Cutech 401120HI 12-Inch Spiral Cutterhead Benchtop Jointer with Cast Iron Tables, 24 TC Inserts, Extra Long 24' Aluminum Fence, Additional 7⅜' Fence Brackets, and a 12-amp Motor

I thought buy 12 inch planner but it was 10 inch but I like wok great.

This thing is a beast, it’s the primary tool in my shop. I love this jointer. My only complaint is that the dust collection on it… doesn’t work well. Gets piles of chips underneath it. Otherwise, this is amazing machine. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a jointer. Awesome, awesome machine

I needed to upgrade from a 6" Grizzly 2 straight knife, cast iron floor model jointer for my home shop. It's a solid machine with a 5' bed, but the 6" width limit, having to remove and sharpen the knives regularly, and with even sharp straight knives often causing tear out on figured wood, I've needed to upgrade for a while. I'm a cabinet maker / finish carpenter by trade, and teach classes in basic woodworking/boxmaking/CNC at a local Rockler now and Woodcraft before that. I have access to 8" Powermatic helical head jointers (Model 60HH) at those shops. That's the standard I compare this Cutech against. Was about to pull the trigger on an 8" helical jointer (Powermatic or Laguna), then used a couple of "helical-style" benchtop jointers and was pretty pleased with the results. "Helical-style" meaning carbide insert knives, but oriented straight rather than skewed, and with fewer carbide knives, like this Cutech. Also had a couple of upcoming jobs that require a good bit of wide (8"-plus) lumber I can't edge join, so I tried this Cutech jointer. Got the 12". More than I'll need 90% of the time, but for an additional $100 over the 10", thought why not.I've been very impressed with the results I'm getting from this jointer, even on highly figured wood. I include a few pix of some highly figured walnut crotch and curly maple lumber I have in my shop now that I ran thru this jointer, and book-matched poplar panels 11 1/2" wide I'm working on now for built-in cabinets. Very clean cuts, comparable to the true helical head jointers I use. Note that this helical-style jointer is not quite as clean. The pix can't show it, but there are small lines between the separate, straight carbide knives of this Cutech machine. Yet the lines are so light that I can't get a photo of them, and a quick hit of 220 grit paper removes the lines right away. That's a really small trade-off for the price and width of this machine.All pix of machined wood are with the machine right out of the box. I didn't need to adjust the bed or carbide insert head at all. I have some good machine calibration equipment (Starrett, Mitutoyo) from my father, a machinist at a GE aircraft engine shop. The outfeed bed was level to the carbide insert head, and the infeed table was coplanar to the outfeed table, within a .0002 tolerance right out of the box. Jeez.The bigger trade-offs are length of material any benchtop machine can handle and the machine height. Pix show the Cutech without extending the support arms, where you can handle lengths up to about 30" comfortably. I made some inserts out of cut-off melamine panels to fit tightly in between the supports when extended to add extra suport. Shown in pix. Routed 5/8" radius groves in the bottom to bring the panels flush with the cast iron tables. Just drop them into the extension arms when I'm working with material up to 5', pull them out to store. Any longer than 5' and I need to add separate support stands on both sides of this benchtop machine for stability.Needed to bring the bed level up to about 33"-34" for comfortable working height, so I put some ply sides in and added doors to a Rockler 16" Rock-Steady shop stand, put on 5" locking swivel casters, added three inches of table-top material, and working height is now just above 33". Very comfortable height, easy to move machine 360 degrees with swivel casters, and more shop storage.About $150 for all those items at retail price. With the cast iron fence accessory, the shop stand, and the 12" machine, I'm in at about $1025. Plus about 3-4 hours for the stand. That's compared to the $3500 retail I was getting ready to lay down for the floor model 8" helical head jointers I was considering.Probably gonna keep the 6" Grizzly jointer for handling 6' and longer material, which I don't joint much in the cabinet work I do, so it may go. But the Cutech on its small stand takes up so little floor room I can handle both in my fairly small shop.I was at first a bit skeptical of Cutech's "only 2 edges" carbide inserts. Other carbide insert machines and tools I've used for the last 10-plus years always have four sides. That's twice the edge changes of Cutech's 2-edged carbide inserts. Cutech's engineering approach, explained in the manual (BTW a very good manual), is to form two straight sides that seat firmly in the rotating head. And the inserts do seat firmly. They are locked in tight. After a couple of months' near-daily use, I'm becoming a convert to Cutech's engineering solution. Even at the full-time cabinet shops I've worked in, I don't think we switch carbide insert edges more than once a year. In a home shop, working to support my side-hustle cabinet jobs, I'll probably get 2-3 years per edge.Can highly recommend this Cutech jointer.Note: also added the cast iron fence for added stability, and its extra mass helps. If there's a knock I have against all benchtop jointers I've used, including this Cutech, it's that the fence adjustment components, formed of (extruded?) aluminum, are not as smooth and solid, and don't lock as tight, as machined cast iron components on floor model machines. Would like to see heavier machined components there, whether cast iron or cast aluminum; would be worth some extra cost.

