Face jointing - any tips?

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I recently purchased the Ridgid jointer, and after some minor adjustments to the knives it seems to run pretty well. I've run some pine, red oak, and some maple through it with good results.

I started to resurrect a desk project I had put on hold because of planer sled frustration (thus the jointer), so I started to face joint the rock maple and got some chipout. Not big chips/tears - it's almost like the board is pockmarked. Running this lumber through my planer (with the sled, when it worked OK) gave great results.

I plan to face joint as best I can, then run it through my planer *both sides* to take care of this (I hope I don't lose too much material), but I would like to ask for any tips or suggestions on dealing with chipout on dense woods like rock maple. For a test, I ran a piece through both ways (one end first, and then the other end first) and got the same results, so grain 'direction' does not seem to be an issues.

[Neil Brooks]

Start with sharp blades.

Use a sponge and water, to wet down the maple pretty thoroughly.

Take light passes -- with the grain (to the extent you can readily identify the grain direction).

Cross fingers :)

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

brand new blades, but I do plan to hone them to touch them up since they are the ones that came with the machine. I did the light passs route, although I could prob dial it in a little more to take even less off.

Good tip on the water - never seen that tip before....

[Rob Cunningham]

Maple can sometimes chip out no matter which direction you run it. The water tip and light passes seem to help a lot along with sharp knives.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Neil hit most everything you need to know.

Wet the surface of the board (wax your tables first)
sharp blades
grain direction
1/32ish per pass
Lastly, if you have the room, skew the board a bit

Figured wood may still give you some chip out... so have a plan. Also, jointers will do a quicker job and remove less material if you are running parts that are close to the finished length - i.e. you'll remove less wood if you are face jointing a 2 foot board vs. an 8 foot board.

[glenn bradley]

Maple is one of the reasons my planer upgrade has a spiral head like my jointer. It is a bit tearout prone at times. Of the many good suggestions I can't emphasize grain direction enough.

My rule of thumb for reading troublesome grain is to look at the end of the board. If the growth rings are arching down (like a bowl), you want to cut in the direction toward the top of the cathedrals. If the rings are arching up like a hill, cut from the narrow part of the cathedral toward the widening part.

Boy that reads very poorly. Let me try a picture, its not that complicated . . . Left pic is arches down, cathedrals away. Right pic is arches up, cathedrals towards. Adjust this in your mind based on what direction the surface enters the cutting edge ;-)