At long last …
I’ve wanted a jointer for a long time. Never bought one.
The main reason for that was floor space. A floor model jointer needs a lot of space on either side to actually use, and typically it goes against a wall or behind another tool. In my garage shop, I just didn’t have anywhere to put a floor model, even a 6-inch one which I knew wouldn’t be large enough anyway.
A benchtop was also not a good choice. All the reviews of benchtop jointers (and I’ve read them all) for years said some variation of, “don’t bother, this will just make you wish you’d bought a freestanding one.” So I didn’t buy one. I figured at some point I’d spend $4k on a good combination jointer/planer that would replace my DeWalt planer and until then I’d just continue to carry on.
With some of the recent projects, though, I’ve really been wishing I had something that could flatten a mildly crooked board without having to get out the planer and sled, shim it, plane it, flip it over and plane the other side, etc. I mean, that works and I’ve used that method a lot over the years. But it’s a major pain, and depending on the time of year the board is likely to be crooked again a day or two later if you don’t use it immediately.
This Rikon 20-800H is, in fact, a benchtop jointer — but according to WOOD magazine, at least, it’s the first benchtop jointer that doesn’t make you wish you’d bought a freestanding one instead. It was reasonably priced ($500), so I wouldn’t feel too bad if I ended up selling it for a loss because I didn’t agree with the review. And, being a benchtop, I could mount it lower than normal and make space for it at the end of my main work table and tablesaw.
So I did:
Make no mistake, this is definitely an entry-level tool. It has an 8-inch capacity, and very good dust collection, but the fence is aluminum and short, and the cutterhead is not really a helical one even though they claim that — it uses removable carbide cutters, but facing straight ahead and covering overlapping parts of the surface. Look:
A real helical cutterhead attacks the wood at a slight angle and has an entire row of cutters without gaps in between. Still, it’s a step up from knives and for $500 you can’t complain about it. I may try replacing the factory fence with a longer piece of aluminum extrusion because that’s all it really is.
The cutting action is smooth enough, at least with no frame of reference for comparison. I had a couple crooked pieces of sapele, maple, and African Mahogany that I ran through it and the faces came out looking and feeling good and afterwards they all sat flat on my cast iron saw table. The longest of my test pieces was about 54 inches, and I would say that’s about the longest I would feel safe jointing on this without some kind of infeed and outfeed support. The tables extend to a total of 51 inches, but that means only a little over 2 feet on each side of the cutterhead — part of the price for the small form factor. But unless I’m making a bed or a long table, I can live nicely within that 4-1/2-foot limit.
The cabinet it sits on isn’t even worth a separate post. It’s just a box with a center divider and six drawers. I needed a place to store the jointer’s Allen wrenches, push blocks, and the pack of replacement cutters I bought for it. The other 5 drawers are empty right now. It’s on wheels, as are most things, so I can roll it out if I need to and rig those extra supports to try to joint long pieces. But I can also use it right where it is and the top of the fence sits below the tables next to it, so it doesn’t interfere with workholding or passing long/large pieces over the tablesaw.
So, yeah, it’s a compromise. And it may not work out, especially for longer pieces. But at least at first glimpse, it adds a capability that I didn’t have before and sits in a space that is out of the way of everything else. I’ll give it a try for a while.
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