Customer Reviews for Delta 12 Amp 6 in. Benchtop Joiner, 2 Blades

Didn't even get to test it out, uncoved the plastic protective sheet and the surface is uneven. 1/2" groove about 1/32-1/16 deep uneven surfacing. What the heck? Delta quality control isn't what it used to be. Gonna return it.

I had a older Rockwell model This is so much more advanced and was easy to set up.

I recently downsized from a Jet JJ-6 Long Bed Jointer to this Delta 37-071 bench top jointer because of limited space in my small shop. I decided to go with the Delta bench top jointer due to the cast iron tables and fence. The jointer was shipped to me in a timely manner with no damage to the box or contents. The jointer and all parts were accounted for. Assembly and setup were pretty much straight forward. The knives were almost dead on from the factory with minimal adjustment needed. The infeed and outfeed tables were spot on when checked with a machined straightedge. When checking the fence across the face lengthwise with a machined straightedge, I was able to get a .015 thousands feeler gauge under the center. This is within specs (1/64) per Delta. The cast iron tables and fence aren’t the quality as my Jet Jointer cast iron, it’s a bit rough and has a “grain” to it. Dust ejection is good, connected to a dust stopper/shop vac even better. Motor is fairly powerful and it seems to perform well. I think Delta can do a little better than the use of plastic knobs on some of the components on the fence. The plastic dust chute is fairly flimsy, could easily have been made with thicker material. For the price point that I purchased this jointer ($315.00) and what I plan on using it for, I think it’ll do great.

It broke after 1/2 hour of use

Just the tool I needed to complete my wood working shop.

There is tight and then there is this! The blade bolts are too tight from the factory you can't take them out! The final bolt is in there so tight that I literally had to hammer the bit in, hoping the vibration would release it, it literally became part of the screw. I pulled on my socket wrench with everything I had and the bit broke free from the bolt and the bolt is now stripped out! What am I supposed to do?

Good, heavy construction. Easy assembly and set up. Ran a few pieces through and it did the job nicely.

So far, so good. My first jointer. Was easy to set up. Leaves a clean square smooth edge.

The order process and delivery from Home Depot was fabulous as I was having a hard time even finding this product available from other sources. I was waiting up to three months at other vendors and received it from HD in three days!!! It is a wonderfully engineered and quality built tool which I highly recommend!

Great tool! Easy set up, works well makes a great edge to join boards. Nice and compact, great for my tight shop space. I would highly recommend it!

Performed exactly how I wanted it to, easy set up

The machine is fine, the shipping was absolutely awful. Home Depot chose to use OnTrac to ship this product and it was delayed more than a week, just sitting at the truck depot while my project sat in limbo. Not impressed. Will not order for shipping again without a guarantee that they will not use that service again.

Tries to level and square the table several times. No factory help. Terrible snipe. Returned. Bought a Wahuda.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

PROS: Sturdy construction. Surfaces very flat. Runs smoothly because of it's heavy mass. Cutting quality is excellent. Recommended as a first jointer for new hobbyists or for tight woodshops/garages (I built a rolling cart to hold a planer underneath this jointer, to save floor space). CONS: Out of the box, the blades will definitely need to be adjusted to the exact height of the outfeed table (boards had wicked snipe on the ends because the blades were many thou too high). The instructions say to use a level and see if the blades can slide it 1/8" max, but I recommend mounting a $15 dial indicator on the end of a flat block of wood instead (my blades are within 0.001" now). Blade adjustment is finicky, so be prepared to spend a little time getting these adjusted. This is time WELL spent because all the wonderful flatness in your boards will come from having the blades at exactly the same height as the outfeed table. The dust port is not a standard size (which seems to be a common issue among several tool brands). Be prepared to buy or 3D print an adapter. When buying an adapter, pay attention to whether the dimensions given are for the INSIDE or OUTSIDE of the tube. The fence is a bit wonky and hard to adjust to 45 and 90 degrees. I removed it for just a few minutes to paste wax the metal underneath, then put it back on and it's out of square again. It CAN be adjusted perfectly, so just be prepared to muck with it a bit if you ever remove or re-adjust the angle on it. Once adjusted, it seems very sturdy and doesn't flex in use. The cutting-depth indicator and adjustment knob for the infeed table height are not precision pieces. You'll end up ignoring the gauge and just going by feel. Run a scrap piece of wood through it and adjust the bite by eye and feel, OR use the dial indicator block again to adjust the infeed table height.

