Wahuda Tools Jointer - 8-inch Benchtop Wood Jointer, Spiral Cutterhead Portable Jointer, Cast Iron Tables w/Pull Out Extensions, 4-Sided Carbide Tips & 10amp Motor, Woodworking Tools (50180CC-WHD)

Well first off, I am NO PROFESSIONAL WOODWORKER. It is a hobby and my wife has a consignment booth where she sells some stuff I make.... I was EXTREMELY RELUCTANT to purchase this unit after the reviews I saw. About it being plastic fence ( NOT.... it is ALUMINUM ) and this that the other thing..... if your breaking handles, yes they are plastic, you are tightening toooooo much. Yes the tables WERE NOT ALIGNED WORTH A CRAP and I spent quite some time adjusting, readjusting and more adjusting and more fine tuning.... I now have a TOTAL KICKASS JOINTER THAT EATS WOOD FOR A SNACK ! Seriously, I had on loaner PORTER CABLE 2 blade unit, it was AWESOME an it worked fine....... LOUD AS HECK TOO !!! I absolutely had to wear my ear muffs.... this unit is baby snoring compared to the PC ! I ran OAK 6" wide through it and was NOT AS LOUD as the PC just running with NO WOOD CUTTING !!! YES, as you can see by this post this is a no holds comment... I have nothing to loose or gain, just wanted a REAL PERSON to put it in REAL TERMS about this unit ! I am SORRY AS HELL I DIDNT GET THE 8" now that I see how well this unit performs. YES, metal handles for the fence adjustment would be nicer..... just dont torque them too much. I love that the table can be adjusted and the unit is SOLID BUILT ! I absolutely love how quite it is cutting..... it is almost SCARY QUIET... make sure you aren't taking too much off the stock ! To address the WEDGE cutting fence side to front side..... make sure your OUTFEED TABLE is true to the cutter blades. ONLY adjust 1/4 turn each time as I found that the table really moves when you loosen the big screws. Once that is done, DO THE SAME ON THE INFEED TABLE !!!!! I adjusted the outfeed over an over, to find out the infeed was NOT true to the blades.... guess what, if you feed too heavy on the entrance, you will be cutting wedges !!! Test by multiple passes on a scrap 6" board at least 12-18 inches long. DO NOT ROTATE, only flip end to end keeping the SAME EDGE to the fence...... after many passes...... measure the fence side and other side of stock... if your not far off, you did good ! IT IS NOT A THICKNESS PLANER, if you want that, BUY ONE. IN CLOSING....... this machine is AWESOME ! Packaging was FABULOUS.... SETUP WAS EASY..... WORKS GREAT. So So So sorry I didn't get the 8" model for WIDER cuts now that I see how well this unit performs........ buy it, adjust it, and LOVE IT !!!! And again, this was not a paid or solicited review... this just is ME...... chow !

I have been wildly pleased with this at the $600 I paid. Excellent results with boards under 40" and up to 10" wide. This is not the jointer for you if you wish to joint a ton of 6' boards. The results diminish with the length of boards over 40"ish. You MUST set it up correctly, just like any other jointer. You will get poor results if you do not. There may or may not be extensive setup time. It took many hours to get mine right. Once I got it right, it's been going strong for over a year now without ever needing adjustment. The plastic tightening handles are a bad idea. Don't over-tighten or you will strip them over time. I replaced mine with a nut and then just use a wrench. The fence supports are a great cheap fix to a common benchtop jointer problem. I do not love the aluminum surface finish on the fence. It isn't super smooth, and it requires frequent waxing to remove friction. The work supports are NOT reference surface. Do not think you are magically getting a large jointer for a cheap price. They are not part of the bed. They support the work. A Spiral Cutter is not a helical head, and this is not a huge motor. Slow and steady wins the race. Smaller depth passes are your friend. I've done 10" Maple and 8" Teak with no issues, but you can feel the motor working hard to get there. If I had to guess I would say it is a similar sized motor to most bench top planers. At around $600-$650 this jointer is in the sweet spot. If it starts sailing way past that it becomes a different discussion. The tradeoff is the width of the bed. You will never get a full sized 10" jointer for this price, and you will never get it in 110/120v. So if you don't have 220v, and you need a wide jointer, then these bench tops are your only option.

EDIT 2: Well I gotta say, Wahuda support came through. Doug over there sent me an entire new machine which just arrived and it seems to work great! He included a postage-paid return label and the first one is going back. It was a frustrating month trying to get that first one to work but you know, stuff happens and I gotta hand it to them, they stuck with me till the problem was fixed. Recommend! EDIT 1: Wahuda support got back to me. It looks as though the issue is a dip in the tables that's causing the problem. They're sending a replacement. Will update further once that happens. Hopefully that will fix the problem. I really wanted to like this jointer. I'll get to the dealbreaker first: the infeed and outfeed tables are a nightmare to try and level. Maybe someone with greater skill than I can pull it off but I've been trying for a month and I just can't get it to work right. I finally gave up...3 days past the return window. I emailed Wahuda support and not only haven't gotten a reply, I didn't even get an acknowledgment that my email got there. (My email outbox says it did.) I've watched scads of setup vids, operational tips, etc. I am absolutely, definitively doing everything right. There's a lot to like about it, the cutter is awesome, it's pretty quiet, the fence is square but if you can't make a jointer do what it's supposed to do then none of that matters—hence the one star. Also, if you're jointing long-ish boards like I do for my guitar necks, the table's too short and the extensions don't really help much. Live and learn. This is going on Craigslist and I'm going to spend the money for a more pro machine.

