Do yourself a favor and look carefully at the Yorkcraft 6" jointer. It
is exactly the same as the Delta 37-195, and I mean exactly! If you
call Yorkcraft they will tell you so: it's made in the same factory,
and used to be shipped with the same manual with the "Delta" crossed
out. (at least legend on the post-sites indicate as much). I did my
research before buying the Yorkcraft and am extremely happy with it and
saved a lot of money. The Yorkcraft sells for $339.

http://store.wilkemachinery.com/defa...skudatarq=2339

Here's the web adress (I don't know why it's not showing as a link).


Silvan wrote:
I have tasted the forbidden fruit of the electro-jointer, and I sort
of like
it. I have a Delta JT-160 benchtop deal, which I thought would be
better
than nothing. It sort of is. Sort of. It has given me a taste of
what
mechanical precision can do that hand planes in my fumbly and
unskilled
fingers cannot, but it's a slightly bitter taste. (I love'em, but
they're
definitely not precision tools in my hands I'm afraid.)

I've just about convinced myself to ditch this thing and buy a real
jointer.
Something with:

* cast iron tables
* a real fence
* tables long enough to joint a 4' board without sniping the hell out
of it

The benchtop does OK with boards up to maybe 2' long, which is
useful, but
not quite useful enough. I've barely used it, and I'd like to box it
back
up in all the original packaging and find a nice new home for it.
Surely
someone out there would love to have a nice almost new Delta JT-160.

Then I'll turn around and buy either the Grizz or the bigger Delta.

I'm looking spec for spec, trying to figure which one is better worth
looking at. Price for price, they're similar enough that it doesn't
much
matter. The Delta is available cash and carry, while the Grizz is
mail
order. The Grizz has handwheels, the Delta doesn't. The Delta has a
4"
dust port, the Grizz doesn't.

I don't have a DC, and don't have room for a DC. There's no way my
shop vac
trash can deal could keep up, so I suppose I have little practical
alternative but to continue ejecting the chips onto the floor. That
gives
my daughter something to do anyway. She likes to sweep my shop, and
no,
that's not mandatory gender role enforcement on my part. She just
likes to
sweep. Who am I to argue with that?

So, the dust port on the Delta is not really a bonus. The Grizz has
handwheels, which look cool. I'm not quite sure how the mechanism
works on
the Delta, but I notice that even their big daddy 12" job has some
kind of
lever flummy instead of handwheels. Looks like you loosen a nut and
then
use the lever to adjust the height. Looks a bit crude, judging from
pictures. I'll have to go play with the display at Lowe's and check
that
aspect out.

Well, anyway, what else should I be thinking about here? I'm
generally
inclined more toward cash and carry than mail order, so that puts it
at
least 60% that I would grab the Delta. If the Grizz has a lot more
to
offer in the way of useful features or enhancements, however, I could
be
swayed to go that route. I reckon I could look at JET and stuff too.

(And yes, for those who will point this out, I realize I have umpty
buttloads of medical bills coming in any day now. Thanks for
reminding me,
and it doesn't hurt to shop, dammit.)

While I'm at it, there's no place I can leave one of these beasts
stationary
in my bitty shop. I need to think about mobile bases that can move a
~250-pound cast iron behemoth around on a floor composed of
irregular,
sagging, warped sections of plywood. No two segments are the same
height,
and they all have some degree of flex. I might well break through
some of
them and have to think about redoing the floor, come to think of it.
Pity
the benchtop just didn't have enough fundamental jointeriness about
it to
do what I need to do with it.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/