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New jointer-advice

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I have dove into the rabbit hole and am getting deeper and deeper into woodworking, I started turning on a lathe--my buddy says we should buy a jointer as our next tool since we are wanting to make laminated blocks and such for turning, so that would be an important tool for us to have....so I think I want an 8" jointer, and am wondering it it's important to step up to a parallelogram style one? I'm looking at the Laguna 8 inch shear tech II but to step up to the parallelogram version the price jumps up to 3k, I was wanting to keep the budget under 2K if that's doable to get what is considered a good 8" model.
Any advice/input is welcome.
 
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For laminated blocks, you really don't need anything too big. My old shop has a 3 phase 6' joiner, but I'm just as happy for small things with a portable Ryobi I bought 2nd hand for 100 bucks. I joined some bigger pieces, and it works fine.

If you're getting a used joiner, check that the beds are parallel, or make sure that it's adjustable without going through major efforts. My dad's old Grizzly was a piece of garbage brand new 30 years ago, and getting the beds parallel was next to impossible.
 

Bill Boehme

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I have dove into the rabbit hole and am getting deeper and deeper into woodworking, I started turning on a lathe--my buddy says we should buy a jointer as our next tool since we are wanting to make laminated blocks and such for turning, so that would be an important tool for us to have....so I think I want an 8" jointer, and am wondering it it's important to step up to a parallelogram style one? I'm looking at the Laguna 8 inch shear tech II but to step up to the parallelogram version the price jumps up to 3k, I was wanting to keep the budget under 2K if that's doable to get what is considered a good 8" model.
Any advice/input is welcome.

For your intended use a jointer really isn't what you need. A jointer has two purposes:
  • to straighten one edge of a board ... and
  • to flatten one face of a board that is cupped, bowed, or twisted
If you are thinking of creating thin stock with two parallel faces, you will be very disappointed to find that a jointer can't do that. A jointer can flatten both faces of a board, but rest assured that they won't be parallel.

If you intend to do any flat woodworking, then a jointer and a planer are two machines that work very well together. You can flatten one face of a board and straighten one edge on the jointer and then use the planer to mill the other face parallel to the one that was flattened on the jointer.

You could also consider a bandsaw to cut thin boards ... known as resawing.

A jointer-only option is to flatten one face of a board on the jointer and then flatten the other face parallel to the first on the lathe.

Another way to flatten a board is with a wide thickness sander, but it is a very dusty machine.

It might be best to hold off buying a jointer. If woodturning is your main interest, there are several other machines that would be more useful. If flat woodworking is your main interest, you will eventually want a jointer, but I would rate several other machines more useful, for instance bandsaw, tablesaw, drill press, belt sander, and planer.
 
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You could buy a carbide tipped helical planer and build a sled to do the first side. That way you can flatten the first side and plane the second side parallel to the first. A planner is not really practical for thin strips.
 

john lucas

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Bill is dead on. You might want to describe what you want to do better so we can understand but I don't think a jointer is the tool you need. I do thin veneers by resawing on the bandsaw and then taking them over to my oscillating spindle sander and clean up the saw marks and make the thickness more accurate. If you need more info I will write up how I do it.
 
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When my buddy says laminating some boards together what he means is if we glue up several 1/2" to 1" board together to get a blank for making say a peppermill or a bandsaw box. I currently have a couple serious Belt Sanders (I make knives) and also have a brand new Rikon 12" helical head planer, a Rikon 10-326 14" bandsaw, and a Grizzly 10" table saw, The big dog Powermatic 2800 B drill press, and a Rikon spindle sander and Rikon 6x48" belt sander- horizontal machine, and a 19" wide SuperMax drum sander---so that's why I am thinking jointer.
Sorry for any confusement I may have caused, I appreciate all ya'lls input.
I checked on Grizzly's 490X, a parallelogram helical cutter jointer and it's not available til April 1. I spoke to a very knowledgeable sales gal at Southern Tool and she recommended a Jet that is also a parallelogram helical cutter model 8" jointer and it is about $400 more than the Grizzly but it's available immediately--so I'm not in a huge hurry but that sounds like a good alternative to me?? Input Opinions on that??
 
