I had a list, and had honed it so nicely, and then...

[dbhost]

I had a list of shop upgrades, and had through considerable thought, time,and careful consideration whittled it down, and rejected some upgrades as, well, fluff.

Those upgrades that were rejected were.

Replace the Chicago Electric 12" sliding miter saw with a Metabo MTB 12" FRONT sliding double bevel miter saw and the Chicago Electric DOES work well, it is just a space hog, and as long as I stay in the garage, it fits. No need to spend $$ on it until it dies.

Replace the Ryobi AP1301 with a spiral / helical cutter head planer. Rejected out of sentimentality and knive availability. My wife bought me this as a valentines day gift before either of us had ever heard of cutter head locks. There are helical cutter head upgrades for this planer, but swapping to carbide knives seems to be quite effective too...

Replace the Northern Industrial Drill Press with a Wen 12" bench top. My need for under the drill press storage went away once the miter saw cabinet drawers were completed., the capacity of the Northern Industrial IS very good, and I don't really want to put a drill press on a flip top stand.

Replace the Sunhill SM-150B benchtop jointer with a Wahuda 10" Carbide cutter, spiral cutter head jointer. This was on width, plus the carbide, When I rejected this I assumed continued availability of replacement knives because, well jointer knives are available right?

Well wrong.

I have spent the last what, week and a half looking for jointer knives for my SM-150B, with no real luck.

Now I have options, but I have built things sized for the Sunhill A.K.A. my flip top tool carts. I CAN make a new one, but...

Well I am looking at the various jointers available.

I might end up with the Wen 8" spiral cutter head model. MUCH less expensive, VERY common cutters so long term replacements are no problem, AND, most importantly, sized so that it isn't too wide for my flip top stand.

So the Wahuda might be out, but the Wen would give me 8" which is good, the table extensions PLUS roller stands will give me infeed / outfeed support to handle any stock I am possibly going to handle, while keeping it compact for my shared space shop.

I wish I didn't have to do this, and before I pull the trigger purchase wise, if anyone can point me to knives for the Sunhill, I will sotck up on those and keep it going for a while longer....

[Jim Frye]

Just remember when you buy the new jointer, buy replacement knives and drive belts at the same time. That way, you'll never need them!

[dbhost]

The reason I was unaware of the knife issue on the Sunhill is when I bought it, I got something like 6 pairs of spare knives. I am down to my last set of spares, and one of the new members here asked about the knives for these jointers. I am finding close, but not close enough sizes. The main problem is the location of the indexing holes on the Delta style are too far into the knife. If I recall right, these jointers were labelled Geetech (The actual MFG) Sunhill, Woodtek, Craftsman, and at least 3 other labels I don't recall offhand as it has been at least a decade.

From what I have read, the cutters for Wen are the same cutters as the Shelix except HSS, so the carbide cutters for the Shelix are a good upgrade and readily available...

It's honestly a tragedy that there does not seem to be any standardizeation for jointer knives.

[dbhost]

Now for a bit of a quandry. Anyone that followed my flip top tool stand builds knows that I am unhappy with the way #1. turned out. I cut the half laps on the band saw and they are, less than stellar.

I am considering doing the following as budget seems happiest this way...

#1. Double check the measurements with Wen themselves. But I am 99% certain that the 8" jointer full width is 17-3/4, my mount board is 18", and width between side rails is 18.25" for the flip. It will be 1/4" free space as it pivots. Close, but no striking.
#2. I Really should build a new, properly done flip top stand.
#3. The new jointer should go on the side of the #2 stand that the scroll saw is mounted to. Lag bolt, or good strong thread insert time.
#4. The new stand should be made for the scroll saw, and planer. Kind of wish I had an AP1300 instead of a 1301, so I could have the cutter head lock and infeed and outfeed tables. And Shelix cutter head upgrade... Need to look for carbide knives for this as well.