Tool Review - Delta JT360 Jointer

by Paul McEvoy

I picked up a JT360 at Home Depot the other night when they were clearing them out at $329. I had been looking for a six inch jointer and was looking at the King KC60FX and the Delta 37-275X. Since I had 200 dollars of HD money I made a financial decision to get this one as it would cost me $178 of my own money out the door. I thought since a few people have bought or are thinking of buying one of these I'd pass my thoughts along.

The machine was well packaged including wood in the corners for packaging integrity. It weighed about 210 lbs or so and by folding the passenger seat down I could get it into the front seat of my little cavalier.

The instructions were extremely well written and thorough. They included the little wrenches and Allen keys that were needed. I did need a Philips screwdriver and used a ratchet set just to make it easier. And of course I needed some kerosene to clean the grease off.

The stand, dust chute and motor attach first followed by the jointer. When attaching the motor to the dust chute it would be nice to have someone hold it up in place but if you have the stand almost on it's side you can put it on more easily. I did need the assistance of a neighbour to lift the jointer onto the stand, it weighed 175 lbs. When putting the belt on it's easiest to have the motor mounted a little high, put the belt on the jointer pulley and the motor pulley and then put the motor pulley on the spindle and secure. After you have the pulleys lined up you can reposition the motor on the chute and tighten it down. Then tighten up all the other nuts/bolts on the stand. The fence attached easily and securely. If you do not have a dust collector don't put the dust collector attachment on as it will back up the shavings in the chute.

Out of the box the tables were level and co-planar I believe the term is. With the infeed depth setting at zero I did notice that it actually shaved just a bit off a board. Height adjustment is by lever and I found it very easy to move the tables in very slight increments. The outfeed table was lined up exactly with the height of the blades, but adjustment looked easy if it wasn't. The fence setup was a little out for 90 and 45 degrees but easily adjusted as per instructions. The 135 degree setting was accurate. The knob that loosens to allow the fence to move in and out is a spring loaded clamp which is good because there are several things in the same area and they could get in each others way.

I ran some maple through it starting with some edge joints. I took several passes on a four foot board with the setting barely off of the zero depth just to get a feel. I was jointing a board that was bowed with the middle being lower and the knives didn't engage the wood until about a foot in which is what I had expected. I eventually worked through the whole edge and it came out flat smooth and straight. I then did a little jointing on the other side just for the heck of it and the knives engaged at the beginning and end as I expected . I changed the depth gauge to take 1/64th, 1/32, 1/16 off and it worked well through all, feeling it slow just a bit as I took more off. I don't like taking much off when planing so jointing won't be any different... and it'll help the knives.

I then face jointed the board (about four inches wide) and got the same kind of expected performance and results. So I took a six foot piece of maple (still some of the stuff Mike from Paradise gave me) and was pleased to see that it could give the same straight edges and faces on that length. As advised I let the machine do the work and did not press down on the board.

One thing I did notice that I was not pleased with... there is a metal warning sign that sits on the top of the fence warning about where the cutterheads are. This sign was poorly attached and rather than have it fall into the cutterhead I removed it.

The machine runs smoothly and fairly quietly. Table and fence adjustments seemed pretty easy to me. My first impressions are very favourable and I expect good reliability. I'm well pleased with this little jointer. Hope that helps someone.