The Delta 6" Professional Jointer is a great combination of physical size and capacity for the home woodworking shop. Click image to enlarge

Delta Professional 6" Jointer (37-195)

Size, power and capacity for the home wood shop

Text & Photos by Tom Hintz
Posted - 4-16-2006

Update - 7-21-2006:  After a year of near daily use, this jointer continues to perform perfectly. Also, I am still using the original knife set that came with it! I have freshened them a couple times on my Tormek, the last time just recently after milling a bunch of extremely hard hickory. The knives cut super smooth and appear to have lots of life left in them today.

Few woodworking machines benefit your work as much as a properly sized jointer. Making wood straight and flat simplifies all other operations and makes a high level of accuracy much easier to attain. The Delta #37-195 jointer is a very good example of such a machine.

Initial Impressions

   The Delta #37-195 jointer has the look of a solid, heavy and well-built machine. The fit and finish of the individual parts is very good as is the surface machining on the all-important table and fence surfaces.

   The physical size and footprint of the Delta #37-195 jointer is surprisingly small considering it's capabilities. When equipped with a mobile base, the Delta #37-195 jointer can be easily moved to make use of open areas of the shop and then tucked away to regain floor space for other uses.

Note: The Delta mobile base for the Delta #37-195 was out of stock at this writing but will be added to this review soon.

Instructions and Assembly

Delta includes a selection of necessary tools and a pair of their very handy, rubber-soled push blocks. I also use the push blocks at the table saw and router table. Click image to enlarge

   The Delta #37-195 jointer arrives in two cartons, one containing the base cabinet and the other, the cutterhead, fence and related pieces. Everything was packed very well and arrived unscathed.

   The instructions were easy to follow, guiding the assembly and setup procedures with no surprises. The manual is well written and is supported by many helpful photos.

   The assembly was very easy in part because the base cabinet comes fully assembled, with the motor and wiring already installed.

   The only difficulty came when installing one of three bolts that secure the cutterhead to the base. This bolt is accessed by reaching up into the dust chute. For someone with large arms, it is a little cramped but I got the bolt installed and tightened without excessive effort or expletives.

   A word of caution: The cutterhead assembly is heavy but more awkward to handle, especially by one person. Getting help with this part of the assembly is a very good idea.

Setup

The alignment of the knives was checked with our ultra-precise Oneway MultiGage and found to be perfect. Click image to enlarge

   Before turning the Delta #37-195 jointer on the first time, I checked all of the alignments carefully. The tables were matched (coplanar) precisely and all but one of the fence angle stops were correct. The exception was the inboard 45-degree stop, which was a tiny bit off. The adjustments for all angles are readily accessible and easy to do. Correcting the inboard 45-degree stop took just a couple minutes.

   The knives were checked with our Oneway MultiGage and found to be perfect - all three of them. All knives were precisely at outfeed table height and parallel across their length. Whatever jig or fixture Delta uses to set their jointer knives at the factory needs to be shined up and a big "Do Not Touch" sign placed on it!

Base Cabinet

   The 13"-wide by 18"-long and 26"-tall, all-metal base cabinet arrives with the motor and electrical harness already installed. All that remains for the user is to attach the cutterhead, install the drive belt and bolt the On/Off switch to its bracket.

The base cabinet has a 4"-diameter dust port (Top) plus comes with the motor (Bottom) installed and wired. Click images to enlarge

   The base cabinet has a built-in dust collection chute that runs from directly below the knives to a screwed on 4"-diameter port on the side. The steep angle of the chute helps feed the considerable amount of chips this machine generates to the dust collector with a high level of efficiency.

Motor

   Rated at 1 Hp., the induction-type motor comes wired for 110-volt operation but can be changed over to 220-volt. We ran the Delta #37-195 jointer on a 15-amp circuit without tripping breakers or other problems. Electrical consumption seems rather minimal considering the more than adequate power generated.

   The motor is mounted on slotted uprights that make adjusting belt tension a simple, straight forward task.

   The motor and v-belt drive system, generate 4800 RPM at the cutterhead. That translates to 14,400 CPM (cuts per minute) from the three knives. Motor operation is smooth and surprisingly quiet, in part because it is totally enclosed in the cabinet.

Cutterhead

The cutterhead is large, heavy and well machined. It holds three knives, adjusted with jackscrews that make precision much easier to attain. Click image to enlarge

   The heart of the Delta #37-195 jointer is the 3-knife cutterhead cylinder. At 2 ½"-diameter, this solid steel cylinder secures the knives and provides a substantial amount of flywheel-type inertia that helps produce remarkably smooth, consistent cuts.

   Each knife is secured by 4 locking bolts and a thick wedge plate. This prevents movement and distortion of the blades during use.

   The all-critical knife height adjustment is accomplished with a pair of easily accessible jackscrews beneath each knife that allow very fine height changes and then hold the knife in that position while it is secured by the locking bolts and wedge.

Tables

(Top) At 46"-long over all, the tables provide a solid base for working with long stock. (Bottom) The infeed table is controlled by an easy-to-use lever-style handle rather than a wheel that is often located out of sight. Click images to enlarge

   The 22"-long infeed and 22 ½"-long outfeed tables combine to make a substantial 46"-long base that allows processing surprisingly long pieces of wood. The table surfaces are machined flat and ground to a smooth finish that helps insure consistent movement of the stock over the cutterhead.

   Both tables have full gib adjustment capabilities for correcting their fit to the keyways on which they slide, should that problem arise in the future. Both tables also have height controls that can be locked.

