As far as jointers, I use a Grizzly... not sure of the model number, but a 6"wide blade. Honestly, mine needs to have a pulley changed to increase the speed. Running harder woods (osage, purpleheart, etc.) you can feel a bit of chatter running a board through. I desperately need to have the blades sharpened on mine, which would likely cut down on the chatter issue... just haven't had time to take them off and dread aligning them afterwards. I think mine ran around $400 for the jointer as well. If you have the money to spend, Grizzly builds some jointers with a spiral cutter head. These have individual replaceable knives about 1/2" square if I remember right. They can be rotated 90 degrees and you have a new knife edge. These are supposed to have a very clean cut, but start around the $1,000 range I think.
