Milling - why can't you plane the first board face?

[Scott Casko]

Hey folks,

I apologize in advance - total NOOB question here. I'm just starting into woodworking, and my question is about milling.

Everywhere I read and watch, people say to flatten one face on a joiner, and then either plane the other face flat or join an edge. My question is why can't you flatten the first face on a thickness planer?

My only thinking on that is because my mobile planer (Delta 22-540 I picked up used) has the cutting head floating over a fixed base. Is that why - because the cutting head floats, as opposed to the fixed cutting head of a joiner? I don't see that, if you were to feed the board in "frowning", with two planar points of contact, how it's any different than on the joiner.

I'm hoping for a good technical explanation here, so I can finally put my mind to ease.

Thanks all,

Scott

[Matt Day]

Because though in small lengths the board may be flat, it will likely be waves over he entire length. Think about it in an extreme way - what if your board was 1/2" at one area, 3/4" in another, and back to 1/2".

a jointer makes it flat and complainer, and a planer simply references off the opposite face.

Trust us, you need a jointer! :-)

[John TenEyck]

That's right, a planer will press the wood down so that it is flat on the bed plate. Whatever variations there are on the bottom side of the board will be reproduced on the top surface after planing. If you are able to buy really flat wood then you can plane them w/o much problem. Most of us, however, get wood that has twists, cups, and bows in it. To make those boards flat you need to use a jointer or hand plane, or you can build a sled for your planer that will support the bottom of the board so that the top surface will indeed be flat after planing. In the end, a jointer is the most efficient way of accomplishing the process.

John

[Scott Casko]

Because though in small lengths the board may be flat, it will likely be waves over he entire length. Think about it in an extreme way - what if your board was 1/2" at one area, 3/4" in another, and back to 1/2".

a jointer makes it flat and complainer, and a planer simply references off the opposite face.

Trust us, you need a jointer! :-)

Thanks, Matt - that makes much more sense than the $.02 i had before. Oh yeah, I picked up one a jointer used as well - a Craftsman 6" model. I was just wondering what to do with stuff wider than 6".

Also, thanks to advice on this site, I was able to clean the rust off of the joiner top and put a coat of wax on it. I think this was a good deal.

263505

[Scott Casko]

That's right, a planer will press the wood down so that it is flat on the bed plate. Whatever variations there are on the bottom side of the board will be reproduced on the top surface after planing. If you are able to buy really flat wood then you can plane them w/o much problem. Most of us, however, get wood that has twists, cups, and bows in it. To make those boards flat you need to use a jointer or hand plane, or you can build a sled for your planer that will support the bottom of the board so that the top surface will indeed be flat after planing. In the end, a jointer is the most efficient way of accomplishing the process.

John

Thanks John- I think that ties it up for me. So essentially whatever cross-section goes in is what comes out, just a bit thinner because the head floats. That's why you won't get anything flat out of it. Right?

Thanks again!
Scott

[David Hawxhurst]

Thanks, Matt - that makes much more sense than the $.02 i had before. Oh yeah, I picked up one a jointer used as well - a Craftsman 6" model. I was just wondering what to do with stuff wider than 6".

my first choice would be to make a jointing sled for the planer. some say you can remove the guard and joint up 6" then flip it around joint the remaining inches (up to 6" more). so in theory you could joint up to a 12" board with a 6" planer. i have never done this just heard about it. does not seem like a safe thing to me, but each to there own.

[Alan Schwabacher]

So essentially whatever cross-section goes in is what comes out, just a bit thinner because the head floats.

This is not quite right. A planer references to the bottom surface and cuts at the top, with the head at a constant height throughout the cut. The board you get has a constant thickness (and cross-section), but it may not be flat. To add detail to the example provided above, if you have a board that varies in thickness, it could be flat on one face and wavy on the other. If you put the flat face down on the planer bed, you will make the board flat and of the same thickness throughout. If you put the wavy side down on the bed, you will cut the board to become wavy on both sides, but of constant thickness.

A planer sled is a device that holds a board so it travels straight through the planer, so it cuts a flat face on top. The sled is essentially a removable reference face.

