Jointer Technique

[Gabriel Marusic]

I recently purchased a Grizzly G0855 jointer and have never owned or used one prior to this purchase. Are there any good reference videos out there for proper technique that people recommend? While a wide board laying flat going across is pretty straightforward, a shorter board on it's side is a bit unclear to me. As an example, running something like a 2x4 through makes me nervous. I'd like to learn proper technique up front for my safety and of course quality of work. Thanks in advance!

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Gabriel,
Here are several videos that may be helpful to you.
David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d1qBxcnI0E
434100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bbHwoi4kz8
434101

This one may be good too, although I cringe watching him using his jointer with no push blocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlNo5_gD94E
434102

[Sam Shankar]

For what it's worth, there's safety, which is absolutely #1, and then there is the result. Which, when I started with jointers (and even now from time to time) can drive you nuts no matter how many videos you watch. I'd get a bunch of 2x6 lumber, a good straightedge and square, and get to work.

[Jim Becker]

The biggest mistake folks make when learning to use their jointers is pressing down on the material, particularly on the infeed side. :) The whole idea behind a jointer is to take off the high spots remaining with each pass until the board is flat/straight.

Safety is all about keeping your hands and fingers away from the cutterhead in all operations and that includes using appropriate aids like push blocks when necessary to insure one's digits are not where they shouldn't be. This is especially true with smaller stock being worked. Also keep clothing away.

There is always debate about gloves when working rough stock to prevent splinters. In general, they shouldn't be used, but some folks do, particularly for face jointing wide boards, including myself. Make any choice wisely based on risk.A jointer head can chew up body parts really fast and really well...

[glenn bradley]

The jointer and planer are a team. Good video but, subscibers only: https://www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/32239/011160064.pdf

Another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfGRW9VlWkI

Jointer and planer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G1PUkiCBbU

[Erik Loza]

+1 for Jim’s comments. #1 issue I see is people white-knuckling boards on the way through. If you have a spiral head, feel for the board “sucking down” to the fence or the cast iron table and it will tell you how fast to feed. Other tips:

-Good coat of paste wax on fence face and cast iron tops.
-Invest in good push blocks. I’m a big fan of the Gripper.
-I personally wear gloves but only the fitted Mecanix or elastic fabric-type ones with the nitrile palms. It’s the oversized, floppy, welding-type gloves that will get you into trouble.

Best of luck with it.

Erik

[Bob Riefer]

After reading some old posts here recently, I bought a pair of coarse red rubber floats (typically used for plaster finishing) as my push tools. I've been very happy with how well they grip material, they offer nice control, and the price was very reasonable.

One such option: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002N5PQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The guys here also coached me to use additional supports beyond the infeed and outfeed when handling longer boards - without such helpers, you may find yourself really pushing down so hard to keep the piece from tipping off either side of the table... but as Jim mentioned, the goal is to really let the tool do the work, not brute force.

All this from a relative novice, but just trying to pass along advice the SCM folks gave me that I have found particularly helpful.

[Brian Holcombe]

I wouldn’t wear gloves in any way shape or form, wadded up fabric is not something I want catching on a machine. I saw photos of a person whose shirt caught in a lathe (He did not survive, and the result was horrifying) and I have worn either tight cuffs or rolled sleeves everyday in the shop since then.

WRT I use push blocks with medium to small stock. Never joint anything smaller than the manufacturer recommends.

[Andrew Hughes]

I like Patrick’s instructional video for jointers.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ob3V5SVrqAw&list=LL&index=14&t=420s
Pay attention to how he sets the outfeed table to knives Top dead center.
A very accurate technique that’s not talked about very much and one I invented. :)
Dont be a scaredy-cat
Good Luck

[Malcolm McLeod]

I wouldnÂ’t wear gloves in any way shape or form, wadded up fabric is not something I want catching on a machine. I saw photos of a person whose shirt caught in a lathe (He did not survive, and the result was horrifying) and I have worn either tight cuffs or rolled sleeves everyday in the shop since then.

WRT I use push blocks with medium to small stock. Never joint anything smaller than the manufacturer recommends.

