jointer w/ powerfeed?

[duburban]

Just saw this on craigslist:

http://burlington.craigslist.org/tls/3145164270.html

incase it gets removed its a 16" delta joiner with power feed. how does the power feed effect the finesse of using a jointer. i was taught and practice moving my downward pressure from the in feed to out feed depending on where the board is.

if its power feeding is it almost like a planer or does it pull without pushing down?

 

[stvrowe]

Feeder on a jointer provides pressure down on the outfeed table only.  I have had a setup to do this in the past but it was more cumbersome than I cared to deal with. 

 

[duburban]

I see, can you get material as straight as fast?

 

[Captainwrinkles]

I fail to see how this would even straighten and flatten a board. Cleaning up all the rough
bandsaw marks, yes. But that is all. BUT Ive never done this technique so i could be completely wrong

 

[stvrowe]

I see, can you get material as straight as fast?

In the picture, it looks like the feeder is set up for edge jointing with pressure against the fence.  I never used it this way and only used it for surface facing.  Feeders provide a more uniform feed resulting in a more uniform surface and IMO do provide an improved level of safety as you keep hands and fingers away from the cutterhead.  For the jointer, I found it to be slower than feeding by hand but, I guess if you were doing it all day long, the feeder might be nice.  Now I only use the feeder for a spindle shaper and it gives a much improved level of safety and a much better cut quality than I can accomplish by hand.

 

[Kev]

Using the power feed would be an option anyway - you could still use it manually.

Nice looking machine.