I am planning to purchase a 6″ jointer, as I am power limited and do nothave 220Vservice in my solar powered house. I can work with others in the area if larger jointing is required.
Recent info on the web suggests that the straight knives provide a better surface than the rotary cutterhead knives. Does anyone have additional information or a side by side comparison? I have been looking at the Grizzly G0604X and the G0604Z as reference models. Any insight would be helpful.
Outburst
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All powered jointers and planers have rotary blades in hte sense that the head rotates to do the cutting. There are straight blades, the most common kind, and spiral blades with segmented blades of several types.
Both general types of blades leave some marks on the surface. Wood never comes off these tools ready to finish. Perhaps the straight blades will give a slightly smoother surface on such boards. The difference is a few extra moments of sanding. On plain, staight grained domestic hardwoods either will perform admirably.
The spiral heads come to the fore when the figure becomes heavy and the grain more tricky. Then, the straight blades have more potential for tear out, a problem more time consuming to fix. I don't have experience with the spiral blades to comment on the differences among the variations within that type. Sprial heads typically operate more quietly than straight heads. Hopefully, some others will chime in with more of the particulars.
By the way, you surely can find an 8" jointer that would run well on 115 volt power. A 1 1/2 hp motor is likely to work fine, and should work on a 20 amp 115 dedicatedmcircuit, though not on a 15 amp circuit.
I've had a 6" jet jointer with straight knives (SK) and, several years ago, upgraded to a 10" jointer with Spiral Cutter (SC).
This year, I also upgraded a 12" SK lunchbox planer to a 15" SC planer. In both cases, I am very happy.
SK's will take a sharper edge but they will dull quickly... whereas the SC is a little quieter and the blades last a lot longer.
Overall, I think the SC is a great value if the jointer gets a lot of use or work with figured woods... but the SC would be excessive if the jointer only only gets occasional use or figured woods don't get used.
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