You've probably found this out by now, but you do not need to adjust the depth after each pass. Leave the depth alone and do multiple passes. For example if you start at 1/16th, then adjust to 3/32, then adjust to 1/8, you just took off 5/16th of an inch total and not just 1/8. Also tighten the lock for the depth.
I have one of these as well. I had the two blade model and this one is fantastic, quieter and a better job. There are 12 blades, 2 on six sides, and they do cover the entire 6 inches. Don't forget to tighten the depth adjustment after adjusting it.
It's really encouraging that we can buy a spiral cutterhead jointer for under $300. Need to snatch one up before prices start going up due to all the logistics and shipping issues.
I have the same unit. First - be SURE to tighten the depth lock knob on the front after each adjustment of cut depth. Second, don't continuously increase depth of cut if initial the initial pass(es) leave part of the surface untouched - just make additional passes with shallow cuts. This is especially important with harder or complex-grained wood. Finally - limit your work pieces to a maximum of twice the length of the infeed + outfeed beds (about 4' on this unit). I modified mine with 12" extensions on both infeed and outfeed beds, which increases my maximum workpiece to about 8'. For the price, this is a surprisingly capable unit, when operated within its limits. My biggest gripe is the odd size of the cutters - 14mm. I wanted to upgrade to carbide, but can't find them in that size... 14.5mm seems to be the standard. (The HSS cutters will dull very quickly if used with plywood or MDF).
Doesn’t wen use the same size blades for all it’s spiral cutters? If so, couldn’t you just get ones that are carbide from a higher end machine? They’ll still be 2 sided, but probably drop right in.
Hey! Thanks for sharing, this was very informative and very helpful. I have the WEN planer and I just wanted to see if this jointer would be good. Woodwork can get very expensive and WEN products have been very impressive and budget friendly. Thanks again!
Well my wife splurged on me and showered me with a new Craftsman table saw as my current one is worn smooth out she also got me a Craftsman planer and also this very same jointer...good informative video.. ESPECIALLY ON SQUAREING UP THE FENCE AND WHAT THEY CALL A SPIRAL CUTTING HEAD.. "the fence looks cheaply made" You said you got good results so I can't wait to use mine....I have ALOTTA stock that needs to be squared up and faced..
I got one about 6 or 7 months ago and I have issues with the fence. But I just hold the square against the fence and then tightened it. Leveling the plates is a whole different horror. When you think it's all straight and even, when you tighten the bolts, it pulls the plate down so, it's no longer level. I got it worked out but, dang it took forever. One more thing, don't leave the fence in one place. Move it back and forth so the cutters get equal use.
Thanks for the review.. was looking at picking one up, but saw the cutter head and noticed that it was unlike the other helical/spiral heads I had seen so I also wondered how it would work.
I used it on several boards yesterday and I’m really impressed with the results. The side/edge finished with this jointer is noticeably smoother than the adjacent side/edge finished with my Bauer planer.
Works fine, but since there are fewer cutters than on a true helical head, they will dull faster. This is especially true since they are HSS and not carbide. At this time I'm unable to locate any 14mm carbide replacements. That means laminates (plywood) and MDF are a no-no. On the plus side, a replacement set of HSS for this jointer is only $32 or so on Amazon.
I am no professional woodworker. I just do small projects and I found that this machine works great for the price that you get it for. For amateurs like myself this is the perfect tool for the garage. Notice I did not say woodworking shop
Thanks for the review and setup help. There are three kinds of Jointer blade setups: Straight cut, Spiral cut and Helical cut. The spiral has the blades angled but not helical around the cutter head. Spiral is still better than straight blades. Would you recommend?
Interesting way to cut down the cost of the cutter head, thats for sure. I would imagine this model would require a lower feed rate to allow the sparse teeth a bit more time to cut? I'm looking for a small model, and saw the Black and Decker at Lowes tonight and thought I'd look on YT. Only thing that looks iffy is the small table. I learned on some old Berlin jointer at the local Makerspace thats like 8' long and weights 3-4 tons... BTW, I don't think you want to apply pressure on the piece as it goes over the cutting head. The small table length seems to be a bit of a detriment without infeed/outfeed additions, although 6" width is certainly nice.