I have seen graphic video of a lathe operator, catching a sleeve, and he survived. But even with survival, it too was horrifying! Not to be replicated with this child. No loose sleeves here. It is also a lesson in why the automation systems I build put ALL devices in Manual at start-up (i.e. coming out of a shutdown or power fail). No surprise 're-starts'; it means the operator ALWAYS must take some action before any moving equipment will resume movement - no matter if its a 1/4" dump valve or a 400Hp pump ...something for the electrical DIYers to keep in mind when performing re-hab on that new-old saw starter circuit?

These types of 'pull-in' accidents are fortunately rare. The number one cause of lost time accidents in my industry is hand injuries, mostly involving pinches, crushing, or tools slipping. Based on this, about 1 yr ago our Safety folks decreed impact-resistant gloves are mandatory. I am very much in Brian's camp on this - - even questioning the edict up thru management - - but have complied. We are allowed to remove them for 'dexterous' task requirements, so off they come for me to look at an instrument's wiring. And I leave the 400Hp pump couplings to the mechanics! ...Lost time accident rates are down.

But in spite of the reduced accidents, in my shop, I too use push blocks. Period.

I have openly joked that I can skin a knuckle just picking my nose. The sore spots are reminders to sharpen tools, secure the work properly, avoid excessive repetitive motion, or just slow down. But still no gloves.

[Andrew Hughes]

I’ve had wear gloves when wood on my jointer several times. I had a cart full of Rough sawn vertical grain Douglas fir kiln dried. After handling the wood for a couple days I infected splinters in both hands. These are not ordinary splinters the fir is very hard to see because of the color of the wood is very close to skin color.
Western red cedar splinters are so painful they get pulled on the spot.
It’s ok to wear gloves for wood that splinters go septic
I like push blocks too but not the plastic ones.
I use shop made wood ones.

[Gabriel Marusic]

For what it's worth, there's safety, which is absolutely #1, and then there is the result. Which, when I started with jointers (and even now from time to time) can drive you nuts no matter how many videos you watch. I'd get a bunch of 2x6 lumber, a good straightedge and square, and get to work.

That's actually what I've started doing. I'm finding I am getting about .004 concave in the center of my boards though and am also trying to figure that out. It is totally driving me nuts.

[Gabriel Marusic]

I have seen graphic video of a lathe operator, catching a sleeve, and he survived. But even with survival, it too was horrifying! Not to be replicated with this child. No loose sleeves here. It is also a lesson in why the automation systems I build put ALL devices in Manual at start-up (i.e. coming out of a shutdown or power fail). No surprise 're-starts'; it means the operator ALWAYS must take some action before any moving equipment will resume movement - no matter if its a 1/4" dump valve or a 400Hp pump ...something for the electrical DIYers to keep in mind when performing re-hab on that new-old saw starter circuit?

These types of 'pull-in' accidents are fortunately rare. The number one cause of lost time accidents in my industry is hand injuries, mostly involving pinches, crushing, or tools slipping. Based on this, about 1 yr ago our Safety folks decreed impact-resistant gloves are mandatory. I am very much in Brian's camp on this - - even questioning the edict up thru management - - but have complied. We are allowed to remove them for 'dexterous' task requirements, so off they come for me to look at an instrument's wiring. And I leave the 400Hp pump couplings to the mechanics! ...Lost time accident rates are down.

But in spite of the reduced accidents, in my shop, I too use push blocks. Period.

I have openly joked that I can skin a knuckle just picking my nose. The sore spots are reminders to sharpen tools, secure the work properly, avoid excessive repetitive motion, or just slow down. But still no gloves.

Do you use push blocks for every type of pass? I see some people have made some pretty nice ones that seem jointer specific.

[Gabriel Marusic]

I like Patrick’s instructional video for jointers.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ob3V5SVrqAw&list=LL&index=14&t=420s
Pay attention to how he sets the outfeed table to knives Top dead center.
A very accurate technique that’s not talked about very much and one I invented. :)
Dont be a scaredy-cat
Good Luck

Great video thanks for the tip. Incidentally I set my outfeed table height using your method from another video I had watched. Worked far better than me fiddling with measuring how much the ruler was moving.

