A quality bench top jointer makes ordinary wood into flat wood. Crafting wood is a time-honored tradition. Whatever your creative goal, having smooth and straight wood is essential, since perfect wood is mandatory if you’re joining two pieces together. Thus, for a woodworker, having a high-quality bench top jointer available to use to do that is at a massive advantage.
The job of a jointer is to flatten out the wood, removing twists and warping. You operate it by feeding a wooden piece from an in-feed table placed marginally lower than the blades. You might have to feed the wood into the jointer numerous times depending on its hardness, but eventually, you will get a smooth flat piece of wood.
A lot of people confuse jointers with planers. They both do pretty much the same thing, yet they serve different purposes. A jointer will offer you squared edges and a straightened piece of wood, while a planer creates uniform thickness in an already flat piece of wood. Usually, a bench top jointer focuses on smaller areas, while planers cater for larger pieces.Top 7 Bench Top Jointers For Hobbyists
In 2018, bench top jointers are available in various sizes and designs, which makes buying the right one that meets all your needs a challenging choice. To help you hobbyists make the choice we have consolidated a list of the seven best bench top jointers. We were looking for durable options without the need for you to part with too many dollars. Here is our top 7 list:
Cutech 40160H-CT Bench-top Jointer
The Cutech 40160H-CT is your best bench top jointer for woodworkers on a budget. This product can deliver a lot of value for your money. The 6” bed width works really well with the ⅛” cutting depth making it picture-perfect for your hobby in woodworking. The 10-amp motor generates enough speed to give the helical cutter-head the precision to render a fantastic finished piece.
It’s fence is easy to control, and can be tilted from 90° to 135° without any problem. Also, you’ll soon be able to confirm that each pass is as precise as you want it to be. Further, this bench top jointer comes with a handy 2½-inch dust waste port that is positioned close to its cutter-head. The dust bag is big enough to consistently ensure work area remains clean.
Because of its low weight, you can easily carry the product around from job to job. Feedback to some users suggest that a couple of its parts are a little flimsy so take care when operating for extended jobs or using hard wood.Porter-Cable PC160JT
The Porter-Cable PC160JT is a bench top jointer that is similar to the Cutech model described above. Porter-Cable has undertaken some cost-cutting measures to make this product as affordable as possible. This PC160JT jointer is ultra-easy to put together.
An aspect, which sets this PC160JT apart from its competitors, is that it has state of the art variable speed functionality. This feature helps you to get the most appropriate setting for any piece of wood. It means the tool can operate faster for sturdier hard wood and more slowly for more pliable or softer wood. This capability for speed variation generates fantastic results.
During testing we faced a slight problem keeping the fence sitting at 90° degrees. You need to be delicate with the amount of pressure you put on the fence. We felt the fence was a bit flimsy. Nonetheless, it’s still one of the best value bench-top jointers available under $250.Delta Power Tools 37-071 MIDI Bench-Top Jointer
Delta’s bench top jointer has a 6” top width and the ⅛” cutting depth as standard and comes with a terrific cutter head and motor. The two-knife cutter head produces about 20,000 cuts per 60 seconds courtesy of the power of its 12A motor. The capacity of the motor allows this bench top jointer to work smoothly with both softwood and hardwood.
The fence can be easily tilted around by 45° and 90°, thereby allowing you to be precise in your jointing. The dust collection ports are connected to a basic shop-vacuum, which removes all the chips and shavings. The product is most suited to woodworkers who are new to this tool and who are trying their hand at jointing aspects of woodworking.
The machine is easy to maintain with easily changeable blades. Again, the fence adjustment on this machine is a little bit stiff but it’s manageable.Powertec BJ600 Bench-top Jointer With Dust Collection
Powertec’s BJ600 is a good option for budget conscious hobbyists. The machine comes with either the 6” or 8” for bed width, and some professionals prefer getting the former since it better serves the purpose of a bench top jointer. The cutting depth at ⅛” is similar to other jointers, while the engine peaks at 1 (Hp.). As a positive feature, the tilting fence has the capacity to offer a wide variety of cuts. This is a machine that can get most of the hobby projects done.
