Jet Jointer - good price??

[p8ntblr]

$275 a good price for this? I can't see what model is from the pic.

[SARGE..g-47]

Evening P8...

In good condition... an excellent price! I had a Sunhill 6" which is a Jet with a blue paint job for over 4 years. Excellent machine.. I sold it it Madmack of this forum and he loves it.

Regards...

[LCHIEN]

unless something obviously wrong, $275 is great price. Looks to be very clean. Not a whole lot can be wrong with a jointer - motor bad, bearings shot, casting cracked... you can see those clearly on inspection or running it briefly.

Jet only has one closed stand 6" model.
Usually runs ~$600 new
http://www.amazon.com/JET-708457K-JJ...3757610&sr=8-2

[p8ntblr]

Evening P8...

In good condition... an excellent price! I had a Sunhill 6" which is a Jet with a blue paint job for over 4 years. Excellent machine.. I sold it it Madmack of this forum and he loves it.

Regards...

Thanks Sarge. I'll take a look at it tomorrow. Anything specific I should look for?

[p8ntblr]

unless something obviously wrong, $275 is great price. Looks to be very clean. Not a whole lot can be wrong with a jointer - motor bad, bearings shot, casting cracked... you can see those clearly on inspection or running it briefly.

Jet only has one closed stand 6" model.
Usually runs ~$600 new
http://www.amazon.com/JET-708457K-JJ...3757610&sr=8-2

Thanks for the heads up Loring.

[SARGE..g-47]

From the looks of the picture P, as Lchein stated.. it looks to be hardly used and there is not much that goes wrong on a jointer unless abused to the highest degree.

The worst scenario is that it sits on gibs and dove-tail way and they are a pain to adjust (not that bad..but still a pain). It is rare to see a mis-alignment that requires that adjustment outside of industry. The Sunhil, had em.. my current Steel City 8" has em. I did not feel the extra for the parallegram bed was necessary as I have only seen isolated cases where the beds slipped.

Take a straight edge.. look for heavy rust on the fence and fence carrrier (light rust there is not a bigger and easy to clean).. run it and listen to the motor for any bearing whine.. pull the rear case door and check for pulley or belt wear (belts are cheap).. check the blades for excessive chipping (again.. HSS blades are cheap) ask the owner when he purchased it and why he is selling it. He may be just up-grading but from the looks he just hasn't used it much and lost interest in WW.

Looks like a great deal.. still smart to "look what appears to be a gift horse in the mouth". Observation on the part of the "buy-ee" will be far more valuable than "word of mouth on the part of the "sell-ee"! ha.. ha...

Regards and good luck to what appears to be your "lucky dog day"..

[Hoover]

Looks like a great deal on the Jet. Don't snooze on this, or you'll lose out.

[messmaker]

I know it sounds silly but I think the Jet is the best looking jointer out there. I think I like the white so some of the dust won't show.

[Knottscott]

I know it sounds silly but I think the Jet is the best looking jointer out there. I think I like the white so some of the dust won't show.

I always liked the ivory white too, though I don't own any Jet tools. You might like the Shop Fox too!

BTW - That Jet jointer has been on sale for $400 at various dealers....$275 still seems like a nice deal on a machine in such great shape. I believe the new ones are made in China, whereas the used one was likely made in Taiwan.

[SARGE..g-47]

Morning Dustmight...

Most of the machines that were made in Tiawan are going to China as the main manufacturer (Jenyang or something like that.. :>) can get cheaper labor there in a communist country. Seems the democracy of Tiawan workers have unionized and are looking for more pay and benefits so... plants in China have been established by that company to make the eventual move for the el cheapo labor.

This info was told to me by Scott Box (co-owner of Steel City Tool-works) and Curt Wilke (owner of Wilke Machinery) in personal converstaions and they say that is not necessarily a bad thing... as long as the Chinese are held to the quality control and design that is required by contract with the individual buyer (Steel City.. Wilke.. Delta.. Jet.. Grizzly.. Shopfox.. etc. etc.). They say the key is constant monitoring of the quality on their part to make sure there is no slippage in what has been requested.

The Jet that P8 is looking at is proabably 4-5 years old from the looks. At that time it retailed for about $459 and I'm guessing thats what the owner payed? Not a bad deal to get $275 from a used machine for him and with the current prices of Jet a great deal for P8.

If you wanted a great deal at the moment... Grizzly has their 8" jointer on sale for $595 plus shipping unless you live near Grizzly. That is a deal as the Griz is an excellent jointer.

I just purchased a 20" Yorkcraft planer from Wilke for $1049. I looked at the Griz at $1250.. Shopfox at $1675.. Steel City at $1895 and Power-matic at $1895. Research found the Yorkcraft.. Griz.. Shopfox are the idenical machine with different paint from the Jenyang plant in China. The SC and Power-matic are basically the same planer (some extras as 4 speed and a few other add on's) coming from the Jenyang plant in Tiawan.

The $1049 plus $160 shipping paid for the "Yorkie" was a no-brainer. It is the idenical machine to the Griz I saw at IWF in Atlanta last fall and the Shopfox I saw two weeks ago at Re-tool down the street from me in Athens, Ga.

So... to quote Paul Harvey.... "and that's the rest of the story"! ha.. ha...

Regards...

[ryan.s]

Thats some good info Sarge. Thanks.

It may just be speculation but I've heard in situations with the different planers or any tools for that matter all coming from the same plant with different badges the pricing variations are usually because there is a difference in cost based on the tolerances/qc used. Wondering if there is any truth to that.

[SARGE..g-47]

Afternoon Ryan...

I can't answer that for sure Ryan, but I tend to think that it may have some truth as I was told that the manufacturer can make modifications in design and add items they request. I will ask at the next opportunity though. There may some things that only their hair-dresser knows for sure. ha.. ha...

A good example is the Steel City 15" planer. It is basically the same machine as Griz.. Shopfox.. Yorkcraft.. but it cost more than Griz and Yorkcraft. Why? Grizzly has eliminated the middle man by going to direct selling (no distributor mark up).. York has elimanated the middle man as a "stand alone" distributor that sells direct. Steel City has distributors they chose carefully that are machine guys and have been established as such. They can repair at their distributors facility in most cases (Woodcraft being an exception).

But by SC adding an experienced middle man the price is going to higher. But... and that's a big butt.... you get a 5 year warranty instead of 1 year on Griz and Yorkcraft. You get a 48" table on their 15" instead of 42" for the competitor because they felt the longer table is what most WW wanted in a planer (I do for sure).. but they added digital read out which adds another $100 bottom line. And they got a $200 rebate at the moment.

So.. would I have gone for the cheaper Griz or York if I had gone with a 15" planer instead of the 55" long bed 20" Yorkie I purchased. NO.. NO.. No... I would have opted for the rebate and gone with the 48" table and 5 year warranty. Bottom line is I still would have paid more,, but I would have gotten more of what I personally want on a planer that is the longest bed on the market even if I had to pay more to get it. The cheap route is not always the best route IMO. Depends on what you are getting value wise in exchange for your $$.

Regards...