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I finally completed setup and some test runs of this jointer. I'd been looking for something that would fit in my shop to cover the small amount of face and edge jointing I do, and the $99 sale price being offered by Sunhill made this unit extremely attractive. I had been looking at the Delta JT160 ($219), the CM 21788 ($279), and the HF 34434 ($199) For the $140 paid ($99 + shipping), I believe I will be pleased with this little benchtop unit.
First thing to note is that the shroud below the table is plastic (but pretty solid plastic) - however, the infeed and outfeed tables are very nicely machined and dead flat (which should be a no-brainer for something of this size.) The depth of cut is standard - front table adjusts from 0-3mm, outfeed table is fixed.
The fence and fence adjustment mechanisms, which I happen to find fairly decent, went on very quickly, and were very easy to use to set the fence square to the table.
The dust port in the back (center) is sized for shopvacs of the ~2in variety, and my 16g CM shopvac pulled the shavings with no problem.
This unit is very comparable to the Delta (JT160) and looks almost identical to the CM (21788) - Sunhill said the unit will take the CM knives - I ordered a second set from them, and will order the CM version to compare at some future point.
I checked the knife setting (and torque on the knife screws) and found the factory knife height to be good out of the box, but the screws torqued pretty hard - I was able to loosen them without mishap, and properly retighten.
My few test pieces came out great - it did just what it was supposed to do. Face planing is flat, and the edge jointing is flat and square to the face. But this unit is louder than my AP1301 planer, most likely due to the plastic shrouding.
For my applications, this little jointer will work out nicely - and given the current $99 sale price compared to its Delta, CM and HF cousins, I'd buy it again.
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I got this jointer also at about the same time. Wrote most of a review on it; very favorable because I'm most impressed with the tool. At $99, it was a steal! I waited to publish the review until I used I in a project instead of just on some test 2x4's...
I see that Sunhill finally removed any mention of the tool being on sale. Too bad.
Anyone have experience on the other Sunhill tools? After my experience with their jointer, I'd sure shop Sunhill next time I look for something.
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