So I am an avid woodworker and I had done a ton of research before I purchased a jointer and like everybody else I watched a lot of YouTube videos. I’ve read all the reviews on Amazon but frankly some people are just not mechanically inclined. Lol but that’s just my opinion. so when my jointer arrived, the box was damaged, and there was a broken plastic handle, some minor chipping on the intake table that I didn’t know you could easily fix being new to jointers. I did see and read all the complaints about how difficult it is to adjust the tables to get them coplaned. I took a chance anyways because this seem to be a very nice jointer at this price for the 8 inch unit. Customer service I found to be outstanding, he is after all running a business, but he did always call back and did eventually always respond to any inquiries through Amazon messaging. he sent out replacement parts right away, gave me tips for adjusting the in feed and out feed tables as they were not Coplaned on arrival. As a novice and never seen or used a jointer before it was quite difficult to get the tables correct it was a lot of adjusting back-and-forth because of the construction when you adjust one screw it kind of throws off the others so it does take some time, especially if you don’t have any knowledge about how to go about doing this. (Think of standing on a plywood board balancing on a ball for movement) So know that from the start going in and then it won’t be as bad as people make it out to be. I did eventually figure it out doing small increments after messing it up a lot lol. But once you do have it, this jointer is awesome. After some further adjustment to, the Fence. It ended up being a solid as a rock, and I did not need to purchase the additional kit to stiffen the fence. Although I would’ve liked the cast iron better this will work and it is sturdy properly adjusted. When I jointed my first board, I was quite impressed with the quality from the spiral head. It is leaps and bounds better than how I was previously doing this task. I can totally recommend the 8 inch jointer as long as you know going in it is possible you could get one that you will have to adjust the tables, and if you do, unless you’re very knowledgeable, you will find it difficult but it can be done and it is well worth it once it is done it is rock solid. I don’t know about other peoples experience with customer service, but keep in mind he does have a business to run so he’s not gonna get back to you immediately but he is pretty quick.. I found him very very friendly, pleasant and helpful , and even with mailing issues on the scale, I didn’t receive the first one, he happily sent a replacement which I finally did get. My jointed boards are perfectly 90° and I am very happy with the machine. I am also very confident if I have any issues in the future that this company will stand behind it and help you troubleshoot and respond and not leave you hanging, but again, that is just my opinion your mileage May vary lol. All I can say is be patient and courteous and you will get a response. I appreciate the great customer service I received, and so far I am enjoying the jointer, hoping to fine-tune my wood projects even more. So if your patient it’s worth the risk of having to adjust tables for the results you get and for the price you pay. Thanks Wahuda!

So far I've called (no answer) and just sent an email today. So we will see how this goes. The threads on the back right adjustment screw on the infeed bed were very weak. I didn't torque down hard or let the bed get to out of wack. I'm guessing just a bad spot of metal which nobody can control. You get these problems with casting. Before it stripped it worked well. I was just getting to a spot that I wanted to dial it in better. Was shooting for a 100th of an inch tolerance. But it did make some nice edges on boards like purple heart, walnut, curly maple, paduak. Only giving 3 stars until after I find out how their customer service is. I'll update this afterwards. UPDATE: I've adjusted my stars to 5 stars. When I called it was 5 minutes until they closed so I didn't expect an answer but a gentleman called me today at 11:30 pm est and once I explained the issue he had 2 solutions for me. He said I could send it back and they would send me a new one, or he also offered a helicoil solution and sent me a link to where I could get the right ones. He was smart enough to ask if I was comfortable doing stuff like that which I am. So I'm going with the helicoil method first cause I'd like to have it this weekend for some projects. He was very kind and swift. Customer service was good, product quality is good (these things happen with cast and ups being abusive it's normal), edges are nice and crisp, cuts variety of hardwoods nicely. My only gripe is the fence. If they sold an upgraded fence I'd totally buy it. The supports they provide are good though and help tremendously. I may look into some other wahuda brand tools if this type of quality is consistent.

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. I've removed both tables to understand the arrangement of the table-tops and their adjustment set screws and hex bolts. The picture attached is a rough drawing of how the hex bolt and set screws are arranged. 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!

This was my first jointer. The instructions and assembly was pretty straight forward. Out of the box it was pretty close to being flat but not quite there. Probably took me about three times of resetting it and doing test cuts but once I learned the system was able to get the outfeed table within .002 of the top of the blades with feeler gauges, and the infeed table coplaner. After that the cuts with this are amazing and accurate it has really sped up my work flow and is worth the price. Everything is heavy and well built I would expect it to last. Looks great and functionally I’m happy with the results and can face and edge joint boards properly I mainly build furniture.

Difficult to get it set up took me about 3 hours. I purchased a 36" machining straight edge to assist. The fence is a tiny bit flimsy as it only has the one mounting point in the middle. I do not use the extender bars. There is still a tiny gap in my pieces when I butt them together but a clamp eliminates the gap. My panels are still pretty much perfect once glued and clamped. Overall a very good jointer given the price. I would definitely buy again but would not look forward to setup.