Craig your are confusing a Helical and Spiral heads both are better than (in my opinion) than straight blade Jointers...certainly in noise level but also in final finish.
There are a few companies that use cutter heads like that. There's a difference between the spiral head and helical head. A helical head alone costs over $350. This style of head is a huge upgrade from the two or three blade heads but not as good as a helical head. It does however deliver good results and offers a great value.
Thanks for the video! It sounded like you were getting a little bit of snipe at the end of the board. I noticed this on my jointer recently and learned that the solution is to raise the outfeed table just barely. Like all things there are multiple opinions here but it seems like the consensus is to either have the outfeed table at the exact same height as the cutters or just baaaaaaarely below. I think the snipe I'm having, and I think you're having too, is from the outfeed table being just a smidge too low. There are tons of videos for setting up a jointer and they show a trick using a ruler to measure how low the outfeed table is. This worked for me. Thanks again and have fun!
Thanks Craig for the review. I was looking at the JT6561 but noticed it had been discontinued. This one seemed to replace that and it had the helical/spiral heads which are suppose to be superior as they are easier to change and there are no adjustments. I was concerned about the fence being aluminum but it seems to be stout enough. Thanks again for the review. I think you just sold me on this. Good job.
Set to 1/32, lock it down then run the board repeatedly until the whole face is surfaced. Seems like you were not locking the depth knob and just adding more depth the get the rest to cut. The uncut areas were the low spots and would have been cut in another pass or so without adjusting. Thanks for the video I have this jointer and love it.
hey nice info. jhad a question for u. how do u make cutterhead flat across, mine goes lower the further away from fence, the actual cutterhead, thx for any help!
Hi CRAIG ,I was watching your video I am impressed with wen JT630H ,It has two year warranty. The bade is covered or not and where we get repaired ? Thanks for the valuable information ,I am looking to buy my first joiner .
Are you planning on doing any more woodworking type videos? Most woodworkers on CZcams are large, but they seem to skim past basic information that they seem to take for granted. It's definitely not a knock on them, they just have been doing it a long time.
How's it held up over the last couple months and how much use has it seen? Thanks for the great video. Bought this almost a year ago and it's still sitting in the box.
I'm not trying to critique, just saying that there's confusion about the definition of spiral and helical in engineering speak they're not the same spiral is a slight twist, with the blade on adjacent row, being mounted slightly farther down the cutter-shaft, where as helical is much more aggressive twist. The blades of which are mounted in helical-rows. Which design is going to work better for you and or product you're working is going to you. The helical design keeps more blades on the job, much more of the time. This as you may imagine requires more from the drive motor. So, installation of a helical cutter head will void the warranty on the device in question.
Very good video! Thank you. I was also looking into these and realized that they are not the spiral cutter head. These one are marketed as « spiral style cutter head » I am still doing some research and was looking at the Rikon 10 inches helical planer/ jointer but I think this model has been discontinued. 😕
The cutter head you are referring too and that he was referring to isn't called spiral even though it looks that way those are called helical cutter heads that way more blades that are sharp on all 4 sides and cost quite a bit more. Most helical replacement cutter heads cost as much as this entire jointer if not more. Hence why Wen calls their cutter head "spiral " and it only has blades that are sharp on only 2 sides at their price point.
@@keishabaskin2174 totally agree with and that is what exactly I was referring too. I came across more videos on CZcams ans the owners are calling their segmented blades/ cutter head as a spiral / helical cutter head. The Rikon planner I was referring to is the rikon 25-01 0H 10 “ helical planner/ jointer. Check it out. It has been discontinued in Canada but I believed it is still available in the states. Another machine that I have came across that has a true helical cutters is the 12-1/2 “ thickness planner model 10044. It has the BYRD Shelix cutter head and Wiley digital readout and it cost $770 in the states and $ 900 in Canada.