A jointer has an infeed table that leads to a cutter at the bottom of the board, and an outfeed table that serves as the reference. If the just-cut face is held to the flat reference outfeed table, and the cutter is properly aligned with that table, you will get a flat face. A warped board could wobble on the infeed table. To make a bowed or twisted board into a flat one that is maximally thick, you need to think about where you want to take off wood before you run it through.

The jointer references the same face it cuts, and can make it flat, while the planar references the opposite face and can only cut a face parallel to that.

[Prashun Patel]

This all may be true in theory, but i almost always run rough stock through the planer first, flipping on each pass. You can get darn near flat , or at least flat enough for a good panel glue up or apron. To each his own. The jointer shines when working with narrow stock or edges for me.

[Alan Schwabacher]

That is a good point: if the stock is already flat enough, you can plane it smooth and parallel. If you need it flatter, then something else is needed first: a jointer, handplane, or planer sled.

[Jim Andrew]

I started out with a cman 6" jointer, and mine didn't have enough power to plane a board flat. If yours doesn't either, don't give up on woodworking, just buy a bigger jointer. You ask what do you do about planing boards wider than 6", you get a bigger jointer.

[John TenEyck]

Unless your boards are flat to start with they won't be flat no matter how many times you flip them. "darn near flat" isn't flat enough for many uses, and I have several painful reminders of that when I tried to plane boards too wide from my jointer. A jointer shines at making stock flat; not just narrow stock, any stock. If you have not been pleased with your results on wide stock you just need a little more practice - or maybe a new jointer ! My little 10-1/4" wide Inca does an amazing job.

John

[Matt Day]

Unless your boards are flat to start with they won't be flat no matter how many times you flip them. "darn near flat" isn't flat enough for many uses, and I have several painful reminders of that when I tried to plane boards too wide from my jointer. A jointer shines at making stock flat; not just narrow stock, any stock. If you have not been pleased with your results on wide stock you just need a little more practice - or maybe a new jointer ! My little 10-1/4" wide Inca does an amazing job.

John

I agree John.

If that rough sawn board has a bit of of a twist in it, that's coming with it out of the planer. I don't plan on ever bringing a board to the planer first unless it's on a planer sled (less than ideal results) or ideally through the jointer.

There's another way to use a 6" jointer to joint wider stock. With the guard removed (proceed at your own risk yada yada) you should be able to run say an 8" board over the cutterhead and joint 6" of the board to be flat. Now with that jointed face down and a 6" wide piece of plywood in filling in the jointed section, run it through the planer to plane the full width of the board. Once that's done, flip it over and finish plane the jointed face. This may not work on your particular jointer.

[glenn bradley]

I think we have it covered here. Jointers make things flat. Planers make the planed side parallel to the already jointed (flattened) side. The planer will also make the other side paralllel to a warped or bowed side so, you of course need to flatten one face first. That is the first step in your milling process for squared stock.

263558

I got by with a version of Keith Rust's planer sled (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?58735-Planer-Sled-2-0) that I still use when I need to "joint" really wide stock.

[Prashun Patel]

Like i said, to each his own. It has worked for me. But i am a hobbyist and a hack.

[Alan Schaffter]

The point that many have missed in this thread is that "flat" has two directions- across the width of the board and along its length. Unless the board is thin and so flexible that it springs back to a cupped shape when it exits the planer, or the planer has strong pressure rollers (most do), a planer can do a fair job "flattening across" the board.

A planer will do little or no flattening along the board if the ends are on different plane than center few feet. You could plane a board that is shaped like a shallow "U" when viewed from the side and make it flat across the board, but after it exits the planer the edge will still look like a "U." If you feed such a board across a jointer with light pressure you will take a little off each end on each pass until the board is flat end-to-end. (Obviously you can't do this with a board that is really a "U" or more correctly a board that is bent end-to-end more than the thickness of the board. That is why you always want to make sure you start with a board that has sufficient extra thickness.

[Jim Matthews]

The planer first method will work, but only with proper pressure bar adjustment.

