Router or thickness planer... which should I get?

[8iowa]

Rather than buy a bench top planer powered by a universal motor, I would find a local source that would plane boards for me.

Have you checked with the WoodMizer web site? They have a list of owners. I have a friend with a WoodMizer who saws my logs into boards. His bandsaw mill trailers to my house and the work is done right in my driveway. I have about 1500 board feet of white and red pine drying in the loft of my "Workshop in the Woods".

[heathicus]

Thanks for the comments, Ed.

I've talked to one cabinet shop (couple hours away and going out of business) and asked about a wood supply. He wasn't much help and said it had been very hard for him to find rough cut lumber too.

I talked to a local woodworker who had a booth at a local festival and he said he didn't know of any local sources. (He had some very beautiful and very expensive intarsia work.) He either drives several hours or mail orders his wood.

Another woodworker I talked to last summer had a large building full of lumber he had milled himself over the course of many years, but he no longer had his mill equipment. He might would let me come over and use his planer, but I haven't talked to him in a long time.

I've checked the local university's "Continuing Education" department as well as the local Community & Technical College for woodworking courses and there are none. The nearest courses I can find are several hours away.

If there's a local woodworking club or group, I haven't been able to find it in the almost year and a half that I've been looking.

There are some really good arguments for getting the planer first, but I'm still quite torn. There's a little voice in the back of my head saying get a router and a chain saw and have my dad help me build a mill for it. I'd have the router to use immediately and could start rough cutting lumber. Next year or so when it's good and dry, then I could get the planer. If I'm going to be serious about milling my own lumber, I'm not sure how much I would need the planer before that point as opposed to a router.

[riot_nrrd]

While at the Shopsmith Owners Weekend, a chainsaw was used to cut nice wide slabs that could be planned from a big log that was outside the shop. It was a simple frame like the this one at: http://www.drpower.com/prdSell.aspx?p1N ... sawSawMill for $149.00. I am sure with patience and taking your time, you could quickly pay for the tools to do this type of work if you have the logs available.

Now THAT is pretty cool. Thanks for the tip!

RiotNrrd

[heathicus]

So I got authorization from LOML/SWMBO, but I'm trying to stretch my money as far as it will go. I got the "20% off any one item" email from Rockler so looked to see what planers they had. I saw this Jet jointer/planer combo unit and wanted to know if anybody here had any opinions of it.

Jet JJP-8BT, 8'' Jointer / Planer Combo
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... ter=planer

I don't guess the jointer is absolutely necessary. I have a 6" Craftsman jointer from the 60's. But the tables were badly rusted and pitted and are not perfectly flat and the fence still has a slight twist to it (but I've gotten it very close to true). With a big piece of thick glass and a lot of sandpaper, I could get the tables perfectly flat and smooth again. But if I got this jointer/planer combo, I could take the motor from this old jointer and put it on an old air compressor my dad gave me that is only lacking a motor.

The price on this Jet model is nice too. $299 minus 20% would be about $240 if I did my math right (not counting any taxes and shipping). That might leave me enough to get a router (or a chain saw?).

But then I have concerns about the combo unit. It has a 3 year warranty, but if the motor goes out, or the blades get chipped, that puts both machines out of service. If the blades aren't set right, then both machines are inaccurate. And using the same blades for both the jointer and planer would be extra wear on them. And the planer is only 8", but with my current 6" jointer that's 2" wider than any wood I could surface right now anyway.

I read some of the reviews on Amazon and there seems to be a lot of difficulty with initial setup (due mainly to a bad manual), but once those issue are worked out it works just fine. But I'd like the opinion of some of you guys.

[heathicus]

Oops. I just noticed that "this product is not eligible for promotional discounts." So it would be $345 with shipping.

[Ed in Tampa]

So I got authorization from LOML/SWMBO, but I'm trying to stretch my money as far as it will go. I got the "20% off any one item" email from Rockler so looked to see what planers they had. I saw this Jet jointer/planer combo unit and wanted to know if anybody here had any opinions of it.

Jet JJP-8BT, 8'' Jointer / Planer Combo
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... ter=planer

I don't guess the jointer is absolutely necessary. I have a 6" Craftsman jointer from the 60's. But the tables were badly rusted and pitted and are not perfectly flat and the fence still has a slight twist to it (but I've gotten it very close to true). With a big piece of thick glass and a lot of sandpaper, I could get the tables perfectly flat and smooth again. But if I got this jointer/planer combo, I could take the motor from this old jointer and put it on an old air compressor my dad gave me that is only lacking a motor.

The price on this Jet model is nice too. $299 minus 20% would be about $240 if I did my math right (not counting any taxes and shipping). That might leave me enough to get a router (or a chain saw?).

But then I have concerns about the combo unit. It has a 3 year warranty, but if the motor goes out, or the blades get chipped, that puts both machines out of service. If the blades aren't set right, then both machines are inaccurate. And using the same blades for both the jointer and planer would be extra wear on them. And the planer is only 8", but with my current 6" jointer that's 2" wider than any wood I could surface right now anyway.

I read some of the reviews on Amazon and there seems to be a lot of difficulty with initial setup (due mainly to a bad manual), but once those issue are worked out it works just fine. But I'd like the opinion of some of you guys.

If it were me I would go with the 10" one for $100 more. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21682

In fact if I didn't already have plane and a jointer I would be ordering this one right now.

Many people say this tool or that tool is most important in the shop. In the same light many say the tablesaw is the prime tool. I disagree to me a jointer is the most important tool and the prime tool in my shop. I can cut wood on many different things, bandsaw, radial arm, chain saw, tablesaw but I can only get them perfectly flat to work with on a jointer. Yeah I have heard all the arguments about jointing on a planner and all but I still say the jointer in piviotal in a shop.

I rarely joint wider than 4" but I can really see a plus side of having a jointer 10" wide. Just being able to skew figured wood would be great. Likewise I never plane to my planers 12" capacity. Usually it is 4 inch wide boards. Again I often skew them for figured wood.

[scooters]

Just Curious-- Why not a Shopsmith Planer??

[heathicus]

Just Curious-- Why not a Shopsmith Planer??

New, it's about $900 outside my budget. And I have never seen a used one available around here. You got one you want to sell for about $300?

[Ed in Tampa]

Just Curious-- Why not a Shopsmith Planer??

Because it is outrageously priced!

[robinson46176]

I walked away from an older but good looking Shopsmith planer on a stand for sale at a yard sale last spring only a mile from my house. It was $75. I had already bent the crap out of the hobby budget and I already have my 5 HP Foley/Belsaw planer/molder/ripsaw which I have had for a while but it is like new. I was thinking that the little SS planer would be nice in case I wanted to plane a board while I had mine sat up for something else. It was really tempting but I think I am already drawing off of my hobby budget for the year 2023...
I thought about going back this fall and ask if he still had it but it was in a housing development and I forget which house. That place has a big group yard sale and when it hits this year I will keep an eye out just in case he still has it.
For some reason used woodworking equipment and especially Shopsmith stuff does not really sell very well around here. Nobody looking but a few old retired geezers that are hanging on to their money for the retiree's national pastime (eating out).
We hit a "LOT" of yard and garage sales and I like to see in peoples garages at what they are doing. A few words often starts a pleasant conversation about hobbies. I mostly see low end table saws, maybe a lathe, bandsaw or scroll saw. Very few well equipped shops and only very rarely a Shopsmith. Planers of any kind are also rare.
On the other hand I see a "LOT" of very dusty unused pieces of expensive exercise equipment. And that is only what is in the garage.