@@avir5604 most of the rikon’s say helical style, but what they mean is spiral. The wording is purposely confusing, but they are spiral as well. They capitalize on the confusion by marking up the price. While they do have more total blades, they’re essentially the same. The benefits of a spiral cutting head are cleaner cuts with smaller chips that aide in dust extraction. Because you’re making smaller slices in the wood being passed over the cutter, it doesn’t bog the machine down as much. It’s not as great as helical for figured hardwoods, but far better than straight blades.
@@thedillydotcom you are absolutely correct. I bought the Scorpion CWI-JP1203HC 12” helical jointer/planer which has a total of 60 knives. Each knives are square four sided convex edge carbide knives. They leaves an almost perfect requiring little or no sanding at. The machine can run all day and the fan cool induction motor is super quiet. Very expensive though but worth all the penny.
This is where I’m at with my Wen JT 630 H bench planer jointer. I did a test run and when I’m pushing the wood through it hits and stops at the next table level. In other words I can’t make it past the blade it just stops. The wood butts against the table past the blade. It’s driving me crazy. Any tips ??? What am I doing wrong ???
Just a quick question. Am I right in assuming the housing is made of cast iron? I understand that the in/out feed plate and fence are aluminum. Thanks.
@@tweddelltrumpet Thanks Craig, after watching your CZcams I ordered it. I think it will be perfect. I also play the trumpet and blues are my favorite. 🤗🤗
Man, I use this thing a lot! definitely a few times a week at least, and only with hard woods, almost never soft woods, and it still works as well as it did when I made the video. I still haven’t even had to rotate the blades yet and the cuts are still nice and smooth. I am still happy with it
You can joint two sides of a board to provide a flat surface. Sure, the edge is where you’d typically joint, but a thickness planer doesn’t fix cupping issues and a jointer will. Ask me how i know. Lol
Call me old fashion, but on a "edge jointer" you are suppose to pass de "edge" of the wood. The flat side goes into a "Planer". The whole purpose of the jointer is that, to make 2 pieces of wood flat on the edges so they can be "join".
I flatten one side and one edge with the jointer. Then I flatten the other side with the planer so that both sides are flat and parallel. I get the last edge with the table saw. This is a great way to get a flat board with four 90-degree angles. Of course you could do both sides with the planer if you wanted to pull out the planer sled all the time, that’s what I did before I had the jointer.
Fellow hobby woodworker checking in. Definitely appreciate you taking the time to record and put this together.
You've probably found this out by now, but you do not need to adjust the depth after each pass. Leave the depth alone and do multiple passes. For example if you start at 1/16th, then adjust to 3/32, then adjust to 1/8, you just took off 5/16th of an inch total and not just 1/8. Also tighten the lock for the depth.
exactly what i was thinking
Thanks for the video. I *just* picked mine up yesterday despite the lack of video reviews. Appreciate the tip on the fence alignment.
I’m a musician too. Got into woodworking a couple of years ago. Bought this jointer, and it does the job for my needs so far.
I have one of these as well. I had the two blade model and this one is fantastic, quieter and a better job. There are 12 blades, 2 on six sides, and they do cover the entire 6 inches. Don't forget to tighten the depth adjustment after adjusting it.
Thanks for the review. Was looking at getting this one and now it helps make my decision.
Thank you for the review. I was a bit scared to buy it. Now I’m not. I appreciate the PSA. 👍🏼
I usually shy away from cheap tools but I have been happy with Wen.
I bought this one a few months ago and it has been great! I do small stuff and this was the best I've had.
Ditto, I use mine everyday and it never disappoints. Still haven’t had to rotate the blades
I just came across this jointer today and was thinking about picking one up, but I wasn't finding many reviews. Thanks for posting this!
Thank you for the comment!
Thanks. Appreciate your effort in doing this.
It's really encouraging that we can buy a spiral cutterhead jointer for under $300. Need to snatch one up before prices start going up due to all the logistics and shipping issues.