The reason jointers are effective is that the operator can literally hear the points of contact.
You can bear down on a jointer, for a slightly deeper cut.

In practice, more light passes get better results.

With a planer, your only control is the off switch or lowering the board from the cutters.
Set up properly, that "committment" is one of the advantages - the machine chugs through at the chosen setting.


If you have a planer with a robust, or over-tightened pressure bar you can have a board that has parallel faces
that curve along their length. Further, once the pressure is released, they can also cup.

I was taught to get rough lumber close with a scrub plane.
If it was seriously out in twist, or cup - finish by hand for maximum yield.

I start "cup side up" with the board wedged to prevent rocking.

John Coloccia has an interesting method for doing this with larger boards,
marking out thickness using the bench top as a depth gauge.

Personally, I think the planer/jointer combination is best for really long boards to insure uniformity.

As I rarely work in anything longer than 40 inches or wider than 9 inches, they're just parked in the corner of my shop.


I would advise anyone starting out to see if their lumberyard can provide boards s2s - that alone may save the cost and shop space of these workhorses.

[Chris Fournier]

A successful project starts at the very beginning and builds on each successful and accurately undertaken task, from planning to installation. I can't understand why a woodworker would choose to put rough lumber through a planer flip flop and hope to move on with a good outcome. Perhaps you may get lucky sometimes but why start a project with anything less than good practice? The jointer/planer process addresses the need to S4S material that is square and ready for further machining efficiently and has been accepted practice for a very long time. If you don't have a jointer, or you are using material that exceeeds your machines capacity then I can understand coming up with other schemes - scrub plane, router sled, planer sled, but all of these schemes respect the fundamental need to create one flat surface to which the other three surfaces of a piece of lumber can and must be registered to. My experience is that the jointer is always the fastest way to start truing up lumber.

[Scott Casko]

Wow. I'm both excited by the lively discussion my question generated.

So here it is:

Jointers give you flat faces and edges.
Planers make opposite faces and edges parallel.

And in order to get flat, coplanar faces and edges, you need to get a flat face first. Good to see there are many ways to skin a cat on this one - the planer sled, removing the jointer guard and rotating the board (which i will not attempt for the time being). I've even seen a technique using a router that TWW podcasted about.

I'll have to add a planer sled to my list of shop-built fixtures. The other on the list so far is a cross-cut sled.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice guys!

Scott

[Bobby O'Neal]

Like i said, to each his own. It has worked for me. But i am a hobbyist and a hack.

Whoa. Whoa, whoa. We've all seen your work. A hobbyist, maybe. A hack? Not a chance! I love your humility even more than your woodworking, which is phenomenal.

As for the planer, I think it all depends on your methods. I've never owned a jointer but have always been able to buy pretty flat stuff. By the time I cut joints and refine things with hand tools, any out of square stock has been negated.

[Jim Neeley]

Scott,

You got it! To make sure we're clear, it not only flattens one face and edge to flat, by pressing the flattened face against the fence, it makes the edge at 90* to the face as well as being flat. Then, if it's too wide you can rip it to width on your table saw, make one light jointer or hand plane pass to get rid of the saw marks and you're good to go.

Jim in Alaska

[Matt Day]

If you're going to go the planer sled route, make sure to do plenty of homework and post here if necessary. I think there have been quite a few people, myself and my father included, that have made then and been less than thrilled with the results. Surely that is not the case for all though.

I am a fan of the router sled method (ala TWW) for wide stock. It worked great for me for flattening my work bench.

[Myk Rian]

a jointer, handplane, or planer sled.
And if you use a planer sled, you don't always need a jointer.
Just sayin.

[Frank Drew]

...some say you can remove the guard and joint up 6" then flip it around joint the remaining inches (up to 6" more). so in theory you could joint up to a 12" board with a 6" planer.