[Gabriel Marusic]

After reading some old posts here recently, I bought a pair of coarse red rubber floats (typically used for plaster finishing) as my push tools. I've been very happy with how well they grip material, they offer nice control, and the price was very reasonable.

One such option: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002N5PQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The guys here also coached me to use additional supports beyond the infeed and outfeed when handling longer boards - without such helpers, you may find yourself really pushing down so hard to keep the piece from tipping off either side of the table... but as Jim mentioned, the goal is to really let the tool do the work, not brute force.

All this from a relative novice, but just trying to pass along advice the SCM folks gave me that I have found particularly helpful.

Thank you, those push tools are far more reasonable that the woodworking specific stuff. I'll give something like those a go. I'm not liking the foam ones that it came with.

[Gabriel Marusic]

Hi Gabriel,
Here are several videos that may be helpful to you.
David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d1qBxcnI0E
434100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bbHwoi4kz8
434101

This one may be good too, although I cringe watching him using his jointer with no push blocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlNo5_gD94E
434102

Thank you, these are very helpful. I actually watched Matt's video and I'm glad you have it listed there. As a beginner learning a lot from Youtube it's hard to decipher what is actually good advice.

[Gabriel Marusic]

The biggest mistake folks make when learning to use their jointers is pressing down on the material, particularly on the infeed side. :) The whole idea behind a jointer is to take off the high spots remaining with each pass until the board is flat/straight.

Safety is all about keeping your hands and fingers away from the cutterhead in all operations and that includes using appropriate aids like push blocks when necessary to insure one's digits are not where they shouldn't be. This is especially true with smaller stock being worked. Also keep clothing away.

There is always debate about gloves when working rough stock to prevent splinters. In general, they shouldn't be used, but some folks do, particularly for face jointing wide boards, including myself. Make any choice wisely based on risk.A jointer head can chew up body parts really fast and really well...

I've been practicing the couple of days and one thing I notice is that I'm getting a convex midway through the board I am jointing. I'm pretty sure this is due to my technique but not sure what I'm actually doing to cause that to make a change. Any ideas?

[Erik Loza]

I've been practicing the couple of days and one thing I notice is that I'm getting a convex midway through the board I am jointing. I'm pretty sure this is due to my technique but not sure what I'm actually doing to cause that to make a change. Any ideas?

Outfeed table dropping off. Time to get out the straightedge.

Erik

[Gabriel Marusic]

Outfeed table dropping off. Time to get out the straightedge.

Erik

Dang I checked it with the straightedge, but maybe not in the right spots? So my table is like 72" and my straightedge is only 38" should I put the infeed table back to level and check majority outfeed with the straightedge?

[Alex Zeller]

My neighbor taught me with a power feeder. He set it up for doing the face and then the edge. He then walked me through what the feeder was doing and why it was positioned where it was. With a power feeder (not that you're likely to have one) you can watch what's happening from different angles. Then he taught how to safely use it. From there I spent days doing about 1000 board feet of a mixture of cherry and maple. The problem is once you get the face flat and the edge straight and perpendicular to the face you can only start over one more time by flipping it when practicing. You can plane a board down to almost nothing making adjustments along the way.

[Brian Tymchak]

That's actually what I've started doing. I'm finding I am getting about .004 concave in the center of my boards though and am also trying to figure that out. It is totally driving me nuts.

If you have proven to yourself that the outfeed table is level with the blades, then you might be putting too much pressure on the infeed side in the middle of cut, or not enough down pressure on the outfeed side. If your board is thin, say 4/4 or less, you might actually be bowing the board a little with pressure on the infeed side.

[William Hodge]

I've been practicing the couple of days and one thing I notice is that I'm getting a convex midway through the board I am jointing. I'm pretty sure this is due to my technique but not sure what I'm actually doing to cause that to make a change. Any ideas?