It was a little bit difficult to adjust the blades but overall I’m very satisfied with my purchase.

Everything was great from initial order to receiving the new piece of equipment. Overall an excellent rating.

I tried adjusting the knives on the jointer for several hours and I could not get them set correctly the way I wanted so I ended up returning the Jointer.

The joiner works good and is heavy and stable. The instructions for assembly and use are not very good and leave out some information. Sometimes it tells to do or not to do something but not how. It leaves it up to you to know or figure it out. After everything was set up it works very good. The dust tube in all pictures is facing the rear of the joiner but when installed it's facing the front with the mounting screw under if trying to go to rear. I would recommend it.

This is a good jointer because 1. price 2. Power 3. cast iron table top and fence 4.over all design. its not a great jointer because 1. Manual- assembly instructions very poor 2. fence support bracket is aluminum and should be steel 3. Fence holding parts- they work but.... so for the money $370.00 delivered in 1 day by Home Depot and OnTrac its a good usable jointer, also packaging was outstanding double boxed and in perfect condition.

I don't think you can beat this for the $

Very good quality and performance.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Long term I hope this jointer to performs fair. Assembly required is small but very frustrating because lack of details on the instructions, I couldn't assy following the manual. Zero Delta technical assistance and nothing available on Youtube adressing problems and doubts so you are on your own and if this is your first Jointer it may be a nightmare because you dont understand nothing. Finally I learned a little after seeing a lot of videos on youtube from other jointer models that would be common considerations to all jointers soI could understand the problems and what I need to do and I was able to more or less calibrate it. Bad thing is that the this model was reduced 100 dlls like 3 weeks after my purchase (450 to 350) and im still adjusting it. Don't use your expensive wood when testing and adjusting. At the end the finish was grate, very smooth until I nick a blade during the test jointing a walnut board. I think I set the cutting depth too big considerign I was cutting pine and then moved to walnut, There is a sticker used as depth gauge but don't help at all so you need to cut a little and measure (test and error). The infeed table moves down not level so if you want to increase your cut depth there is a knob to turn to lower the infeed board and when doing this the side close to the fence falls lower than the oposite side (like 1/8" easy) exposing the blade higher one side to the other (VERY BAD!). You can see how the infeed bed falls not level. I'm not sure is this is a normal problem due to its mechanism or is a defect on my jointer but the manual doest mention something like that even on the troobuleshooting section. After a few cuts I was making flat surfaces but removing more material on one side and I couldnt see why this was hapening until I notice after close observation. I solved this by always moving the infeed bed from the deeper set point towards the zero (never from zero to larger) and by doing this the bed moves up leveled and since I plan to cut no more than 1/32" on each pass I'm planning to set it and not changing the depth any more. Also I realized the blades were higher and not parallel to the outfeed table so I figure how to loose, adjust the height and tight again (looking at youtube videos). First blade was easy to adust it but on the second one I could not loose two screws and I damaged them so I'm stuck now here. I havent consider to return it because I'm in Mexico and the border has been closed for non residents for months due to the pandemic.I think I'm almost there with this jointer, I was forced to learn a lot with no help. the construtions is strong and I think I will be able to make it work fine. I think is a good equipment and all the problems are due to lack of information on the manual, you loose a lot of time trying to find out answers and is frustrating. Jointers are strange equipment and barely known so that complicates all too (table saw, mitter saw and even routers are straight tools and easy to learn about them) Once you learn about this delta jointer (the hard way) everything looks easy and friendly. I own several power tools and they are from different manufacturers brands but never faced somethink like this. Good luck and be pacient if you decide over a Delta and I hope my experience helps you to troubleshooting.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser