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Many moons ago, when I was just learning that boards should be flat and straight before building projects, I started shopping for a jointer. This was before Norm Abram and the New Yankee Workshop, and before smaller, less expensive machines were plentiful and readily available to hobbyists. At least that was the case where I was living.
After a year of looking around, discovering new stores and machines, and trying to find anything at all I could afford, I settled on a Taiwanese model that I picked up for $430. It was the best jointer I could get for the money I had. That jointer, although somewhat finicky, lasted me a long time. It was only this year that I became tired of shimming the tables to make it flat; it finally stopped cooperating. Back to the catalogs and yellow pages I went.
I am something of a cheapskate. Besides that, I work out of a small space - just under 20 feet square. Since 8 inch and larger jointers are so much more costly than their 6 inch cousins, I couldn't rationalize spending the extra cash. I don’t recommend anyone does, unless they are really well to do, and do a lot of woodworking. Cost isn’t the only factor, however. Quality is at least as important and must be considered carefully when faced with the sheer number of choices available today. My old jointer may have been inexpensive and may have lasted for years, but it wasn't without a great deal of frustration. My goal this time was to make a purchase that wouldn’t break the bank but would, hopefully, outlast me.
I checked out everything on the market that I could find and I was able to place the results of my search into three groups. The first was the group of jointers the same as or worse than the one I already had. Low end jointers cost between $300 and $500 and are sold under names like Central Machinery and Reliant. If you are desperate then buy one. I was at one time. I know the feeling well but I won't go through that again. The second group consists of the better marketed and recognized brand name machines that are the standard fare of most recreational woodworkers. They range in price from $400 to $600 and include Delta, Grizzley, Ridgid, Jet and Craftsman. I am not necessarily anti-Craftsman but the last few years their machines have been quirky and their quality suspect. Emerson, the company who used to make all the Craftsman tools is responsible for the Ridgid offering. I was highly surprised by this jointer as it was one of the best for fit and finish. I won't buy a pig in a poke so Grizzley is automatically off my list and, considering some of the recent horror stories on USENET, it will continue to be. The Delta and Jet models are the most popular, Jet probably having the edge, so I considered these very carefully. After viewing them in as many different stores as I could find, which is harder to do around here than you may think, I came away with a very poor opinion of the fit and finish on both models. Although I would rate the Jet slightly higher they were both very disappointing. I operated both machines and found them to be no easier to use than my old jointer and with shorter beds. The number of plastic gizmos on the Delta took away from my overall impression and the Jet, about which I have heard many great things, left me hesitant to spend my money. This was problematic as I had already decided to buy the Jet.
The third group consisted of only one jointer, the Powermatic 54A. I kept it apart from the rest as it was quite a bit more expensive than the others and so much larger. However, when I actually decided to go to the store and spend my money on the Jet, I took my wife with me. She took one look at the jointers and pronounced that if we were going spend all that money on a tool, we were getting the Powermatic. When you consider the sheer size, heft, quality of the castings, design, fit and finish, and any other thing you can think of, none of the other 6 inch jointers comes close. The Powermatic 54A truly stands alone.
At $749, plus tax, it was a delight to pick up the machine where I had easy access and not have to have it shipped to my shop. It came in two boxes - a long, heavy one with the jointer inside, and a smaller, lighter box containing the stand. The good folks at the Cinnaminson Woodworker's Warehouse store (now closed down unfortunately) loaded it into the back of my truck with a hydraulic lift. This sucker weighs in at around 300 pounds so it is no lightweight.
At home I unfolded my Black & Decker Workmate, without folding down the feet, and I set it on my moving dolly (essentially a square of 2x4's on casters padded with carpet scraps). The result was a moving cart at practically the same height as the truck bed on which I could slide out the jointer box. I took every precaution to keep from doing anything that may throw the extra long beds out of alignment. I did all this myself, but you may want to have a friend on hand to assist you. The box containing the closed base weighed in at only around 60 pounds thus was quite simple to move.
