Jet JPT-260

I mulled over getting a jointer/ thicknesser for a while last year and I was thinking seriously about the scheppah or the PT-300 from Machinery House. However Carbatec Auckland started stocking Jet equipment and after a look at them, I decided on the JPT-260. The machine had a nice feel to it and the tables lift together as one so I went for it. The best thing about getting a combination machine is having a 260mm jointer to match the planer.

After a delivery with two guys struggling to get it out of a van (transport company was busy near christmas and they didn't bother with a liftgate), I got it un-crated and I was glad to see it was all assembled (The scheppach needs some assembly evidently). Setup out of the box seems good, I haven't touched anything but the fence, though I haven't got a precision straight edge or a dial indicator to check the rest so I only know that the results are suitable. I did a "drag a small piece of timber from the outfeed table" test (slowly turning the cutter head and getting just a small drag from each knife) so the knives seemed set properly and I get no snipe from planer or jointer.

It is a heavy unit, getting it onto the mobile base was a struggle. Speaking of which, I am using the mobile base from carbatec and when I stepped on the plastic handle to raise the machine I promptly broke them. Carbatec were good about it and have offered to replace the handles. What I do now to raise the machine so I can move it is to use a wrecking bar underneath to lift the machine while pushing the handle down.

I ran quite a few metres of ~150x~30mm H3 treated pine to refurbish an old bench I had, and it performed easily, I got tear out but the stuff was not seasoned and I was paying no attention to grain direction. I've cut a few test bits of Matai and Fastigata I had lying around and it was a great smooth finish. I've now been cutting some Elm with it, which is testing the straight knives. If I get a piece that the grain is flowing consistently it is a great cut surface, however with the interlocking grain that makes Elm so strong I do tend to get some tear-out.

Dust collection seems good, I run it through 1.5m of ribbed flex hose to a Carbatec 1HP FM-230 dust extractor. Out of the box the extractor was hopeless (it would just constantly clog with shavings), but as soon as I used a pair of side cutters to cut out the inlet grid on the extractor, it has been good. I'm not pretending this is delivering sufficient airflow at the cutter head to grab the airborne PM10 dust being produced, in the future I'll get a bigger extractor, however this setup works sufficiently for getting rid of the shavings from a fairly wide full depth cut on this machine.

I only have three small niggles with the machine. The depth guide for the thicknesser was not calibrated out of the box, when I plane a piece and check it with calipers it was off by a couple of mm (I haven't tried to adjust it yet). I tend to get some marks on the surface of the timber that rubs on the planer bed, the beds are textured and it leaves some rub marks (particularly if a small piece of shaving gets caught under the board, they sand out and don't bother me much though. My only other complaint is that the fence is not a fantastic adjustment, I use a digital angle gauge to get it to within 0.1 of a degree (the limitation of the gauge), however because it has two separate adjustment knobs and just uses a sheet steel assembly to hold it, I wonder if it is more likely to impart a twist in the aluminum fence. I would have preferred a single centre mounted rod like some of the other jointers I've used.

Pros:
Tables lift together
Solidly built
Accurate out of the box
No assembly required
Good shavings extraction
Having a wide jointer

Cons:
Thicknesser scale not correctly factory set
Some rub marks from planer table
Fence has two angle adjustment points rather than one

I would buy the machine again for the hobby use I currently have for it. I certainly wouldn't go back to having a jointer that was narrower than my planer. If I had to downgrade the machine I would probably look at the cheap combination from Carbatec, if I was to upgrade it would be to something like a Hammer A3.