Stock Feeder on a Jointer

[Chris Giles]

I have heard referenced many times over the past several years that some shops like to mount a power feeder on a jointer. With all my years as a furniture builder, I cannot fathom this concept. Will someone please enlighten me as to the thinking behind this? Is the feeder mounted on the infeed, the outfeed, or stradling both tables? Where do you bolt down the thing down without interfering with the function of the machine? And lastly, isn't a jointer with a feeder called a planer?

I have heard this referred too many times, not just once or twice, and read another description of it this morning. I would genuinely like to know if I am missing something.:confused:

[John Miliunas]

I have heard referenced many times over the past several years that some shops like to mount a power feeder on a jointer. With all my years as a furniture builder, I cannot fathom this concept. Will someone please enlighten me as to the thinking behind this? Is the feeder mounted on the infeed, the outfeed, or stradling both tables? Where do you bolt down the thing down without interfering with the function of the machine? And lastly, isn't a jointer with a feeder called a planer?

I have heard this referred too many times, not just once or twice, and read another description of it this morning. I would genuinely like to know if I am missing something.:confused:

Chris, been there, done that. You can get a bit more info here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17372&highlight=feeder :) :cool:

[Steve Clardy]

I have no idea why a feeder would be wanted on a jointer either.
Doesn't really make much sense to me. Course I don't flatten boards on a jointer, just edge joint.
Shaper. Yes. Table saw. Yes

[John Miliunas]

I have no idea why a feeder would be wanted on a jointer either.
Doesn't really make much sense to me. Course I don't flatten boards on a jointer, just edge joint.
Shaper. Yes. Table saw. Yes

Hey Steve, anything to reduce some of the pain in the ole hands, is a good thing!:) I never use it for edge jointing, nor if I only have a couple boards to do but, when I have a whole slew of rough-cut to prep for the planer, the thing is a God-send!:) :cool:

[Chris Giles]

John,
Thank you for the thorough reply to my query. That certainly is a cute little feeder. One thing concerns me though, If you are leveling a cupped board, do you have to take a depth of cut equal to or greater than the deflection of the concave side, or do you just swing it aside and hand feed the really unruly boards? I suppose the same question would apply to twisted stock. Doesn't the feeder just maintain the same twist in the board that it started with?

Your post about this set-up was from February of this year, so after these 8 months or so using it, do you still feel it was worth the trouble? I can certainly understand the arthritis pain, and this could be a big help in alleviating it.

[Rob Russell]

If you have a lot of stock to joint, the power feeder (PF) would make that a much easier job. The PF would mount on the outfeed side. You'd start the board and, once the PF caught the board, you'd be able to grab another board from your "infeed" pile and get it ready to go. Walk around the jointer to catch the board as it exits the PF, stack it, start the next board feeding and repeat the cycle.

The PF would ensure that consistent pressure is put on the boards on the outfeed table. Imagine that you want to mill moulding to replace your baseboards and door/window casings. That's going to take a lot of linear feet of stock. For our house I estimated that it would be almost 2K linear feet of trim. That's a lot of pushing stock across a jointer.

[John Miliunas]

John,
Thank you for the thorough reply to my query. That certainly is a cute little feeder. One thing concerns me though, If you are leveling a cupped board, do you have to take a depth of cut equal to or greater than the deflection of the concave side, or do you just swing it aside and hand feed the really unruly boards? I suppose the same question would apply to twisted stock. Doesn't the feeder just maintain the same twist in the board that it started with?

Your post about this set-up was from February of this year, so after these 8 months or so using it, do you still feel it was worth the trouble? I can certainly understand the arthritis pain, and this could be a big help in alleviating it.

Chris, surprisingly, it handles twisted boards quite nicely! The way the "teeth" on it are configured, they're not like the solid rubber wheels across the width of typical feeds. They each travel up/down independently! That way, I've even had minor "lumps & bumps" in the stock get handled quite handsomely. I always feed with the concave side down, thus taking pretty much equal amounts off the ends and working its way toward the middle. Works great!:)

Yes, after further review, I still enjoy having and using it. It does swing out of the way easily when not needed. I did goof once and left it running for overly long once and it eventually blew an internal fuse, which isn't documented anywhere. Popped the cover off the controller and found the tiny thing. Replaced and all is good. Thankful it blew instead of letting the smoke out of the motor!:D

For most folks, it's probably a "luxury". I guess it is for me, too but, it really does save a lot on the pain end and I have enough other WW tasks, which can't be worked around for painless implementation, so it's really an asset for me.:) :cool:

[Steve Clardy]

Hey Steve, anything to reduce some of the pain in the ole hands, is a good thing!:) I never use it for edge jointing, nor if I only have a couple boards to do but, when I have a whole slew of rough-cut to prep for the planer, the thing is a God-send!:) :cool:

Ok Ok. not a problem here. As I say, whatever floats yer boat:eek: , trips yer trigger:eek: :D


So. If you don't use your jointer to edge joint, what do you do when gluing up panels? etc?:confused:

Ah. Brain just kicked in. I guess you still have a stash of hand planes.:D

[John Miliunas]

Ok Ok. not a problem here. As I say, whatever floats yer boat:eek: , trips yer trigger:eek: :D


So. If you don't use your jointer to edge joint, what do you do when gluing up panels? etc?:confused:

Ah. Brain just kicked in. I guess you still have a stash of hand planes.:D

Although I do use hand planes from time to time, I still use the jointer for edge jointing but, without the power feeder. It swings out of the way quite easily. :) :cool:

[markus shaffer]

Chris,

As John has said, it is sort of a luxury to have a feeder on the jointer, but it makes a huge difference when face jointing anything really wide or long. The consistant pressure and feed rate make for the same results as one would want to get with a shaper. Granted, not everyone has the ability to joint 20" wide boards as I do. One of the first jobs I took after getting this machine was a solid mahogany bar. All of the boards I used in that job were over 16" wide and all 10 feet long. There was no way I could have fed those boards through consistantly yet that feeder pulled them through no problem. It's not even a big feeder either. Felder makes a bracket that mounts to the back of their machines for the feeder. I've attached a couple photos so you can get a better idea.

