Advice sought: Rockwell 6" or Grizzly 6" Jointer?

[suntzumd]

New member and new to jointers. I've found a Rockwell 37-220 6" jointer (peace sign) with a broken adjustment knob for $125 and an older Grizzly 6" jointer, unknown model with a missing blade guard for $200 with a mobile base.

Any advice on which to go with? Thanks.

[batk30msu]

A blade guard could easily be ordered from grizzly or you could fabricate your own. Do you know what adjustment knob is broken? And is it just the knob or the adjustment mechanism?

[suntzumd]

The in-feed height adjustment knob is broken off, the seller states that the mechanism is working fine, just have to turn it with a wrench.

[chris_goris]

Im pretty sure I would go with the Grizzly, mobile base, easy to get parts.

[shaf2376]

My advice.....If you have the room keep looking and buy an 8" you will be much happier in the end. If not then I would probably go wiht the Grizzly.

[thsb]

I agree in principle with the 8" over the 6". I bought a 6" Jet and upgraded fairly quickly so i could get most of my money back out of the 6" and then upgraded.

BUT, at that price if you clean either of them up and get them working well it seems like you could almost always get most of your money back if you ever wanted to upgrade. The Grizzly with the mobile base sounds good to me.

[mkepke]

If the Rockwell 37-220 is in good working shape other than the missing (?) infeed knob, I'd buy that. $125 is crazy cheap for that machine, if otherwise in good working condition.

My one concern is that the "broken" infeed knob/wheel may be the result of other abuse, so give the machine a good going over, including having the seller change the infeed height and joint a piece of lumber.

Take a print out of the replacement parts and see what is actually broken, e.g.

http://www.ereplacementparts.com/del...655_13881.html

I agree with the others that you will probably want to upgrade to an 8" if you stick with the hobby - another good reason not to tie too much money up into a 6" jointer (although you'd like be able to sell a 6" Grizz for $200 too) .

-Mark

[suntzumd]

The Grizzly was 40 minutes away, had the guard with it when I got there and included the mobile base. Plus I already had an errand to run 1/2 way there. I ended up getting it for $180 - too hard to pass up. Was worried about the broken piece on the Rockler and it was a 2 hr drive away. Plus it looks like parts availability for the Rockler is dwindling. I'll try and post a pic later today when I can get my neighbor to help me unload it. Thanks for all the advice and feedback to the newbie.

[suntzumd]

Anyone know where I can get blades sharpened around Boone or Wilkesboro?

[junquecol]

For the price of sharpening, you can buy a new set from either Global Tooling, or Brian over at Holbern. Brian offers a woodnet discount, so go over to woodnet and search "Brian." I have the same machine, including the funky label maker serial number. Over at SawMill Creek is a thread where poster painted his white. Good looking machine. Took twenty years off it's age with just a DuPont tune up (paint.)

[junquecol]

Over at SMC, do a search for TDC. Post about forgetting TDC will have photos of your machine dressed in white. It's on my to do list.