Is there a such a thing as a left-handed jointer?

[John Mark Lane]

Am I nuts, or is it weird that all jointers are basically right to left? What if you wanted to run your boards in the opposite direction?

[Chip Lindley]

Um....not weird! It's just the way it is! We all learned to run a jointer correctly, the same way--right to left. You will too.

Caution: The Surgeon General has determined that contemplation of left-handed jointers may shortly follow the inhalation of left-handed cigarettes!

[Eric Gustafson]

The Festool power plane has a fixture to use it as a left handed jointer. Not much use for big boards, but my BIL uses it exclusively for box building.

[Van Huskey]

Never even though about that. I must say I do hate it when anything is designed to do a job one way and I think/feel it is backwards!

[Jeff Willard]

What if you wanted to run your boards in the opposite direction?

Turn the board around.

[Zach England]

I believe they exist in Britain (not joking).

[Karl Card]

Now you have to understand that I do not have much experience on a jointer but depending on what you are doing you could either stand in front or stand behind it... then it would be going from left to right vs. right to left.

I was in a shop where I just had to plane down a side to get the side leveled and the guy had a gang load of red oak in front of it...well i stood behind it and did just fine. I was orignally left handed and my dad used to beat my arse when id right left handed so now somethings i do best right handed and some left handed....
when I was younger and taking martial arts I could spar right or left handed just as easily, messed peoples heads up...mentally...that is.

[John Mark Lane]

Thanks for the replies (humorous and otherwise). I think maybe I wasn't entirely clear, though. I want to be able to stand in front of the machine, and push the wood from left to right. In other words, a mirror image of the typical jointer.

Oh, well. I will have a look at what they offer in Britain. Sometimes those Limey's have it right (even if they can't manage to drive on the correct side of the road)!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

\

Sometimes those Limey's have it right (even if they can't manage to drive on the correct side of the road)!

The Brits say the same thing about the Yanks!
:D

[Kevin Groenke]

On most jointers, the infeed and outfeed tables are mirror opposites: if you can flip the head and reverse the motor, you've got a left-to-right jointer. If the head can't be flipped you could pay Byrd or a machine shop to modify the existing head or make you a new one. If the motor can't be wired to reverse, you can probably swap it for a motor with the counter-rotation.

It may be entertaining to invite hapless "experts" to use such a jointer, but you'll want a piece of scrap plywood or steel plate strategically placed inline with the end of the NEW infeed table.

Change is good, but sometimes convention is better.

-kg

[scott vroom]

Does this thread seem silly to anyone else?

[Mitchell Andrus]

turn the board around.

that's funny
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Am I nuts, or is it weird that all jointers are basically right to left? What if you wanted to run your boards in the opposite direction?

In Australia toilets swirl in the wrong direction......worth a phone call.
.

[John Bush]

As a young'un, my dad would send me to the hardware store to get a left handed monkey wrench. Kind old Mr. Beckley would tell me he had just sold his last one and sent me around the corner to kind old Mr. Pruitt's store and he too had just sold his last one. Only took me five or six trips to figure it out. I still have the board stretchers on back order!! Maybe the lefty jointer is back ordered as well.

[Zach England]

Fast forward to 1:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMei7iWJm9E&feature=PlayList&p=FA95B328F9126229&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=3

[John Mark Lane]

Fast forward to 1:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMei7iWJm9E&feature=PlayList&p=FA95B328F9126229&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=3


That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!! Thanks. Cool machine, btw. I'd be sorely tempted it it was availabe in the US.

[Chris Parks]

Notice how easy it is to do a knife change on that machine, a subject of discussion here not long ago. Now I have to go out to the shed and make a guard arm that lifts just like that one. Damn you for posting that link Zach.:)