Just under 12", more realistically. I had a 12" jointer and from time to time had to face plane stock wider than that and this is the method I used, with confidence and good results. You won't get a perfectly smooth surface but you do get a quite flat enough reference face to go into the planer. (There's probably a practical limit to this method, depending on how heavy and/or how long the board is, or how strong you are -- King Kong could probably face plane a 30" board on a 16" jointer! My planer had a 15-1/2" cutter head, so that was pretty much my limit unless I wanted to sub out the thickness planing to a shop with a bigger machine.)


My experience is that the jointer is always the fastest way to start truing up lumber.

Ditto, and especially if time is a consideration.

[Pat Barry]

I tend to agree with Prashun. Running boards thru the planer can be used to flatten stock and make the two face sides coplanar with a caveat being that it can't take a long bow out of a board. On the other hand, the jointer technique can have the same problem. The act of pushing the board down on the surface plate of the machine temporarily removes a bow, just like what happens in the planer, the obvious advantage to the jointer being the longer bed size. In reality, long stock is usually stiffened or braced in some fashion anyway and that removes some of the bowing concerns. In order to actually remove the bow with the jointer one needs to use very light pressure and not press down and remove the bow in that manner. If there is significant bow in the board it will not be practical to remove the bow with the jointer. If one is cleaning up rough cut lumber to make finished quality pieces, then this can be accomplished with the planer by careful planing of both sides, starting with the flattest face against the bed, taking light passes, and flipping the piece frequently. Like Prashun, I have had good practical success with this technique.

[Kent A Bathurst]

............Jointers give you flat faces and edges............

...........And in order to get flat, coplanar faces and edges, you need to get a flat face first. .........


Late to the game. Observations on edges:

I joint one face flat, then stand the board on its edge, and hold the jointed face against the jointer fence, and joint one edge. This gives a "nominally" 90* corner between the adjacent face and edge. I always mark that corner with a sharpie, so I don't lose sight of the references.

Plane 2d face flat. Then, rip 2d edge parallel to jointed edge.

Then - fail-safe technique for me:

I lay out the boards for a glue up and get the grain orientation the way I want it. Draw a chalk triangle across the faces, to keep orientation the same. Then - I take adjacent boards and fold them like a book, and joint each board's mating edges in that orientation with the board held against the fence.

The point is this - the "nominally" 90* on the jointer fence can be off a bit. I try my best to keep it calibrated. But - with this method, even if it has drifted, I always get mating edges perfectly in-sync for glue-up.

[Alan Schaffter]

Late to the game. Observations on edges:

I joint one face flat, then stand the board on its edge, and hold the jointed face against the jointer fence, and joint one edge. This gives a "nominally" 90* corner between the adjacent face and edge. I always mark that corner with a sharpie, so I don't lose sight of the references.

Plane 2d face flat. Then, rip 2d edge parallel to jointed edge.

Then - fail-safe technique for me:

I lay out the boards for a glue up and get the grain orientation the way I want it. Draw a chalk triangle across the faces, to keep orientation the same. Then - I take adjacent boards and fold them like a book, and joint each board's mating edges in that orientation with the board held against the fence.

The point is this - the "nominally" 90* on the jointer fence can be off a bit. I try my best to keep it calibrated. But - with this method, even if it has drifted, I always get mating edges perfectly in-sync for glue-up.

Yup, that is the right technique on all counts!

[Keith Hankins]

I know this is older question. But I just saw it. If you ask Rob Cosmon you would get "thats the only way to flatten a board. I used hand planes to flatten wood all the time. Well not so much anymore since I bought the 12" jointer. However nothing says you can't go rough to ready (rob's video) all with hand tools. I had a little delta 4" that was a POS. I started using hand planes and Rob's technique and could get a board square and ready in no time. I used a scruff plane to get the rough off and get it reasonable. A number 7 jointer plane (could use another just a longer heavier base and made it easy). Finished with a Low angle Jack. Did one face a quick run on an edge to get it square. With a little practice thats easy and fast. Then run it through my planer for parallel, and a final rip at the TS. TNT (taint nutt'n to-it) Take care.