I have the same unit. First - be SURE to tighten the depth lock knob on the front after each adjustment of cut depth. Second, don't continuously increase depth of cut if initial the initial pass(es) leave part of the surface untouched - just make additional passes with shallow cuts. This is especially important with harder or complex-grained wood. Finally - limit your work pieces to a maximum of twice the length of the infeed + outfeed beds (about 4' on this unit). I modified mine with 12" extensions on both infeed and outfeed beds, which increases my maximum workpiece to about 8'. For the price, this is a surprisingly capable unit, when operated within its limits. My biggest gripe is the odd size of the cutters - 14mm. I wanted to upgrade to carbide, but can't find them in that size... 14.5mm seems to be the standard. (The HSS cutters will dull very quickly if used with plywood or MDF).
Doesn’t wen use the same size blades for all it’s spiral cutters? If so, couldn’t you just get ones that are carbide from a higher end machine? They’ll still be 2 sided, but probably drop right in.
You talked me into. Looks like a good one.
Enjoy the video.
Thanks for the video, helped me make a decision on what to buy
Great review, Thanks!
Great info man ! Thanks!
Great job! Thanks for the video.
Thank you for the comment!
Thank you! Very helpful! I'm gonna get one.
Cool to see is used as a planer! Didn’t think of that and can save from digging to tools out.
Hey! Thanks for sharing, this was very informative and very helpful. I have the WEN planer and I just wanted to see if this jointer would be good. Woodwork can get very expensive and WEN products have been very impressive and budget friendly. Thanks again!
Thank you. Just bought one.
I may just pick one of these up tomorrow. For the price, that looks great!
Well my wife splurged on me and showered me with a new
Craftsman table saw as my current one is worn smooth out she also got me a Craftsman planer and also this very same jointer...good informative video.. ESPECIALLY ON SQUAREING UP THE FENCE AND WHAT THEY CALL A SPIRAL CUTTING HEAD..
"the fence looks cheaply made"
You said you got good results so I can't wait to use mine....I have
ALOTTA stock that needs to be squared up and faced..
I got one about 6 or 7 months ago and I have issues with the fence. But I just hold the square against the fence and then tightened it. Leveling the plates is a whole different horror. When you think it's all straight and even, when you tighten the bolts, it pulls the plate down so, it's no longer level. I got it worked out but, dang it took forever.
One more thing, don't leave the fence in one place. Move it back and forth so the cutters get equal use.
You are right, you are the first to review the 6 inch spiral cutterhead jointer from WEN, thanks for posting.
Thanks for the review.. was looking at picking one up, but saw the cutter head and noticed that it was unlike the other helical/spiral heads I had seen so I also wondered how it would work.
I used it on several boards yesterday and I’m really impressed with the results. The side/edge finished with this jointer is noticeably smoother than the adjacent side/edge finished with my Bauer planer.
Works fine, but since there are fewer cutters than on a true helical head, they will dull faster. This is especially true since they are HSS and not carbide. At this time I'm unable to locate any 14mm carbide replacements. That means laminates (plywood) and MDF are a no-no. On the plus side, a replacement set of HSS for this jointer is only $32 or so on Amazon.
I am no professional woodworker. I just do small projects and I found that this machine works great for the price that you get it for. For amateurs like myself this is the perfect tool for the garage. Notice I did not say woodworking shop
Probably could have added some washers under the fence bolts to help with squaring.
Thanks you.
Thanks for the review and setup help. There are three kinds of Jointer blade setups: Straight cut, Spiral cut and Helical cut. The spiral has the blades angled but not helical around the cutter head. Spiral is still better than straight blades. Would you recommend?
Interesting way to cut down the cost of the cutter head, thats for sure. I would imagine this model would require a lower feed rate to allow the sparse teeth a bit more time to cut? I'm looking for a small model, and saw the Black and Decker at Lowes tonight and thought I'd look on YT. Only thing that looks iffy is the small table. I learned on some old Berlin jointer at the local Makerspace thats like 8' long and weights 3-4 tons...
BTW, I don't think you want to apply pressure on the piece as it goes over the cutting head. The small table length seems to be a bit of a detriment without infeed/outfeed additions, although 6" width is certainly nice.
Craig your are confusing a Helical and Spiral heads both are better than (in my opinion) than straight blade Jointers...certainly in noise level but also in final finish.
