This jointer came in a large heavy box, just able to fit in the bed of my mini-pickup. Before assembly read the instructions. It will take 2 people to comfortably assemble this machine. I did it alone and my back has suffered since. The pieces for assembly are neatly organized and layed out for assembly. The heaviest item will be the cutter bed assembly. Be sure to have a couple of 4x4's to set the table on upside down during assembly - it is needed.
Assembly took about 1 hour or less, but I spaced it out over several hours because of heat & humidity. The assembly was straight forward, no misleading info or parts. In the belt tensioning stage it is best to have the jointer/motor correct side up. That way gravity assists you in tightening the screws that keep tension on the belt.
Things to watch for:
1) To retighten or put on a new belt you must remove the back plate (6 screws) by feel, then loosen the hard to reach motor mount bolts to slide the motor up or down. It's a bit tedious to reach and adjust belt tension.
2) The chip/dust chute plugs up pretty quick from the inside flanges, but a vacuum assist will greatly help here. I'm wondering if removing the plastic chute from the frame will expedite chip removal. I can sweep up later.
3)While the fence has 3 preadjusted settings they need to be double checked for correct angle before use. Mine were off by a hair.
4) Check the blade height and tables for colinear alignment. They are initially done at the factory and my adjustments were fine. The table was just a hair out of colinear alignment. The back of the table was OK , but the front was out by maybe 1/128th inch or less. I doubt it will be a factor in my work, but just knowing this is annoying.
5) The tables have a high polish finish on them. I waxed them several times over for smoothness and protection. However, if you use them to set a work piece for other than planing they will easily show minor scuffing or scratches.
Overall, operation was relatively quiet and little effort to feed stock. I make my cuts at 1/64th inch. Planing was a little louder, but not discomfortingly so on a 4 1/2" wide board at 1/64" depth of planing. I had some little plastic things I thought were for dust/chip removal; no, they were angle guides for the fence. I had no idea and used my tri-square for assembly already. The push blocks are OK. I'd rate this thing a 4 1/2 star only because the assembly of the v-belt or it's replacement is tedious and the beds are just so slightly out of co-linear alignment. It has already worked like a champ and I'm very pleased with the function for the price I payed.
Price: $389 at Home Depot if I opened a charge card ( I did and won't use it) otherwise it was $429. Bulky to load and carry home alone. Very happy with purchase and do recommend it. Ridgid JP0610 Planer, 6-1/8-Inch Jointer
Bought this at a local Home Depot. Works great, I was able to set it up by myself without any trouble. I liked how the fence adjustment knobs felt - much better than a Delta I was comparing this to. Not terribly loud, much quieter than my 13" planer.
Performs great - a whole stack of white oak went through it without a hitch. Chipped one of the blades while cleaning up some pine 2x4's (gotta watch that dirt...).
I use a dust collector on it, (Delta 1.5hp) and have had no issues with dust or chip removal. I also put it on a set of wheels (the type with 4 wheels connected by 2x2's), and it is plenty stable.
Only real drawback is that the blade guard pivots on a pin that sticks up higher than the bed. This makes it impossible to put anything wider than 6.25" through the planer. No cheating and taking 2 passes on a 10" board.
Just bought this Jointer at Home Depot (it's considerably cheaper) Set up took me a couple hours by myself. If I had to do it again I would definatly get help from a strong friend since the cutter head/ table is extremely heavy. But that's not a bad thing in a jointer. I didn't have any trouble with chips clogging and I use an inexpensive dust collection system. I used it to joint several 2X6's to make a table top out of and it performed better than I expected. I do agree that changing the belt could be a pain in the neck but hopefully I wont have to do that very often.
I watched for this to go on sale at Home Depot and got it when it was marked down to $299. From opening the box until I ran the first test board through it took 2 hours and 10 minutes and included time for a cup of coffee. So far I've run a good deal of white oak furniture projects through it in a number of various scenarios(short stock, long stock, bevels, depth settings, etc).....and it does a great job to specification. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good home use jointer. I also thought the documentation for setup was pretty good when compared to other home shop tools I've purchased. Growing up, my Dad always said you cannot go wrong with Ridgid stuff....he just didn't know (back then )it would eventually be made in Taiwan. All in all...I'm giving this unit good marks.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter.... and those who matter, don't mind."
--Dr. Seuss
The price is good.
Setup is like everyone else states, kind of lengthy and hard to put together.
Checked the beds for parallelism and they were high in the middle by the blades.
Tech support said adjust the gimbles, but that did not help.
Took it back for a no hassle return to HD. - Ridgid - Jointers - Planer - Planer Knives'
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