[Bill White]

Don't have a jointer (not enough room for one big enough to be effective), but I sure have used a planer sled with double stick tape and wedges to "joint" wide boards.
Bill

[Mark Levitski]

I agree w/ the planer only method. How long is your infeed table, and where are the high points on the board? Life averages out all, including feeding waves and bumps into a planer.

Wanna flatten only one side? Jointer. Does everyone have a jointer width that equals their planer? Do you have a 20 inch jointer to accomodate your 20 inch planer? I don't think so. What then?

If you have a bow lengthwise, then I agree, the jointer won't help this either. If you are glueing, then you will ultimately plane or joint again anyways.

Some woodworkers seem to think that this work is like jet plane parts tight tolerance metal machining. It's wood.

[Chris Fournier]

I agree w/ the planer only method. How long is your infeed table, and where are the high points on the board? Life averages out all, including feeding waves and bumps into a planer.

Wanna flatten only one side? Jointer. Does everyone have a jointer width that equals their planer? Do you have a 20 inch jointer to accomodate your 20 inch planer? I don't think so. What then?

If you have a bow lengthwise, then I agree, the jointer won't help this either. If you are glueing, then you will ultimately plane or joint again anyways.

Some woodworkers seem to think that this work is like jet plane parts tight tolerance metal machining. It's wood.

I've got to say that the above observations fly in the face of both accepted machining theory and over 20 years of personal practice machining wood and metal. If a jointer won't take out a defect in rough lumber, you aren't using it properly. Would you say that a handplane won't take out a defect too?

First you ask whether folks have a 20" jointer to feed their 20" planer as a rhetorical question then you go on to state that glued up panels will be jointed and planed anyways? I can't see the logic in that.

This entire thread is a bit ridiculous as folks try to refute simple machining principles because they "believe" that "there's more than one way to do this". All inclusive is just fine when it comes to accomodation. I will joint and plane rough lumber to S4S impossibly faster than any of these other suggested techniques and it will be S4S. Once again I will say that you can create S4S with other work arounds and if you must you must but please don't try to refute common sense while you do so!

Long live the web and it's spotty veracity!

[Mel Fulks]

Well said,Chris.

[Mark Wooden]

Chris Fournier said-


This entire thread is a bit ridiculous as folks try to refute simple machining principles because they "believe" that "there's more than one way to do this". All inclusive is just fine when it comes to accomdodation. I will joint and plane rough lumber to S4S impossibly faster than any of these other suggested techniques and it will be S4S.


+1 with Chris.
Flatten, joint, plane. It's that simple. Good work is many times easier with good stock, and good stock is flat and square. Get a jointer.

[Frank Drew]

"Does everyone have a jointer width that equals their planer? Do you have a 20 inch jointer to accomodate your 20 inch planer? I don't think so. What then?"

Chris touched on this briefly, but there's really no accepted, nor necessary, connection between the size of your jointer and thickness planers; you have what tools you have and you make them work for you. I will say, though, that I don't think I've ever been is a shop that didn't have a thickness planer that was wider than their jointer, certainly no commercial shop (where 30" seems about minimum planer size). Which is why it's common practice in many commercial shops to face plane stock wider than their jointer by flipping end for end after every pass (assuming they don't have more sophisticated machinery to accomplish this task -- e.g. Oliver's mighty Strait-O-Plane).

[Chris Fournier]

"Does everyone have a jointer width that equals their planer? Do you have a 20 inch jointer to accomodate your 20 inch planer? I don't think so. What then?"

Chris touched on this briefly, but there's really no accepted, nor necessary, connection between the size of your jointer and thickness planers; you have what tools you have and you make them work for you. I will say, though, that I don't think I've ever been is a shop that didn't have a thickness planer that was wider than their jointer, certainly no commercial shop (where 30" seems about minimum planer size). Which is why it's common practice in many commercial shops to face plane stock wider than their jointer by flipping end for end after every pass (assuming they don't have more sophisticated machinery to accomplish this task -- e.g. Oliver's mighty Strait-O-Plane).