   The infeed table features a unique lever-style height adjustment that makes changing and controlling those changes very easy. An automatic 1/8" depth limiter makes repetitive cuts easy. The stop can be lifted to allow deeper cuts should they be needed.

   The outfeed table has a ½" rabbeting channel along its outer edge that can be used at full capacity without removing the swing-away knife guard.

Fence

The mechanics that support and control angle or placement of the fence are solid, easily adjustable and simple to use. Click image to enlarge

   At 4 7/8"-tall and 35"-long, the Delta #37-195 jointer fence is one of the larger ones available in this size jointer. These oversize dimensions make nearly all jointing operations more accurate and in some cases, safer.

   The fence tilts in and out to 45-degrees with positive stops at each plus at the 90-degree position. All stops are easily adjusted should the need arise. A pair of handles bracketing the length of the fence makes setting its angle easy and controllable from either end.

   To adjust the fence in and out on the table, the Delta #37-195 jointer features a rack and pinion style mechanism. A comfortable hand wheel on top of the mechanism gives the operator precise control over these changes.

In the Shop

   We began the evaluation of the Delta #37-195 jointer as we always do, by checking all of the alignments closely to be sure the machine would perform as the manufacturer intended. This turned out to be an easy task because only the inboard 45-degree stop for the fence required (a very small) correction. Adjusting the inboard angle stop took just a couple minutes.

Jointing a 7-foot-long board with a bow is easy, fast and very accurate. Click image to enlarge

   When using the Delta #37-195 jointer for the first time, it became evident that this is a very capable machine that is perfectly sized for the average home woodshop.

   I had a 7ft-long (7/8"-thick) piece of red oak that had a noticeable bow along its length. With the outward bow (convex) down, I ran it across the Delta #37-195 jointer several times, taking under 1/16" per-pass and quickly had a perfectly straight, very smooth edge. The Delta #37-195 jointer handled the 7-foot length with ease, suggesting it can also deal with longer boards. In my shop, 8-feet-long is about as long as wood gets or I'd have to cut a hole in a wall to move it around.

Cutting tapers up to 45-degrees is easy, safe and accurate because the fence tilts inward as well as outward. Click image to enlarge

   After trimming the board to a 6"-width at the table saw and taking a light cut on the jointer to clean up the sawn edge, I planed one of the wide faces, again taking under 1/16"-per pass, to flatten it. Two passes were all that were needed. The feed rate for planning a 6"-wide face is understandably slower than when edge jointing but the results were the same - a very straight, smooth surface.

   We also tried a wide range of angles with the fence tilted in and out. The preset 45-degree angles in both directions proved to be very accurate and repeatable. The size and mass of the fence makes cutting even steep angles true and smooth an easy task.

   For those who have not had a tilt-in jointer fence, the stability and ease with which even 45-degree angles are cut is remarkable. With the fence tilted in rather than out, the wood has much better support, which makes this task easier and safer.

At first I thought the rack & pinion fence adjuster might be fluff - Wrong! It works great and makes tiny width adjustments easy. Click image to enlarge

   The rack and pinion mechanism that moves the fence across the table to vary width also surprised me in how useful it is. A fence of this size can be a little difficult to "bump" into position, especially when small changes are needed. The hand-operated wheel and geared drive allow the operator to move the fence in large or very small increments with a high level of accuracy.

   Initially I thought this rack and pinion concept might be more woodworker bait than functional but after using it, I am sold. It works very well.

   Another important feature of the Delta #37-195 jointer is the minimum board thickness of only 1/2". Many similarly-sized jointers call for wood at least 3/4"-thick which eliminates much of the stock most woodworkers deal with.

An important feature of the Delta #37-195 Jointer is being able to process material down to 1/2"-thick. Some jointers require a minimum of 3/4"-thick which eliminates much of the stock woodworkers commonly deal with. Click image to enlarge

   Throughout the evaluation process the Delta #37-195 jointer was connected to my Delta (#50-760) 1 ½ Hp, 1200 CFM dust collector, (DC) using a 12-foot-long, 4"-diameter hose. The design of the Delta #37-195 made good use of the DC capabilities and allowed remarkably small amounts of chips and dust to escape.

   Errant dust is most evident when jointing because so much of the cutterhead is exposed. The volume of ejected dust can be minimized by moving the fence to expose only the necessary width of the cutterhead. When planning the wide face of boards, the cutterhead is mostly covered and very little dust escapes.

   While we cannot reasonably expect 14,400 knife cuts per minute to be a silent operation, the Delta #37-195 jointer comes far closer to achieving that than I anticipated. Between the enclosed cabinet and the design of the table/cutterhead assembly, the sound level produced while cutting is remarkably low.

Conclusions

   The Delta #37-195 jointer performed better than expected in all phases of operation. The simple but well-executed design, more than adequate power and accuracy of the components work together to all but guarantee exceptional results.

   Straightening surprisingly long boards is easy, as is flattening and squaring a face to the adjoining edge. Glue lines that are invisible save for differing grain directions are the norm in my shop since getting the Delta #37-195 jointer.

   The physical size of the Delta #37-195 jointer and its capabilities allow working with large pieces of wood while not hogging floor space. The solid, quality construction means it will perform accurately for many years to come.

   If you are considering adding a jointer to your shop, take a long, hard look at the Delta #37-195 jointer. With a street price of $519.00 (4-15-2005) the Delta #37-195 jointer represents an economical, long-lasting improvement to your shop capabilities and one you will make use of frequently to improve the accuracy and finish of your projects.

See more Delta Tools at www.deltawoodworking.com.

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