There are a few companies that use cutter heads like that. There's a difference between the spiral head and helical head. A helical head alone costs over $350. This style of head is a huge upgrade from the two or three blade heads but not as good as a helical head. It does however deliver good results and offers a great value.
Thanks for the video! It sounded like you were getting a little bit of snipe at the end of the board. I noticed this on my jointer recently and learned that the solution is to raise the outfeed table just barely. Like all things there are multiple opinions here but it seems like the consensus is to either have the outfeed table at the exact same height as the cutters or just baaaaaaarely below. I think the snipe I'm having, and I think you're having too, is from the outfeed table being just a smidge too low.
There are tons of videos for setting up a jointer and they show a trick using a ruler to measure how low the outfeed table is. This worked for me.
Thanks again and have fun!
I would never use the jointer with a jacket. Just me but I love my hands.
You could use a clamping square to keep it at 90 while you tighten it.
T
Thanks Craig for the review. I was looking at the JT6561 but noticed it had been discontinued. This one seemed to replace that and it had the helical/spiral heads which are suppose to be superior as they are easier to change and there are no adjustments. I was concerned about the fence being aluminum but it seems to be stout enough. Thanks again for the review. I think you just sold me on this. Good job.
Thanks for the video, Craig! Great content! How's the jointer holding up after almost 1.5 years?
Thanks! It’s still going strong, I’ve only had to rotate the blades once so far
As it should be
Set to 1/32, lock it down then run the board repeatedly until the whole face is surfaced. Seems like you were not locking the depth knob and just adding more depth the get the rest to cut. The uncut areas were the low spots and would have been cut in another pass or so without adjusting. Thanks for the video I have this jointer and love it.
hey nice info. jhad a question for u. how do u make cutterhead flat across, mine goes lower the further away from fence, the actual cutterhead, thx for any help!
You need to get an affiliate link! You've sold me on this
Hi CRAIG ,I was watching your video I am impressed with wen JT630H ,It has two year warranty. The bade is covered or not and where we get repaired ? Thanks for the valuable information ,I am looking to buy my first joiner .
Are you planning on doing any more woodworking type videos? Most woodworkers on CZcams are large, but they seem to skim past basic information that they seem to take for granted. It's definitely not a knock on them, they just have been doing it a long time.
Yes, that Is annoying! Did you replace HSS with 4 sided Carbide? Pretty cool for the money spent!
How's it held up over the last couple months and how much use has it seen? Thanks for the great video. Bought this almost a year ago and it's still sitting in the box.
Man, I use it daily and it’s doing great. I also only work with hard woods and I’ve still yet to have to rotate any of the blades, still cuts nicely.
I'm not trying to critique, just saying that there's confusion about the definition of spiral and helical in engineering speak they're not the same spiral is a slight twist, with the blade on adjacent row, being mounted slightly farther down the cutter-shaft, where as helical is much more aggressive twist. The blades of which are mounted in helical-rows.
Which design is going to work better for you and or product you're working is going to you.
The helical design keeps more blades on the job, much more of the time. This as you may imagine requires more from the drive motor. So, installation of a helical cutter head will void the warranty on the device in question.
Very good video! Thank you. I was also looking into these and realized that they are not the spiral cutter head. These one are marketed as « spiral style cutter head »
I am still doing some research and was looking at the Rikon 10 inches helical planer/ jointer but I think this model has been discontinued. 😕
The cutter head you are referring too and that he was referring to isn't called spiral even though it looks that way those are called helical cutter heads that way more blades that are sharp on all 4 sides and cost quite a bit more. Most helical replacement cutter heads cost as much as this entire jointer if not more. Hence why Wen calls their cutter head "spiral " and it only has blades that are sharp on only 2 sides at their price point.