I've never heard nor seen practiced flip-facing wide stock in a planer in a commercial shop. I certainly have used alternative methods to flatten one face of a flitch before we put it through our planer but never flip-facing. In most instances this would leave you with a smooth potato chip, unusable. I have used a 24" jointer and 36" jointer/planer combo and I can say that anything reaching the capacity of the 24" machine required a few guys to operate and the 36" beast more of the same.

In practice your jointer does not need to have the same capacity as your planer although it would be nice when using a single flitch or wide piece of lumber. For the most part (especially in commercial shops or when making western style furniture) wide laminations are made up of smaller pieces. The jointer planer process gives you S4S components that are then very easy to glue up into the wider finished panel. It is at the glue up stage using S4S that care is taken to ensure that faces are registered and no twist, bowing etc. is introduced into the panel by poor technique. Now this wide panel can be flip-faced in a planer, taken to the stroke or belt sander etc. and you will have a flat panel.

Another technique that works well to flatten large flitches is to carefully rip them down to manageable size and then rebuild the flitch once it is machined. I've done this many times and finding the rip cut glue line is very tough if you don't know that it's there.

You simply can't manhandle really large pieces of wood against a giant jointer, we aren't strong enough. Look at the build of a planer, all of this machine is designed to overcome the forces of the cutterhead.

When I first started making guitars I had an 8" jointer and a 20" planer. My electric and acoustic guitars were 12.75" to 16" wide. I didn't need a wider jointer to build guitars. I bought larger equipment when I started building more furniture.

[Frank Drew]

I've never heard nor seen practiced flip-facing wide stock in a planer in a commercial shop. In most instances this would leave you with a smooth potato chip, unusable.

You do understand that I'm talking about face jointing, on the jointer, right? If so, then I can't imagine what you mean by ending up with a "smooth potato chip" when preparing stock this way. Through the surface planer, sure: put a curve board in and you'll get a curved board out, but face jointing on a jointer wouldn't give you those results.

You'll just have to accept that flipping end for end when flattening one face on the jointer is not an uncommon practice; I certainly didn't come up with it myself.

[johnny means]

Can we distinguish between flipping end for end, a flawed technique used for flattening on a planer, and spinning end for end, a flawed technique used for face jointing stock that is wider than your jointer? The problem when spinning a board end for end on a jointer is that there is no guarantee that your two flattened areas are parallel or coplaner.

[Chris Fournier]

Can we distinguish between flipping end for end, a flawed technique used for flattening on a planer, and spinning end for end, a flawed technique used for face jointing stock that is wider than your jointer? The problem when spinning a board end for end on a jointer is that there is no guarantee that your two flattened areas are parallel or coplaner.

I would agree with Johnny wholeheartedly.

[Frank Drew]

Can we distinguish between flipping end for end, a flawed technique used for flattening on a planer

Until this thread, I'd never heard of tying to flatten stock through the (surface) planer with this method, and can't imagine how it would work as intended, but if someone actually does it and wants to explain the technique, I'm all ears.


...and spinning end for end, a flawed technique used for face jointing stock that is wider than your jointer? The problem when spinning a board end for end on a jointer is that there is no guarantee that your two flattened areas are parallel or coplaner.

I suppose there's really no "guarantee" of anything in woodworking, but how about accepting my word that I, and many others, have a lot of experience doing this, it works just fine for most boards that need some flattening prior to thickness planing, I know the difference between flat and not flat, well-prepared stock and not, etc.

As a general rule, if you're not comfortable with a procedure, don't do it until you are; if you're actually not all that familiar with a procedure, it's probably best not to call it "flawed" until you know a bit more about it.

[Prashun Patel]

Boards are out of flat in several ways. I wouldn't use a planer to 'joint' a twisted or bowed board. But it can work sometimes on a cupped board - with light passes. It may not work all the time and on everyone's planer, but it seems to work fine for me SOMETIMES.

I also use the spin method for jointing away twist. I always thought it works because it cuts the high corners in succession and eventually gets to a point where you can joint the whole face. I happened upon this flawed technique by accident when I used to try to joint away twist by working the same direction over and over again until I got a nice tapered board. That is probably my bad technique. But spinning subsidizes me to acceptable results.

