Jointing and planing boards wider than your jointer

[Anthony Whitesell]

I am aware of two techniques for jointing boards wider than your jointer (and smaller than your planer).

1. Get a bigger jointer. OK not really feasible but an option none the less.

2. Joint the board like making an 8" wide rabbet, then run it through the planer rabbet side down, running on a previous flat/planed piece of wood; then flip and plane off the rabbet.

I have used option 2 many times. Sure an 8" jointer will be wide enough I said when I bought it. :rolleyes: Guess I was wrong. I have a bunch of 10-12" wide stock to joint and plane and some of it really long (6 feet+). At that length it makes the 'rider board sandwich' heavy and unwieldy.

I'd like to propose an alternate plan and see what you all think. What if I made a stationary sub-bed 8" wide and 3 to 4 feet long? Perhaps covered in laminate and the coated in Johnson's paste wax. Would the sub-bed be slippery enough to work? Would this work as a substitute for the 'rider board sandwich'? If it does, then I don't need a really long rider board and I can plane boards over 7 1/2' long.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I've done what you are proposing and it works very well. I have a melamine coated piece of 3/4" mdf with cleats on it to keep it in place on my planer bed. I feed the jointed board through the planer first with the jointed face down on the melamine. When the planed face is flat, I remove the melamine board and plane the previously jointed face.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have some laminate (hpl, formica brand), but I don't think I have any MDF left. I have some 3/4" particle board. Yes? No?

[George Bokros]

I have a melamine coated piece of 3/4" mdf with cleats on it to keep it in place on my planer bed.

Did you make the melamine coated mdf youself or did you purchase it already made, if so where?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

You can use a sled in your planer to "joint" the board.

[Al Launier]

You can use a sled in your planer to "joint" the board.

Agree! There are several threads regarding this.
Check out Glenn Bradley's sled (Post #2) at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?211229-which-planer-sled-do-i-need & another style by Max Neu's at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?235878-Here-s-a-simple-jointer-sled-for-a-planer-I-made (Post #1) & mine at (Post #18).

[Anthony Whitesell]

I guess that would make a third option. Not a very time efficient one, but admittedly an option I did not mention. Been there done that for 4 feet and shorter, prior to obtaining my jointer. At 4 feet it was a pain to get it to sit level and not rock. I can't imagine how long it would take to do multiple boards 6+ feet long; foregoing the fact of having to make up a 12 foot long sled to do the longest boards.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Agree! There are several threads regarding this.
Check out Glenn Bradley's sled (Post #2) at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?211229-which-planer-sled-do-i-need & another style by Max Neu's at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?235878-Here-s-a-simple-jointer-sled-for-a-planer-I-made (Post #1) & mine at (Post #18).

I have a MaxNeu style sled 4ft long, but it is too short and take too long to do more than the occasional board. For 4 feet long it it much faster to pull the setscrew from the jointer guard, make one pass through the jointer, and then set it on a piece of mdf and run it through the planer. The problem is as I mentioned, the length (boards too long, sled too short, take your pick).

[Keith Downing]

I know this probably isn't a popular option, but if you're exploring everything you could obviously also cut the boards down to the size of your jointer and do additional glue ups once all the boards are flat and square.

[Russell Stanton]

Look into local woodworking guilds. The local guild in Greenville SC has a full shop including a 16" wide jointer and 25" digital planer.