After offloading the unit, I located where I wanted it to live and unpacked the base. My concrete is sloped toward the overhead door for drainage, so I took a 1x6 pine board and beveled it with a No. 5 Jack plane to create a shim that would hold the base level. This left the base unit contacting the floor only along its front and back. To increase the support I cracked open a package of shims and shimmed the front and back edges so that the base was very stable and supported along its entire perimeter. Not that it would sag considering the strength of its construction but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Let me take a moment to discuss my placement. I use the jointer, thickness planer, and table saw in conjunction to prepare stock. Therefore, the most efficient place for me to place the jointer is right beside the table saw. I made a few trips to the store, took scads of measurements, made scale drawings, and generally satisfied myself that very little modification was required to allow a panel on the table saw to slide over the jointer without obstruction. I goofed. I have loads of clearance over the beds but I made some kind of overall height or fence height mistake in my calculations. If I need to clear the jointer I can remove the fence to do so but it is heavy and a bear to lift if you had to do so regularly. In my next shop, which may come sooner than one might think, I am planning on a platform to lift the saw that extra quarter of an inch.
The stand is all formed steel and beautifully made. It comes with the dust chute and motor mounts built in and the switch, motor and wiring pre-installed. It was a simple matter to remove it from the packing and set it down where required.
I stripped the packing off the jointer itself as it sat on my makeshift cart. I had no luck finding kerosene, probably because it was summer, so I had to remove the packing grease with a citrus based professional cleaner/degreaser. I don't recall the name and I can’t find the darn bottle now. Actually, it worked exceptionally well. It was fast and the paint was not damaged an any way. Once the jointer was clean I rolled it over to the base, which was conveniently at about the same height. I placed a couple of cloth diapers on the base to avoid scratching it, then slid the jointer off the cart and onto the stand. Lifting carefully, I pulled the diapers out from under the jointer and positioned it over the mounting holes.
The jointer attaches to the base with three mounting bolts with extraordinarily long heads. The head on each of these puppies is actually about three inches long. Being a guy with big hands I really appreciated the fact that I had lots of steel to grip while trying to thread the bolts into the tapped holes in the jointer casting. It was also nice not to have to use a really long extension on my wrench. In a tight place like that it is hard to maneuver the socket onto the bolt head and a long extension on the wrench increases that difficulty by a factor of three at least. The two bolts on the infeed end of the base were a snap to install. The one on the outfeed end was a bit harder as the dust chute hampered my access. It wasn't that difficult, however.
It was short work to snap on the belt and check its tension - which was dead on right out of the box. The removable back panel for the stand went on in seconds and a handful of machine screws were supplied for the dust chute adapter and the belt guard. A few minutes with the citrus cleaner to get the packing grease off the fence and I was able to install and test it. That's it. It took more time to plane the 1x6 shim for the infeed end of the base than it did to set up the rest of the jointer - 30 minutes at most.
Once set up and running you notice how much heavier the castings feel than most of the other machines on the market. This is probably necessary due to the enormous bed length, some 20 to 25 inches longer than any other 6 inch jointer. The attention to detail is superior ass well. Where other jointers have rough, unfinished looking castings in many cases, the Powermatic has been nicely cleaned up and painted with greater care. They even took the time to prevent the packing grease from getting on the painted parts during shipping.
The fence is strong, simple and solid. Heavy in its construction, it still slides well, even before its obligatory coat of paste wax, and the controls are thoughtfully placed and effective. The infeed table height adjustment is very unique. A combination of both the handwheel and lever systems, loosen the large knob and you are able to take the infeed table through its entire range of motion in a fraction of a second. Tighten the knob and the most minute adjustment is possible simply by twisting the lever, much like a handwheel. Truly it is the best of both worlds.
Some detractors have suggested that the length of the tables will be its downfall as they will likely sag dramatically under their own weight in time. The thickness and quality of the casting and its design indicate to me that this machine is meant to withstand the effects imposed by gravity on its own tables and should be a lifetime machine.
Testing proved that the finely polished tables were in exact alignment right out of the box. All I had to do was zero the fence and set the stops. The finish this machine leaves is second to none; it joints a pair of five foot planks (the longest I have tried to date) producing a perfect glue joint. The castings are beautifully ground and perfectly flat to a nice even finish.
Just after I finished writing this article, I wandered out to the mailbox to discover my Winter 2002 Fine Woodworking Annual Tools & Shops issue. On page 68 you can find a review of the current crop of 6 inch jointers. The article is quite comprehensive and, for once, I happen to agree with the author. If you are willing to shell out the extra cash, the Powermatic 54A is the only 6 inch jointer. Nothing else comes close. If you can’t afford the $749, plus tax, I agree with the author that the Ridgid offering at Home Depot is worth a look. It is much more user friendly than the others and the quality of its cast iron seems to me to be better than the Delta and Jet models, which I found to be very disappointing.
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