Flatbed jointer opinion

[rocket]

I have a desire to add a flatbed jointer to the workshop, specifically one with a spiral cutter head, a large model will take up too much space but The Carbatec JN-LX150C would fit the bill I think and pretty much affordable too.
So what’s the opinion of the members? is this entry level unit going to cut the mustard or should I look further afield?

Cheers
Rod.

[demonx]

Looks like a rebadged version of my 6” Ledacraft, if so I highly recommend.

I had a non spiral version which I sold, bought another machine and realised I’d made a mistake and rebought another Ledacraft, however this time with the spiral head. It makes the world of difference.

[demonx]

Looking on their website my 6” isn’t there, but the 8” is the basically the same:

https://www.ledamachinery.com.au/leda_p ... ce-planer/

I’d go with whichever has the closest dealer to you or best freight etc.

[Richard]

I'm in the market for the same in the near future.

Tossing up between 150mm/6" and 200mm/8"... I suspect 150mm would do 99% of what I'd need it to do but there's always that temptation to go bigger for a little bit more.

The choice for me is probably between Carbatec or Laguna.

[kiwigeo]

My 10 cents worth. I'd be looking at a 6" machine but spending the extra dollars an 8" machine would cost me on a 6" machine with helical cutters.

[demonx]

My 10 cents worth. I'd be looking at a 6" machine but spending the extra dollars an 8" machine would cost me on a 6" machine with helical cutters.

The spiral head is definitely worth it. It does cost a lot more, however it’s much better. Less timber wastage due to tear out boo boos. It makes me wish my thicknesser was spiral head too.

With that said though, in guitar building I never use this up to the 6” capacity, so I’d never need an 8” for guitar building.

[Gazm]

Tossing up between 150mm/6" and 200mm/8"... I suspect 150mm would do 99% of what I'd need it to do but there's always that temptation to go bigger for a little bit more.

On the money Richard! If you prefer to size your own billeted timbers, then bigger is BETTER!
I used my local turners club for some time, resawing billet, was great for a chin wag, but time consuming, so I bit the bullet & purchased the JET 310 combo thicknesser/jointer from Carba-tec last wood show, THANKS Jeremy Fullerton!
This piece of machinery is the best bang for buck in my mancave!!

Gaz

[rocket]

Just pulled the trigger on the Carbatec 150mm jointer with the helical head, 1410 long bed which suits my shop as i'm getting a bit crowded, the 1700 long 200mm model would be way too big.
The Jet comes with a bit more grunt 1.5hp, than the Carbatec but only offers 3 knives, at 1hp the Carbatec should be sufficient seeing as the helical will be more efficient and need a bit less hp.
Can't wait for the goodies to arrive now!!

Cheers
Rod.

[demonx]

Congrats!

You’ll notice the spiral heads are much quieter as well, and give a better finish!

[Richard]

With that said though, in guitar building I never use this up to the 6” capacity, so I’d never need an 8” for guitar building.

What's your method for correcting warp on boards wider than 6" -- I'd imagine this is pretty common for a typical two-piece electric blank?

[demonx]

With that said though, in guitar building I never use this up to the 6” capacity, so I’d never need an 8” for guitar building.

What's your method for correcting warp on boards wider than 6" -- I'd imagine this is pretty common for a typical two-piece electric blank?

Avoiding warped boards being the obvious, however to answer your question I do work with a lot of timber that is self milled and that goes through a thicknesser and drum sander. A jointer is no replacement for either of these.

In electric building the jointer only gets used for edge joinery on body blanks and for buzzing the neck surface after the scarf joint. That’s it. For acoustic builds it’s only the neck.

[simso]

What's your method for correcting warp on boards wider than 6" -- I'd imagine this is pretty common for a typical two-piece electric blank?

My process is not much different to others, the jointer is used to straighten wood out for neck blanks and fretboards, basically it’s my first stage of creating what I called dressed wood.

On body blanks, I use the thicknesser, but the thicknesser merely matches oneside to the other, so if you have a warped body blank it will still be warped after thicknessing, just thinner, so i use a hand plane and flatten one side, it’s really not hard to do, once that side is good, I pass it through the thicknesser at height plus 2mm. Then flip it and smooth to final height

Steve

[rocket]

First pic, just arrived today and now the job of assembly, how hard can it be??

[kiwigeo]

Should be straight forward....as long as you don't read the instructions!

[rocket]

Can’t go wrong then Martin, no instructions were given, just operators manual.

[rocket]

All done, assembled and hooked up to extractor, very quiet and nice finish on the gnarliest of stock.