Fourth, you get a 12 inch planer with a 12 inch throat which shares the jointer's cutter head and 3 hp motor. I'm told it'll hog off a quarter inch of oak in one pass but I've never tried this.
To use the planer you must remove the saw/jointer fence - fairly easy - swing the jointer infeed and outfeed tables out of the way then flip up the dust hood from jointer mode to planer mode.
Planer Mode (Jointer Tables Swung out of the way)
Fifth, you get a horizontal boring machine/mortiser with an XYZ table. The mortising /drill bits are held in an opposing "V" head attached to the end of the jointer/ planer cutter head. The jointer/planer/mortiser shared 3 hp motor can be reversed via the Master Selector Switch.
There are three large red panic/shut off buttons located on the side, front and back of the unit which are easily accessible while using any of the unit's five functions.
The Master Selector Switch, located on the left side of the unit, lets you select OFF, Saw On, Shaper On, Shaper On Reversed, Jointer/Planer/Mortiser On, Jointer/Planer /Mortiser Reverse. A "pause switch" applies power to the selected motor. The location of the switch / selector isn't real convenient when using the jointer, planer or mortiser and is a real PITA when you're cutting large sheet stock since you have to get under the stock to get to them.
At the rear of the unit there is a locking shut off switch to prevent unauthorized use of the unit - a nice safety feature
The X31 needs only one, owner supplied, 220V power cord. Beats the hell out of five separate power cords snaking all over the shop floor!
The sliding table, with its heavy duty cam operated hold down, is a really handy stock feature (rather than an after market add on) which makes working with sheet goods so much easier and gives you good control of the stock when using the shape . With it's flip up "length stop" cross cutting multiple parts the same length is a breeze.
Does the six grand price tag still seem "expensive" relative to buying separate stationary machines? You could go with a 5 function Hammer, Felder (Austrian), Knapp (Austrian) or Griggio (Italian?) which start at over TEN GRAND for a stripped down model and quickly go up from there. Or you could look into a similarly priced Rojek (Czech) combination machine for $6-7K.