Ridgid JP0610 Planer, 6-1/8-Inch Jointer

I own this jointer and will say that it is a great product AT THE PRICE IT WAS INTENDED TO BE SOLD FOR! These originally listed for $399 @ Home Depot which makes this listing 175% of the original list price. I bought mine from the local Home Depot for $199 a little over a year ago.A great deal @ $300 or less. Over that, start looking @ Jet, Grizzly, etc.

This is a May 2014 revision to my original review which was based upon the Company who has the license to build tools under the Ridgid name telling me that the product had been discontinued and that no replacement would be forthcoming. It now appears that this jointer is once again being offered under the Ridgid name and that it is again appearing at Home Depot. This machine is essentially a bench-top jointer mounted on a sheet metal table. Amazon's price of $800 plus shipping is absurd. HD's price of $549(May 2014)is better, but still too high.This is really a shame, because this jointer/planer is one of the best tools in the bench-top and stationary woodworking line under the Ridgid name.

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.

I have just finished assembling this jointer and haven't yet used it much. But I have checked it for flatness and alignment of the beds and I have done enough checking of the adjustment of the blades that I am satisfied that it came from the box pretty well adjusted for use. It also seems to be very solid and well made. And the motor runs. So I anticipate that it will work very well.I had been concerned about its 200+ pounds weight in terms of getting it down to my basement after delivery, but that turned out not to be a serious problem. It was delivered by CEVA from a truck with a lift gate, a sort of special delivery, but there was no additional charge for shipping or delivery (using the super saver option). Amazon calls this "white glove" delivery. The driver is instructed that it must cross a "threshold" and be delivered into a building. So, the driver put the single box on a mobile hydraulic lift/cart and moved it over an asphalt driveway into an attached garage. It had rained and the driver refused to take the hydraulic lift/cart over the lawn to get to a walkout basement door and deliver it directly to my basement.The box is about 56 inches long and 22 inches wide. It sits about 16 inches high. Getting it down the basement however was simply a matter of carrying all the parts but one down the steps by hand (even the motor probably weighs no more than 30 pounds and the fence probably no more than 25 pounds), and then using a very simple hand truck to move the heaviest part, the bed. The bed, made of cast iron, comes in one piece. The infeed and outfeed tables are pre-assembled. It must weigh at least 100 pounds by itself, and I would guess more like 110 or 120 pounds. Nevertheless, my wife and I were able rather easily to stand it on end and get it onto our little two wheel hand truck. I had no problem getting this over the lawn, down a slope, and into the basement.I certainly would not say that this machine is easy to assemble. Anyone who can put this together for the first time in two hours has my unqualified respect. I got it together the same day it was delivered, but it took about 5 hours, with breaks, and with some help from my wife. The real problem, at least from my perspective, lies not in being able to understand the instructions, which are fairly good, but rather in the difficulty in being able to access the nuts one has to tighten. Whether one turns the cabinet upside down or leaves it upright, it isn't easy to turn box wrenches, or socket wrenches in the tight spaces one needs to do it in. I wound up attaching the motor while the cabinet was upside down and tilted as instructed. But I then turned the cabinet upright before lifting the bed up (yes, my wife and I together could lift it) and placing it right side up on the cabinet. Of course I left it all upright when putting on and tensioning the belt, and doing the final tightening of nuts on motor mounting bolts. In practice this meant a lot of lying on my back and reaching up under the cabinet to tighten nuts. It also meant doing it 'by feel' when I could not easily see the nuts. I don't know if it would have been easier to follow the instructions and mount the bed upside down with the cabinet upside down on top of it, but that would have meant having to turn the entire weight of bed, cabinet, and motor upright after doing so. One problem turned out to be the later attachment of the pulley guard. I wound up having to loosen nuts and move the bed further toward the front of the cabinet than I had initially placed it. This was necessary in order to be able to line up screw openings for installation of the pulley guard which fits tightly against the back of the bed.I was mildly surprised by a couple of things. The machine is really not as big as I imagined it. The top surface of the bed stands only about 32 inches off the ground, rather lower than I thought it would. Of course the fence extends several inches higher. But professional jointers which I have seen in show rooms look much larger. I also imagined that the machine could be placed closer to a wall. The extension table on the back of the bed, on which the fence rides, makes the total operating depth of the machine about 22 inches. The bed is about 45.5 inches long and that seems to be the only useful dimension given in the description of the machine. I also was surprised by the cutter guard which allows boards less than about 3/4 inches in thickness to slide right under it. I did not know that surface planing of boards less than this thickness is not recommended due to the possibility that they might shatter.Apparently this machine used to sell for hundreds of dollars less just a few years ago at Home Depot, which doesn't to the best of my knowledge offer it any longer. IMHO, it may be currently over priced by the manufacturer. That may be the principal negative I have found with regard to it so far, its price. I am giving it five stars so far, but four and a half might be more like it. Of course, since I haven't yet needed to change or adjust blades and I haven't really used it yet, I cannot give an opinion about these very important issues.Update: I have now used it for a few weeks. I find it works quite well, except that it will not make deep (1/8 inch) cuts on hardwoods.

Don't buy this discontinued item. No replacement blades are available. It is also quite small and short. You will quickly discover the limitations of this machine and wish you had waited to buy at least an 8-inch model.

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.