@@keishabaskin2174 totally agree with and that is what exactly I was referring too. I came across more videos on CZcams ans the owners are calling their segmented blades/ cutter head as a spiral / helical cutter head. The Rikon planner I was referring to is the rikon 25-01 0H 10 “ helical planner/ jointer. Check it out. It has been discontinued in Canada but I believed it is still available in the states. Another machine that I have came across that has a true helical cutters is the 12-1/2 “ thickness planner model 10044. It has the BYRD Shelix cutter head and Wiley digital readout and it cost $770 in the states and $ 900 in Canada.
@@avir5604 most of the rikon’s say helical style, but what they mean is spiral. The wording is purposely confusing, but they are spiral as well. They capitalize on the confusion by marking up the price. While they do have more total blades, they’re essentially the same.
The benefits of a spiral cutting head are cleaner cuts with smaller chips that aide in dust extraction. Because you’re making smaller slices in the wood being passed over the cutter, it doesn’t bog the machine down as much. It’s not as great as helical for figured hardwoods, but far better than straight blades.
@@thedillydotcom you are absolutely correct. I bought the Scorpion CWI-JP1203HC 12” helical jointer/planer which has a total of 60 knives. Each knives are square four sided convex edge carbide knives. They leaves an almost perfect requiring little or no sanding at. The machine can run all day and the fan cool induction motor is super quiet. Very expensive though but worth all the penny.
is the brackets that hold the fence plastic or steel
What kind of wax for table?
This is where I’m at with my Wen JT 630 H bench planer jointer. I did a test run and when I’m pushing the wood through it hits and stops at the next table level. In other words I can’t make it past the blade it just stops. The wood butts against the table past the blade. It’s driving me crazy. Any tips ???
What am I doing wrong ???
Never had that problem, sound like you’re trying to cut too much material. Just try like 1/16 of an inch at a time and do multiple passes
What's the widest peice of wood that can go thru it?
Just a quick question. Am I right in assuming the housing is made of cast iron? I understand that the in/out feed plate and fence are aluminum. Thanks.
I think it's cast iron. It's a solid unit, especially for the price.
@@tweddelltrumpet
Thanks Craig, after watching your CZcams I ordered it. I think it will be perfect. I also play the trumpet and blues are my favorite. 🤗🤗
@@donchurchill8177 nice! You and I are cut from the same cloth
If the infeed and outfeed tables aren't quite level, how do I adjust them? Have you done that
They aren’t meant to be level. The outfeed would be higher due to the offset for the removed material
How often have you used it since first reviewing? Do you still recommend?
Man, I use this thing a lot! definitely a few times a week at least, and only with hard woods, almost never soft woods, and it still works as well as it did when I made the video. I still haven’t even had to rotate the blades yet and the cuts are still nice and smooth. I am still happy with it
Thats what a Planer is for ! The jointer is for the Edges .
You can joint two sides of a board to provide a flat surface. Sure, the edge is where you’d typically joint, but a thickness planer doesn’t fix cupping issues and a jointer will. Ask me how i know. Lol
Those helical cutterheads are about the price of the jointer so it shouldn't be much of a shock😅
What you say was a helical head not spiral type
Why is it wobbling on your bench?
Because one of the legs was hanging over the side of my work bench
How do you set the cutter height
The two knobs on the right side of the unit. One sets the height and one locks it into place
You don't really set the cutter height. The cutter and outfeed table are stationary and leveled to each other. What you adjust is the infeed table.
Really dont need to adjust depth of cut every pass...
I figured this after a few more passes, I was treating the jointer like my planer.
Good review but youre scarring me with those sleeves near the cutter head. Safety first dude.
Good call, thanks for the heads up
@@tweddelltrumpet Just lookin out for a brother musician.
they look spiral to me
Spiral, not helical
Call me old fashion, but on a "edge jointer" you are suppose to pass de "edge" of the wood. The flat side goes into a "Planer". The whole purpose of the jointer is that, to make 2 pieces of wood flat on the edges so they can be "join".
I flatten one side and one edge with the jointer. Then I flatten the other side with the planer so that both sides are flat and parallel. I get the last edge with the table saw. This is a great way to get a flat board with four 90-degree angles. Of course you could do both sides with the planer if you wanted to pull out the planer sled all the time, that’s what I did before I had the jointer.
Good review! Thank you.