Also, as John pointed out, any stock that is severely twisted should be cut down first, but I've yet to have any problems getting consistantly flat wood from this method. The feeder swings out of the way when not in use and edge jointing is done the normal way of hand feeding the boards.

-Markus

[John Miliunas]

Granted, not everyone has the ability to joint 20" wide boards as I do.


OK. you get the award of: "Master of Understatement"! :D Sheeeeesh....I thought I was in Heaven when I went to the 8"-er!!!! :o :) :cool:

[lou sansone]

years ago many of the bigger "facers" had "church" feeders on them for the purpose of automating the facing of the stock.
lou

[Steve Jenkins]

years ago many of the bigger "facers" had "church" feeders on them for the purpose of automating the facing of the stock.
lou
I saw one of those running once. Talk about something you don't want to get too close to. Really scary looking. They sure work great though. JUst like a bunch of little fingers holding the stock.

[markus shaffer]

Lou,

Dear Lord!! That might be one of the scariest things I've ever seen.. I might need one... It would certainly keep my enemies list pretty short if everyone knew I had that thing handy..

-Markus

[J.R. Rutter]

I use my feeder for both face and edge jointing. One of the best investments I've made. Very consistent, excellent finish, no carpal tunnel syndrone. You can take multiple passes if needed, rather than going for full depth right off the bat. I wish I had room to mount it on the back side, though. This setup is obviously not OSHA approved, but I've since made a guard to clamp onto the fence that functions like a Euro guard for facing.

<img src="http://www.nas.com/~harmonic/shop/jointer%20feeding.jpg">

[Chris Giles]

Guys,

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses to my post. Clearly this is a much deeper subject than I realized. Lou, we used to have one of these machines in our rough mill years ago when I worked in a furniture factory in Grand Rapids, Mich. In the midwest, it's called a surfacer, and is standard equipment in a large scale rough mill. It is a wonderful machine, and ours was not scary at all. The hundreds of metal spring-loaded fingers would take a board with any amount of distortion and flatten it on the bottom side in one pass. Then the board would continue down the conveyer to the planer for final thicknessing. Ours was 24" wide with a helical insert head, so it was very quiet and your hand never got any where near the blade. If I had the space, I'd hunt the auction sites for an old one. Even a relatively small shop could use one of these.

Marcus, I can certainly see how having a feeder on the outfeed of your large jointer would be essential for those massive mahogany boards. I usually end up rigging my wheel conveyers in position for support in this situation, but with mixed results. I just end up doing the contortionist's lean as I feed them through ( I weigh about 275, so I can do pretty big boards).

It seems that John's feeder is a small-shop version of one of these large surfacers, which are really all about the spring-loaded teeth that push the wood along without pressing it down flat as it passes over the cutterhead. I never knew such a thing existed, and I will look into it for my DJ20 soon.

[Brian Milidrag]

I also have a Felder...but smaller. Regarding your using a stock feeder on a jointer.....I assume you put it on the outfeed table only? can you email those pictures to me <bdrag@yahoo.com>

[Dan Rude]

Infinity tools has a smaller stock feeder now. https://www.infinitytools.com/mini-power-feeder Costs less then the bigger ones.

[Rod Sheridan]

411759Hi Chris, some jointers have the ability to mount a feeder.

I use a feeder when I have lots of jointing to do. The feeder produces consistent work, and sure saves work when you have lots of pieces to joint.

My jointer doesn't have the feeder mounted on it, I simply swing the feeder around from the saw/shaper.......regards, Rod.

[Larry Edgerton]

My shaper is quite long and I have moved the jointer up to the back of the shaper, had to raise it 1' so the back of the fence bracket could ride over the shaper table, and then I just swing the feeder around to use on the jointer. The shaper weighs 3500# so I am not concerned with it moving. Works well when prepping rough stock as others have mentioned. Old hands, yata, yata, yata

[Alex Zeller]

Almost two decades ago when I was building my house I had to take down a couple cherry and sugar maple trees. Being too nice to put in the wood stove I had a guy come up with a portable mill. I think I ended up with around 4000 board feet of rough cut lumber. After sitting stickered for a year or so I finished it so I could use it for the house. I'm lucky because my neighbor is a professional woodworker with serious equipment. I used his Delta 20" jointer with a power feeder to do one face and edge. I started off doing it by hand to get things close as some of the boards needed more help than others. But after that I set up the feeder (on the outfeed side) and a friend and I spend a couple days using his jointer then planner then finally his cabinet saw (which we switched the power feeder over to) to do the last edge. It was a learning experience but I don't know if I would do it again. The really nice thing about the power feeder is when doing the edge it was able to always keep the flat face against the fence while putting a little down force on the outfeed table. For a couple boards it's probably not needed but for any amount of repetitive work you can't beat the accuracy.