a design and/or manufacturing flaw. If all of the machines have the bolt holes in the same position, then NONE of the machines could possibly properly joint a board. The machine really should not be sold if this is the case, and, frankly, anyone who purchased the machine and, due to inexperience, did not realize that the machine was not putting flat faces on stock, should be given a refund and/or a new machine when the manufacturing process is corrected. As a matter of fact, I feel owed some compensation for the hours of time spent messing with a machine which any, even remotely objective, quality control process should have identified as irreparably flawed.

It is very disappointing, as the idea of a small footprint 10 inch joint-planer was very attractive, especially at this price point. We will have to wait for another company to do this, or for JET to re-design this item. As it stands, it will not joint boards.

I bought this tool based on Jet's reputation. My original intention was the Grizzly jointer/planer that they offer on thier website only.
The first unit i received came in with the chain broken that raises and lowers the planer table. Jet had no parts available, so Amazon replaced the unit (they paid the shipping). the second machine came in with the blades misset and adjustment was impossible. Rather than trying number 3 I'm giving up. Amazon has been a joy to work with, so I will probably buy the Delta or the Grizzly from them.

I read reviews on this machine on multiple sites before I decided to purchase and came to the conclusion that it would serve me well. I had what I thought to be realistic expectations from this machine. I had expected a machine that would work well for boards up to 5, maybe 6 feet long. I expected it to be under powered, but usable. Many reviews spoke of the difficulty of getting the jointer tables coplanar. I planned on setting the jointer to take a 1/16" cut and leave it there all the time to avoid the tables coming out of alignment. I knew that switching form jointer to planer would be a bit annoying, but I was willing to accept that. All in all I really expected to make some realistic compromises with this machine, but the size of the machine and the price made me decide to buy it.

I received the machine and started putting it together. It went together quite easily and took about 2 hours to assemble. Once I started to set up the machine I started having issues. The knives needed to be set. The first was easy to set with the jackscrews used to fine tune the height of the blade. Upon trying to set the second knife I started to have issues. The front jackscrew would come all the way out of it's threads before the blade was high enough. I was able to get the blades set, it just took a little more messing with than it should have.

I noticed while adjusting the infeed table that if I grabbed the far right end of the table, I could easily move it up and down about 1/8". I tightened the adjusting knobs for the infeed table on the back of the machine, but couldn't seem to get one of the rods that holds the infeed table tight. I removed the front cover from the machine and used a wrench to tighten the rod from the front. This started to help, but the rod snapped before the table was tight. Upon inspection I found that one of the square washers that aligns the infeed table in the diagonal slots that keep it aligned was installed crooked preventing a large bushing from seating tightly as it should.

I emailed Jet about the parts assuming that with a new rod I could get the machine running. I also asked about the issue with the jackscrews. Their tech had me measure the distance from the top of the outfeed table to the cutterhead assembly. The outfeed table was higher in front than in back making it necessary to set the front of the knives a bit higher than the back. I can only assume that the outfeed table was incorrectly machined as Jet sent me a new outfeed table as well as the replacement for the snapped rod.

I started to try and reassemble the machine, but soon found that replacing the outfeed table requires taking the machine almost completely apart. Also while I was working on it, I found that one of the springs that provides tension to the outfeed roller for the planer was loose. I was going to reattach it, but the cast piece it was supposed to connect to was broken, so I couldn't.

At this point I requested Jet send me a replacement and I would ship them back a pile of parts as I felt that I shouldn't have to spend this much time repairing a new machine. They said I could either talk to the retailer I bought it from, or send it to them at my cost to be evaluated. I decided to return the machine and go ahead and spend more for a separate planer and jointer.

This machine is a great concept, and in its defense isn't underpowered too badly. The planer works great and leaves a better surface than I expected, but as a jointer it is completely useless. The parts are so poorly designed and poorly assembled that getting it to make a straight edge seems like it would be a constant battle. It seems like if Jet had aimed for $500 price point they would have been able to make a machine that would be worth well over twice as much as what they are offering right now for only a slightly higher price.

I know some people have reviewed this machine quite well, and I don't dismiss their experience. I think the poor quality of manufacture and assembly have created a product that is completely hit or miss.

this solves the problem of planer or joiner and amount of money that can be spent. it switches between the two tools easily. i have used it on rough cut walnut and works fine. if you have limited space funds and are a beginning woodworker like myself, buy it.

At $400, you can't expect it to be perfect. I have not used it enough to give a thorough review. But overall, it seems like a decent jointer/planer for the price. After all, these are made for HO or hobbyists not professionals.

My biggest complaint is the small parts. These aren't packaged well. Almost all the nuts and bolts were loose inside the box. I did a search inside the unit and found nuts and washers. This could be very dangerous if the blade shot out a nut.

Assembly was easy, just make sure the tables are coplaner before putting the fence or blade guard on. The tables probaly won't come set up perfect. Customer service is excellent from Jet. I called, no wait got transferred to a tech, no wait, and emailed the coplaner instructions right away. Getting the tables even is pretty easy, unless you have to adjust all the blades. The tables adjust on an axis so if you raise the back end then the front goes down. I got mine perfect, tightened, and weight of back end dropped 1/16-1/8". Oh, the tables are alittle short. Just need an outfeed table or rollers.

In all, if you want a quality machine with only minor adjustments then spend $2000 on the quality 12" Jet. Otherwise, this is fair for the price and will work well. As long as you use common sense and can read instructions.

Jay

Just wasted a Saturday assembling, testing, disassembling and boxing this thing back up. I needed a jointer and a planer and the specs on this unit combined with it's price point made it seem just right for my needs and budget. Here were the reasons I sent mine back:

1. The planer in-feed table wobbles. Even when you tighten down the locking knobs on the side of the unit, there is still a significant amount of play in the in-feed table. The whole mechanism used to adjust the depth of your cut is poorly designed and imprecise.

2. The Fence was bent - Looked like somebody dropped it before putting it in the box.

I rarely need a jointer or planer. Easy to assemble and light weight. This will work fine for my needs. It is a little fidgety to change over from jointing to planing and back again. The dust port must be re-installed for each operation for the machine to run. You must use a shop vac or dust collector when running the planer.