BJ600 is a heavy piece of equipment as its body is made from cast iron. This bench jointer’s weight tends to be a good anchor when you’re working with it. You won’t have to fuss about any debris since its automatic waste collection function transports the trash to a full-size bag for disposal. We noted that a few users have complained about having assembly problems resulting from the badly written manual.WEN 6560 10-Amp Bench-top Jointer
The WEN 6560 is a fantastic bench top jointer option for any hobbyist woodworker. The machine comes with a solid 6” bed width and a standard cutting depth of ⅛”. The motor has the capacity to offer 20,000 cuts per minute for the cutting head, which is enough for the majority of woods. At 28” long, it’s a surprisingly big table for a bench top jointer.
But, you get fantastic control of your fence and in-feed. Your in-feed influences how deep your helical cutter-head will pierce into the wood. The fence can be angled up to 45°, but it’s an exercise in patience adjusting it.
The device also comes with a few interesting features such as the spring loaded blade guard designed to safeguard you from an injury in the event of the cutter head popping out during operation. Also, there’s an inbuilt dust bag that collects all the shavings and dust through its chute.JET 708457DXK bench-top Jointer
If you’re a seasoned professional or a serious hobbyist with a few cash reserves, then the JET 708457DXK is an option you might want to look at closely. This bench top jointer is priced slightly over $1,000 and it offers the biggest available working area. The machine uses a big cast iron working table. The length of this bench top jointer is 56” with a cutting depth capacity of up to ½”.
The JET 708457DXK is engineered with a number of performance features to achieve the best finish possible. For starters, it comes with three high-speed, quick-change, knives for a premium finish and escalated cutting, thereby removing the need to have a knife-setting gauge.
Naturally a machine built to manage these sorts of jointing projects comes with a powerful motor. The JET 708457DXK features a 115/230-volt (fan-cooled) motor, which allows this bench top jointer to achieve 6,000 CPM (cuts per minute). Learning to handle the JET 708457DXK bench top jointer may not be something many novice woodworkers will get to do because of its price point but the machine is worth the investment.Shop Fox W1829 Bench-top Jointer
A budget conscious woodworking hobbyist looking for a good bench top jointer should consider the Shop Fox W1829. This bench top jointer comes with some exciting performance features and renders exacting control during the operation. The Shop Fox W1829 is powered by a single-phase 1.5 horsepower motor, which is capable of meeting all your carpentry needs. It powers a 2-knives cutter head rotating at a 10,000 RPM speed. Also, the unit is completely adjustable and offers a smooth performance from its 20, 000 CPM (cuts per minute).
This machine comes with a substantial 28.5” long and 6.25” wide cast-iron table, which will handle the majority of your likely woodworking projects. The Shop Fox W1829 offers positive stops at 45° and 90° for better results, and apart from producing bevel cuts, also capably does surface planing.
Additionally, the incorporated impeller enhances the bench-top jointer’s dust collection process. The design of the Shop Fox W1829 enables smooth debris evacuation from the blades to the 2½” dust port.
Unfortunately, the Shop Fox product user manual is not written well. For a novice that makes getting down to the business of working the bench-top jointer a slower process than it should be. We hear that sometimes the tool chips away the wood, which means using caution for exercising deep cuts. The Shop Fox W1829 bench-top jointer comes with a limited two-year warranty.Some Usage Tips For Best Bench Top Jointer
I hope your functional knowledge of the bench top jointer for woodworking has now expanded from reading the reviews. The main function of the bench-top jointer is to create smooth flat surfaces with a polished surface to show the wood’s perfection. Our choice of the bench top jointers for the money is the Cutech 40160H-CT. Every one of the above jointers will provide your woodworking needs but we chose for the novice with a limited budget.
Here are some more tips for getting a better woodworking experience from your jointer:
Before you start working on your project using the bench top jointer, check the table settings to ensure that it is properly aligned and at the right height. You check this because a lower than optimum position will focus the cut on the back-end of the board. Alternatively, a high position could create a result with a concave surface.
Make a mental note to ensure that you’re jointing with the wood grain facing in the direction towards the out-feed and away from the knives. Additionally, if your wood has multiple grains, decide the direction that has the majority of the grains.
The jointing process ought to be done with the face first. After that, you joint from an edge that’s square with it. The end result is an ultra-flat surface that can be referenced for milling later on.
Then, monitor the depth of your cut, as there should be a perceptible change on each pass. Progress on your jointing with patience and caution to make sure the work is proceeding at a steady pace. Don’t try to force the work through the jointer to speed up the result as it may damage the cutter heads or start affecting the wood.
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