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Since you have and assume are happy with the results from your Rikon 12" helical head planner, to me it is a no brainier to get a helical head jointer. I converted a grizzly 8" to helical and love it, The cost was well worth it.

Bob
 
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A jointer is good if you are using rough sawn wood. If that is what you are doing then it is the right choice. I have basically the same tool group you have and a 13" MinMax jointer/planer. I only use the jointer for rough sawn wood. If I was buying dimensional lumber I wouldn't need the jointer at all And use my drum sander for sizing my glue ups.
 
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OK, that's good intel, I appreciate that info BobCoates, I think we will be using both types of lumber, so I may need to really think about whether I NEED to drop 2K on a jointer or not--my SuperMax sander works superbly, and the planer does a good job as well--so maybe I can figure out ways to get lumber where it will laminate together well with the tools I already have....
 
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If the lumber has a twist or bow the best tool to get flat glue surface is the jointer. I used to think a planer could do that and it will but not easily. If good glue surfaces done in an easy manner are your goal then the jointer is the way to go. A six inch should be sufficient for this type lamination and would be much more cost effective. Unless you plan to do a tremendous amount of lamination work a regular blade jointer would do the job effectively and again more cost efficent
 
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Thanks a lot for that input Gerald, I may in fact consider a 6 inch jointer--several folks have told me that I should get the biggest one I can afford, and I set my budget at 2K accordingly--if I could really utilize a 6 inch that would save a good bit of money--I'm a buy once cry once kind of buyer, so I thought an 8" was my best avenue to accomplish that goal of not regretting what I bought. Thanks for everyone's input!!
 

Bill Boehme

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I would say no. This isn't the same Oliver that once existed. It's just an importer that bought the rights to use the name. Getting any support for repair and replacement parts will be a real roll of the dice. Go with a known quantity on the name.
 
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Thanks Bill, I think that there's just a lot of demand on 8" jointers currently, there are virtually no parallelogram jointers available currently. I am leaning a lot toward the Grizzly 490 X, but I like the Laguna and a few others they just blow my budget out of the water--I was originally thinking about the Laguna Wedge Bed with their shear-tech II cutterhead, but many have warned me away from dual dovetail designs, and I made a parallelogram bed a must have based on these inputs.
I guess I'll just wait until sometime in April....
 

Bill Boehme

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Thanks Bill, I think that there's just a lot of demand on 8" jointers currently, there are virtually no parallelogram jointers available currently. I am leaning a lot toward the Grizzly 490 X, but I like the Laguna and a few others they just blow my budget out of the water--I was originally thinking about the Laguna Wedge Bed with their shear-tech II cutterhead, but many have warned me away from dual dovetail designs, and I made a parallelogram bed a must have based on these inputs.
I guess I'll just wait until sometime in April....

I think that I am a contrarian regarding which type of jointer is better. The traditional design enables you to fine tune any table tilt or droop to get perfect alignment of the two tables. The parallelogram design was created as a lower cost design with an alleged advantage of having a smaller gap between the cutterhead and table. In reality that's meaningless marketing hype.

More important than either basic design type is the quality of manufacture. If either table or the fence has bow or twist and isn't dead flat, those are things that can't be adjusted out. A lower cost machine is more likely to be plagued by those problems.
 
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Well Bill, then what is your opinion of the Laguna wedgebed with their Shear Tech II cutterhead--it was seriously looking at that one originally, I just moved to wanting a parallelogram bed.
 

Bill Boehme

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I'm not really up to snuff on current jointers. Many years ago Laguna machines were made in Europe and were well thought of. I would rank truly flat tables and fence as being more important than the parallelogram vs classic design dilemma.
 
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