SS jionter vs other brands

[8iowa]

I have both the Shopsmith 4" joiner and the planer. I started with the MK V mounted planer and then later mounted it on a separate stand.

At our just completed Traveling Academy sessions, the instructor, Mike Cobb said that it is much easier to surface a 4" board flat and that 4" boards glued up are much more stable on a project than wider stock. He showed us that properly matched up you cannot easily detect any mismatch in grain once the boards are glued. He sold me. The 6" and 8" joiners have the advantage of longer infeed and outfeed tables for very long boards but even long boards can be done on the Shopsmith joiner with a helper and roller stands.

As Mike explained the advantages of the Shopsmith planer he mentioned several things that I hadn't thought of before. The cheaper bench planers have cutters that move up and down whereas the Shopsmith cutters are stationary while it's the table that moves. He said that the movable cutters in time are prone to service problems and repairs. Mike also said that the bench planers have separate infeed and outfeed tables that cause alignment problems. He also mentioned that some of them brag about having two infeed speeds whereas the Shopsmith, with it's DC infeed motor offers a wide range of variable speeds.

My observation of the planers at Lowes and Home Depot is that none of them will collect dust and chips nearly as well as the Shopsmith. The planer creates more of that stuff than any other tool in the shop.

One other advantage, and this may be very important but overlooked, is your ability to quickly sharpen both the joiner and planer knives at zero cost. Well actually you must first purchase the conical sanding disk, which has a lot of other usage in the shop, and the the Shopsmith sharpening jig.

[curiousgeorge]

I bought my Mark V 510 last Nov. and would dearly love to be able to afford the attachments for it but it was a real hit to my budget just to get the MkV. I am retired and on a fixed income so I have to save where I can. I just got a Ridgid 6" jointer for half what the SS would cost and it is an excellent machine. My point being that if your budget is tight there are some very good alternatives out there. As reible said; do some shopping around.

[scottss]

I have a delta 12 1/2" planer that I purchased about 5 years ago and I have run 100s of board feet through it. It has good dust collection and it is fairly easy to change the blades. I only paid a little over $200 for it and it has paid for itself over and over again. The draw back with it is the motor can get hot with heavy use and the blades are very thin and if you hit a knot well it might be time to flip the blades. The shopsmith planer seems a little over priced. I know you can pickup a rbi hawk or woodmaster that will also have the ability to saw, make molding and sand for a few hundred dollars more. I also have the shopsmith jointer and love it. Before I had it I either used my router table to joint edges or didn't do it. Now I joint just about every cut. The fence and ease of adjusting makes it a great choice. I have heard that the other small jointers out there are hard to get aligned. I have the shopsmith bandsaw and love it also. I recently upgraded it with the table, fence, circle cutter and backup roller kit. I can resaw with no problem and with the ability to set the saw table at the same height to catch the wood makes a extra long ext. table. It is so much better than the jet 12"' bandsaw I used to have. I do a lot of scrollsaw work and use wood that is 1/8" -3/4" most of the time. It is easy for me to cut to size on the shopsmith tablesaw then joint on the jointer then resaw on the bandsaw then clean up the cut on the planer then I can take the piece to the scrollsaw with great results. I use a dewalt scrollsaw and love it. I have used the delta p-20 and didnt like the vs you had to change the belts. I think it is great that you can voice your opinions and experience on sites like this, it is very helpful for potential buyers.

[ericolson]

Just been perusing the posts and thought I'd throw into the mix. The shopsmith planer is a good machine, however it is grossly overpriced to comparable machines. Both DeWalt and Delta make machines with more capacity for substantially less cost. I own a Parks 12" planer that was originally made in 1950 so the thing is built like a tank and was originally intended to be used for industrial applications. I originally had a Delta 22-540 12" portable which I would've held on to had I not found the Parks. The SS planer is much more substantial than a portable, as it's got two drive motors: one for the cutterhead and one for feeding. With the portables, you get one direct drive motor which accomplishes both tasks. That also makes them extremely loud in operation. Both have their pros/cons, but cost is the biggest consideration. DeWalt is, by far, superior to Delta in construction and after market service.
As far as jointers, I would stay away from a 4" jointer for anything but hobbiest use. It's simply too small for my taste. I started out with a 6" jointer and quickly outgrew its capabilities. I currently use an 8" jointer and am seriously looking to upgrade to a 12" machine. I'm fortunate in that I have a separate shop, so I can have larger stand alone machinery. If you're tight on space, then the 4" SS may be a serious consideration for you. No matter what, you need a jointer for successful woodworking.
There is a common misconception that wider boards are the bane of all woodworking and that you need to do glue ups of narrower boards to ensure flatness. While true in some instances, it's more often than not a falacy. Why wider stock is disparaged so much by the woodworking mags, instructors, etc. is beyond my depth of knowledge. I consistently use stock (project depending, of course), in the 8"-12" range. I glue up the wider stock for panels, bookmatching, etc. With careful stock preparation and proper joinery, I've never had a problem with wood movement. I've got three slabs of cherry in my shop getting acclimated that are 28" wide and 72" long and they are still dead flat (table tops for a dining tables). If you take a look at what woodworkers of the late 18th century and 19th century used, then you may scratch your head about the whole narrow stock to minimize warping issue. Chippendale, Federal, Shaker, Stickley, Greene and Greene, etc., furniture styles all commonly used single width boards in case construction. Some boards were up to 20" wide. Some table tops were single width up to 36" wide!! And, over the course of a couple of hundred years, those table tops are still dead flat!! Unfortunately, boards of that width nowadays are either outrageously expensive or extremely difficult to find.
While SS and mechanical arts instructors are extremely knowledgeable, and I DO NOT want anyone to think I'm talking in a negative light about them as I'm not; history does a pretty good job of disproving the need for narrow stock glue-ups.

[charlese]

Eric - I agree with your comments above - even the use of wider boards in some cases. However we have to face the fact that not only is wood extremely expensive now-a-days, but the quality of the boards is not comparable to even a few decades ago. This stems (no pun intended) from the fact that the quality of logs and/or trees is not high. We could get into another thread (if I understand what a thread is) about this subject. Let it suffice to say that narrow growth rings - larger trees and logs - straighter trees and grain of years ago gave resulting more stable lumber. Sometimes we now even get limb wood. Not really knowing the stresses in the lumber we have, it becomes wise to use narrower boards.
:eek:

[Bruce]

One of the Shopsmith Traveling Academy instructors told my class that a big reason that wood quality has declined in the US is that the best lumber is being shipped overseas. That's too bad!

[curly57]

I just got the phone call today, Woo Hoo!! my jointer and planner and belt sander will be here tommorrow!!! I did the buy two get one free deal, couldn't pass it up!! it's been almost a month since I ordered them, so as you can tell I'm pretty pumped up about getting them. I'll let you know how they run in a few days. Happy woodworking!!!.....Curly:D

[scottss]

Now thats something to be pumped about. Way to go Curly Christmas in febuary. Or should I say happy birthday. I just bought a joint-matic for my half century birthday.:D