I bought the 12'' model when it was on sale around July 4th. The Cutech jointer is unique among its competitors in that it offers a cast iron bed, fence stabilizer and optionally, a cast iron fence sold separately, which I got as well. The combination really gives it the precision needed for the one job of a jointer, which is, not surprisingly, jointing boards with precision.One can safely say that this jointer makes the jump that were made by gaming laptop manufacturers a few years ago, when consumers had the opportunity to pay premium for mobility for the first time. Sure due to limitations of a small chassis it would always underperform compared to a desktop gaming PC, but you are opting for mobility at a reasonable price making reasonable sacrifice on performance. Before that, gaming laptops had been pure joke more or less, unless you'd be willing to shell out outrageous amount of money at one.I'm giving 4 star because of a few minor issues that I think is holding back the brand.1. Packaging.Packaging is not on par with today's standard if you look at other tool brands with comparable body/weight. The foam used is low quality and already broken in pieces on opening the box. One of the four extension bed adjustment screws was missing and they still haven't sent replacement. My cutter head guard actually snapped at the spring / neck and I had to work with customer service and wait for about a week for replacement to arrive.2. The cutter head guard assembly has a design flaw where its angle to the bed depends on the bracket that connects it to the frame. The guard obvious needs to stay parallel and above the bed, but in my case I had to wedge in a shim behind the bracket, otherwise the guard would touch the bed (and therefore the cutter, you don't want that). They need to either redesign the whole component and make sure the guard's angle doesn't depend on a much bendable piece of metal, or do some factory testing before shipping out an item.3. Dust collection.Maybe it's just me but wood chips fly right out from the cutter head before dust collection can do anything. I'm using a high pressure low CFM vac which could be the reason, but shavings are literally flying up around. I mean still a lot of shavings get collected, but my table saw and planer both do a much better job with the same setup.Overall great machine that gets the job done. If you need mobility or have limited shop space, this is definitely worth looking at.

I ordered the 12" version of this jointer and there is only 2 things which are slightly negative. The jointer does its job very well and came boxed very well and in first rate condition. The bed was level and coplaner, and did not require any adjustment. The fence required assembly but was not hard and adjusted properly to 90 degrees. The two negative aspects are not deal breakers but something to be aware of. Number 1 the 12" version of this jointer is very heavy. This is good and bad. Good from the standpoint that its very stable and functions quite nicely. Bad in that for a bench top jointer, you are not going to be wanting to take it on and off a workbench very often due to the weight. I ordered and installed it on a Dewalt roll around planer table. Worked very well. Number 2 is actually more of a design issue, but one they have a solution for. The original fence is made out of aluminium and has a frosted surface. While its is mounted well, with extra brackets on either end for reinforcement, the frosted surface is a issue. When pushing a board along the fence especially when edge jointing the frosted surface causes friction or drag. Fortunately they offer a replacement cast iron fence which solves the problem. My personal opinion is it should provably come with the jointer if you order the cast iron tables and carbide cutters. In any case once they cast iron fence is installed and waxed it is much better. Over all you are not going to find many other options for a 12" jointer that works this well for near this price point.