Kevin wrote:
I did some work for a friend and as payment she gave a $100 gift card
for Home Depot.
I've been meaning to replace the old Craftsman jointer I got from my dad
years ago.
I went to the Woodworking show and found that the majority of
manufactures including Ridgid or using the same planer parts for their
lower priced units. The online reviews weren't bad either.
Since 25% of the cost was covered by the gift card...
I have a new jointer.
The belt was stiff and had a set that caused some vibration so I
replaced it a link belt I had in a drawer.
I had to adjust 1 knife and the fence.
Cuts great.

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I probably shouldn't say this, but a couple of years ago I was in my
local HD looking at tools. I was talking to the sales guy and he told
me that they had two jointers that they were getting rid of because the
new models were coming out. One was the floor model, and one was new in
a box in the back. He said that only difference he could see was that
the new ones were a new color.

From your message I can only see two differences. One - the one I
bought is all gray, even where yours is orange and black. And two -
your gift card would have covered 2/3 of the cost. I only paid $150 and
it was new in the box. On the good side, it does a adequate job for me
so I think you will be happy with it as long as you don't exceed it's
capacities (like trying to joint 8' boards), but I don't have any
experience with bigger/badder machines.

I have had fairly good luck finding deals like that. I was at my local
Sears a while back, and they had a 14" Professional series bandsaw for
sale. One of their "as-is" things. I looked at it and the box was a
mess. Looked a little deeper and one of the lower body feet was broken
off. About that time, another salesman came over and said there was
another one in the back, but he thought it was damaged too. But we put
the parts of the two together and came up with a complete machine. This
was also $150.

Another item that I found was a Delta mortising machine. It is the
little one, but Lowes was clearing it out and I bought it for only $90.
Again, new in box.

Now if I could just find a good deal like that for a new table saw . . .


Wayne