Rigid 6" jointer

[Crazyraceguy]

As the title says I just received this jointer on Friday. It was delivered an entire week ahead of schedule. Seems like every time we have a short day Friday for an upcoming holiday weekend, some kind of delivery happens. Most of the time, everybody would be gone. I just happened to still be there.
I had just gotten a delivery notice on Monday that it would not be here until the 8th.
I spent a slightly frustrating hour assembling it. Everything fit just fine, they have obviously worked through this as thousands have been sold. Maybe it's just me, but there are some glaring issues with assembly order and fastener location/orientation. This could be made far more simple.
They say that the only tools you need are a Phillips screwdriver, 1/2" combination wrench, and an adjustable wrench. A straight-edge and a square are helpful later for adjustment.
That is absolutely not so. The 3 bolts that hold the main casting to the stand are 9/16" and located very deep in the machine. You would never get them tightened with a wrench. One has to be accessed through the dust chute. A long extension, socket, and u-joint are required.
The belt tension adjustment is a joke. The motor is to be installed when the unit is upside down, which is taking gravity out of the equation to help and once it is turned upright those fasteners are no-longer accessible. Most of the fasteners are carriage bolts, which is fine, square hole done. The motor mounts are slots, which is fine too, but the motor bracket also has slots. That makes no sense, both slotted? why?
Good news is that after the wrestling match, it works great. I did have to make a minor adjustment to the square stop of the fence, but that is to be expected. It runs surprisingly quiet, cuts very nice.
It's going to need a mobile base though, moving that 200# lump is not so easy.

 

[festal]

I had the same one.  Got it used.  From what i remember assembly was pretty decent.  Sqauring and keeping fence square took a bit of work. I also upgraded mine to segmented cutter head and it became even more quiter.  Its suprisingly capable jointer.  I ended up upgrading it and dewalt 735 to 12" jet jointer/planer combo unit though

 

[Crazyraceguy]

The main reason I went this way was purely about bed length. It seems that most of the commonly available combination units are primarily planers, where bed length is not important. A planer just needs enough of a registration to oppose the pressure rollers.
Straightening a crook or bow is all about length. Those little table-top units are so short that it's laughable and that "extension" bar thing on units like the Wahuda do not fix that.
It may make the distance to the cutter longer, but your board will just drop as soon as it goes past it.
The hollow between is a problem.
Ultimately, this will end up in my home shop, which is pretty small. Not tiny by any means, but small enough to not overwhelm it with big machines. I have power limitations too, at least in the beginning.
I may go with a segmented insert type head, but that's a future upgrade too.

 

[ChuckM]

It still comes with the life time warranty (provided you register it within 30 days(?)), right?

My Ridgid thickness planer did, and it was fixed free of charge (labor and parts) when the belt and gear failed last time. The only cost to me was time and trips made to the repair shop. The charge sheet said $300 or something like that.

 

[rvieceli]

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] you are not trying hard enough. My shop is a little less than 20’ x 20’ and I managed to squeeze in a 1945 Oliver 166-CD  That’s a 16 inch jointer with a 106 inch bed.  [eek]

Of course if I try to do anything too long I have to angle the piece through the garage door and out the man door.  [big grin] But it is a wonderful piece of equipment and a pleasure to use.

Was about a 16 or 17 hour day to get it and bring it back home.

Worth it though.

Ron

 

[Crazyraceguy]

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] you are not trying hard enough. My shop is a little less than 20’ x 20’ and I managed to squeeze in a 1945 Oliver 166-CD  That’s a 16 inch jointer with a 106 inch bed.  [eek]

Of course if I try to do anything too long I have to angle the piece through the garage door and out the man door.  [big grin] But it is a wonderful piece of equipment and a pleasure to use.

Was about a 16 or 17 hour day to get it and bring it back home.

Worth it though.

Ron

Mine is just over 1/2 of that. 12' x 21'
I have enough power to run my air compressor, a mini-split, and some 110v outlets for the Festool gear, this jointer, 13" planer, 14" bandsaw. At this point, I don't really have a table saw. I have a ShopSmith, but only because it's a family "heirloom" (It's actually a horrible thing, but would work if I had to have that ability)

I think I might have at least a little bit of a mental block though, because of what I am used too.
Floor space is enormous and I built big things, that's not the home shop goal, but it's hard to let that go. Trying to "make it all fit" has never been a problem, so I've never had to think about it.