Summary:
I would recommend the Wahuda 8″ jointer. Great for small shops, well priced, has features that compete well with jointers of similar size and excellent quick customer response and service.
In spite of a couple of issues that I discuss in the “Detail” description, I rate this product with high marks, especially given the customer support and excellent performance. I am very pleased with this
jointer and glad I made the decision to replace my 6″ Delta Jointer of comparable size.
Detail:
I purchased the Wahuda 8″ jointer from Amazon. After assembling it, I noticed that the head had a defect that appeared as a lumpy piece of aluminum. I contacted Wahuda via e-mail. After several e-mail exchanges, it was decided that the head indeed was defective and that Wahuda would send a new unit to me. They also instructed me to send back the defective unit at my earliest convenience. They provided a UPS label – so no charge for returning the unit directly to Wahuda, I decided to wait to receive the new jointer before sending the damaged one back. The replacement jointer came in good
condition. I assembled it, aligned it, had to rotate a couple of head cutters (more on this below) and it works wonderfully. I repacked the damaged unit and hauled it to the nearest UPS store.
Comment on customer service:
– my e-mails were quickly answered on the same day I sent them. Customer support is excellent!
I bought the Wahuda jointer to replace an older 6″ bench Delta jointer.
The reasons I decided on the Wahuda:
– steel infeed and outfeed tables, not aluminum like their competitors.
– the infeed and outfeed tables are manually leveled (see comments below)
– the head uses sixteen 4-sided carbide cutters, not 2-sided high-speed steel cutters like other
jointers of similar size. Cutters are 15mm X 15mm X 2.5mm x 30 degrees. These dimensions are
not in the manual. Wahuda provided them to me via e-mail. I wanted to know this before making a
decision, knowing that the cutters are available from other manufacturers as well as Wahuda.
– there is no leveling of the head or cutters required. The Delta jointer uses steel blades that must be
leveled to the outfeed table.
– profile is similar to the 6″ Delta jointer. I placed it on the same wheelable cabinet as what the 6″
jointer was mounted on.
What I like about the Wahuda jointer at this early stage of usage:
– No snipe!
– Quieter than the delta jointer (but ear protection is still a must)
– The head does not bog down compared to the Delta. It will slow slightly, but
it feels like a smooth cut – easy to move evenly as the wood is pushed.
– I cut between 4 to 5-inch wide hard maple, walnut, bloodwood and cherry with excellent results
but only after rotating two cutters. I noticed a couple of stripes on the boards. The stripes were due
to two cutters that had very shallow nicks. The nicks lined up with the stripes on the boards. I
identified the nicks by carefully running a finger nail over the edge of the cutter and I could
feel the nick. I verified this with a microscope. The nick on one cutter was 0.3 mm wide,
the other about 0.25 mm wide. The nick depths were about 0.1 mm with indentation at the edge
of less than 0.1 mm. I rotated the two cutters and the striping is gone. Before and after the cutters
were replaced, I jointed two 14″ long x 5″ wide hard maple (i.e., with and without the striping).
Placing the boards together required some force to separate them, only possible when each are
flattened with good quality. A bit disappointing to have discovered the defective cutters on an initial
cut, but not an issue once fixed.
Comments:
– Adjusting the outfeed and infeed tables:
The most time-consuming part of putting the Wahuda jointer together was adjusting
the outfeed and infeed tables. I found that for both units I received, leveling was necessary.
It took me two hours to level the tables on either unit. This is an iterative process. As the tables get
closer to level, the process must be repeated. I’ve worked on many woodworking power tools and
in my opinion, this amount of time is not unusual when it comes to attempting anything having to do
with alignment. Once aligned, the reward was excellent results.
As the tables come closer into alignment, a fraction of a turn on the height adjustment set screws
is all that is needed (not full nor even quarter turns!). A detailed explanation of the adjustment
process is at the end of this review.
Cleaning the cutters:
The manual states that there may be oil residue on the cutters and if so, the cutters must be removed
and cleaned. The jointer is shipped with the tables oiled and covered with a plastic sheet. Both the
head and the cutters on the jointer I received had quite a bit of oil on them. I removed the cutters and
cleaned the oil from the head and the cutters.
Extension arms:
The extension arms may be used when jointing boards that go beyond the table. I’ve seen reviews
commenting on the difficulty of moving the extension bars. I did not have this problem on both of
the jointers I received. There are four screws used to release/adjust play on the extension slider bars.
One screw with a knurled knob is used to secure the position of the extension. This screw must be
loosened to allow the extension arm to glide smoothly. There are three nylon set screws recessed at
the end of each table on the top side and one on the front side. The manual doesn’t mention these, and
they are helpful in removing any play there may be in sliding the extension back and forth. These
must be adjusted so that they do not cause resistance to moving the extensions.
The Fence:
There are three main pieces to the fence: The fence itself, a right-angle bracket that attaches to the
jointer body and a bracket that attaches to the fence and the right-angle bracket that allows sliding the
fence into a desired position. The fence and these brackets are made of aluminum. There are two
screw-handles: one to lock the fence into a desire position over the tables, the other to lock the fence
angle. The handles are a hard plastic-like material. This is an identical arrangement compared to my
Delta jointer. There are also two screws useful in adjusting the left-to-right tilt of the fence so that it
sits evenly above the table. Regarding the angle of the fence to the table: I had no difficulty aligning
the fence to 90 degrees relative to the tables (it was factory set), nor did the fence shift after use – just
as with my Delta jointer.
Adjusting the tables:
The outfeed table is first leveled relative to two of the sixteen carbide cutters – one closest to the
fence, the other closest to the front. There are four mounting bolts (positions) on each of the tables.
There are also a pair of set-screws on each side of a bolt. So, for each table, there are eight set screws
and four bolts. Leveling takes place by slightly loosening the four mounting bolts of a table. The set
screws are used to lower or raise the table in the vicinity of the loosened bolt. One set screw is
adjusted to get the table at the desired height, the other set screw is adjusted (by feel) to the
level same level of the first set screw so that it just touches the support below the table. The other
three mounting positions are similarly adjusted. The outfeed table is adjusted so that when a level is
placed over the inner (or outer) cutter, the level just touches the cutter (checked by rotating the head
back and forth). The head is moved back and forth from the front by placing a thin rod through the
hole in the header shaft (I used an Allen wrench to do this).
The infeed table is adjusted after completing the outfeed table. The instruction manual states
bringing the infeed table to the height that is level with the outfeed table (nominally the “0”
position on the level indicator). Leveling is accomplished with the aid of a high quality straight
edge. I bought a new 24″ level for this. The trick is to obtain even-level so that both tables are
at the same height at the “0” position. After leveling the infeed table with respect to the outfeed table,
I found that a test cut of four passes resulted in an uneven cross-sectional cut. I discovered that as a result
of lowering the infeed table, the table was slightly tilted. I decided to re-level the infeed table at
a position slightly lowered from the outfeed table. I used a disk from a hard drive – these are very
well machined to be flat (fractions of a thousandth of an inch). I straddled the level – some of it on the
outfeed table, some on the infeed table. I placed the disk under the level on the infeed table and raised
the table until the level just touched the disk (on the side that was highest). I then shifted to the side
where the inner table was lower and adjusted the set screws to raise the table so the disk just touched
the level. Iteratively, back-and-forth. Test cuts now worked at various infeed table heights with an
even cross-sectional cut!
