Ha, confession time, of all the years I have been woodworking, I never knew there was such a thing as a variable speed joiner! I thought they all were single speed. No matter, it is the only woodworking tool I fear, had one for a long time and found I only used it maybe once every few years. I worked around using it any way I could. Finally sold it a while back. Maybe my fear stemmed from knowing so little about them that I didn't even know they came in anything but single speed.