I often feed things through the planer just because it feels safer to me with a heavy piece.

I'm not saying it works for everything, but I think it's misleading to suggest because it isn't professional practice or perfect every time that it's also inappropriate all the time.

[Chris Fournier]

Boards are out of flat in several ways. I wouldn't use a planer to 'joint' a twisted or bowed board. But it can work sometimes on a cupped board - with light passes. It may not work all the time and on everyone's planer, but it seems to work fine for me SOMETIMES.

I also use the spin method for jointing away twist. I always thought it works because it cuts the high corners in succession and eventually gets to a point where you can joint the whole face. I happened upon this flawed technique by accident when I used to try to joint away twist by working the same direction over and over again until I got a nice tapered board. That is probably my bad technique. But spinning subsidizes me to acceptable results.

I often feed things through the planer just because it feels safer to me with a heavy piece.

I'm not saying it works for everything, but I think it's misleading to suggest because it isn't professional practice or perfect every time that it's also inappropriate all the time.

Prashun, two things I can tell you about good technique:

It requires no defense.
It yields proper results.

How you choose to work in your shop is certainly your business and I take no umbradge with that, I do however feel that we have a responsibilty on the web to advocate sound work practices and this is my position in this thread.

[Mel Fulks]

Some flattening methods using only an electric planer can improve a board that will be nailed as trim etc. But for something like a table leaf or top where pieces will be edge glued ,only facing before planing is going to be sure to work. We have all seen such tops glued up from twisted wood ,flat on one end and flared up in a v on the other end. Glue joints perhaps failing. It's best to learn good methods and only try short cuts where precision is not required . Failures will cost time and material.

[Ken Bryden]

Scott. Read my article , "From Trees to Boards" in this forum, and a later comment.
Ken Bryden

[Doug Garson]

There's another way to use a 6" jointer to joint wider stock. With the guard removed (proceed at your own risk yada yada) you should be able to run say an 8" board over the cutterhead and joint 6" of the board to be flat. Now with that jointed face down and a 6" wide piece of plywood in filling in the jointed section, run it through the planer to plane the full width of the board. Once that's done, flip it over and finish plane the jointed face. This may not work on your particular jointer.

Had to read it twice to understand what you meant (second pass thru planer not jointer )but makes sense. If you flip the board end for end and run it thru the jointer again you will be running it opposite to the grain which could cause tear out. If the board was 12" wide would you hot melt glue it to the plywood for the second pass thru the planer?

[Matt Day]

1.5 year old thread mind you....

Doug - I think you misread my post. You joint one side partially, plane the other side with a plywood filler, flip and plane the remaining part of the board that you didn't joint. Pick whatever grain direction you want every time.

I wouldn't do a 12" board on a 6" jointer, it's pushing it on an 8" but I've done it.

[Roger Pozzi]

I think the best answer is from another current thread here (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?236666-Never-face-joint-your-boards-!&p=2482664#post2482664).

[fRED mCnEILL]

I'm a little confused on using a plywood "filler" when jointing a board wider than your jointer.My jointer takes a VERY minimal cut of approx 1/32-1/16". Where do you find plywood that thin?

[Doug Garson]

1.5 year old thread mind you....

Doug - I think you misread my post. You joint one side partially, plane the other side with a plywood filler, flip and plane the remaining part of the board that you didn't joint. Pick whatever grain direction you want every time.

I wouldn't do a 12" board on a 6" jointer, it's pushing it on an 8" but I've done it.

I think I understood your post but perhaps I didn't explain my question clearly. As you said you joint part of one side and then plane the other side using a plywood filler under the jointed part so the unjointed part doesn't touch the planer bed. If the unjointed part is only 2" and the jointed part is 6" the rollers won't force the unsupported 2" down and tip the board and you get a flat 8" top out of the planter. If the unjointed and thus unsupported part is too wide (say 6") the rollers may force it down and tip the board and mess things up. I was wondering if hot melt gluing the board to the plywood would prevent this. My guess is no and the solution would be a planer sled.