Use push pads, not blocks. Pads allow you to push the wood 12" past the cutter, then push the wood through by bearing down on the outfeed table. Pressing on the tail end of the board requires you to put weight on the infeed table, resulting in concave wood. Putting the concave side down, and hitting the ends first, allow one to quickly get a flat board.

I learned these techniques from a shop foreman when I was working in a mill room when I was a kid. I had the opportunity to review his instructions by face jointing cart loads of wood for weeks on end, until I was good enough to run the rip saw for a while. He told me that if I was going to feed wood by pressing down on the tail end of lumber, I would be fired. They needed wood flat in a door shop, more than they needed my smiling face.

I use Marshalltown concrete floats from Home Depot. The sponge rubber has a coarse texture that catches well on the wood.

[Andy D Jones]

Another choice for a red rubber grout float:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Red-Rubber-Float-FT8003/301651136

< $6

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Darcy Warner]

Use push pads, not blocks. Pads allow you to push the wood 12" past the cutter, then push the wood through by bearing down on the outfeed table. Pressing on the tail end of the board requires you to put weight on the infeed table, resulting in concave wood. Putting the concave side down, and hitting the ends first, allow one to quickly get a flat board.

I learned these techniques from a shop foreman when I was working in a mill room when I was a kid. I had the opportunity to review his instructions by face jointing cart loads of wood for weeks on end, until I was good enough to run the rip saw for a while. He told me that if I was going to feed wood by pressing down on the tail end of lumber, I would be fired. They needed wood flat in a door shop, more than they needed my smiling face.

I use Marshalltown concrete floats from Home Depot. The sponge rubber has a coarse texture that catches well on the wood.

I love feeding a SLR, heck I love tailing too.

[Mel Fulks]

I love feeding a SLR, heck I love tailing too.

Agree. It's doing both your self that's nutty. It's sawing and soccer practice combined .

[Gabriel Marusic]

If you have proven to yourself that the outfeed table is level with the blades, then you might be putting too much pressure on the infeed side in the middle of cut, or not enough down pressure on the outfeed side. If your board is thin, say 4/4 or less, you might actually be bowing the board a little with pressure on the infeed side.

Totally possible, the technique is still a bit awkward for me when I'm transitioning from infeed to outfeed.

[Chris Sherwood]

A professional woodworker friend told me about an interesting technique that I wouldn't even consider trying. When he is jointing pieces for a table top (or I assume any flat surface) he purposely makes the boards concave on the edges. When he prepares for glueup, he only needs one clamp in the middle of the table. Both ends are in contact and the clamp pulls all of the inner edges into contact.

[Derek Arita]

For months, I couldn't figure out why my boards were not jointing dead flat. I studied the videos and practiced and practiced, to no avail. One day, I decided to concentrate on adjusting my jointer as close to perfect as possible. I bought a good 4 foot straight edge and a good dial indicator and spent about 8 hours on, knives, tables, everything. When done, I ran a test board and guess what? The adjustment solved all of my technique problems.
Not to say that technique has nothing to do with jointing flat surfaces, but if your jointer is not properly adjusted, all the technique in the world isn't going to produce flat boards. Jointer adjusting is a real give and take operation. A tweak here, produces a tweak everywhere, so there's a lot of back and forth to it. There's also no room for "that's good enough", because it likely isn't. Look at adjusting your jointer as a new project. Take your time and enjoy the process.

[Jim Becker]

A professional woodworker friend told me about an interesting technique that I wouldn't even consider trying. When he is jointing pieces for a table top (or I assume any flat surface) he purposely makes the boards concave on the edges. When he prepares for glueup, he only needs one clamp in the middle of the table. Both ends are in contact and the clamp pulls all of the inner edges into contact.

That's a spring joint...but you still should use clamps the rest of the way to be sure things are mated correctly.

[Brian Holcombe]

I generally make spring joints and as Jim mentions, clamp along the entire joint. The purpose of a spring joint is to compress the ends of the joint to avoid having it open during seasonal humidity changes (boards lose more moisture near their ends).

I like a very tight lamination when possible, so I put a ton of clamps on a glue up.

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Jim and Brian. Heck, how often are they wrong? But once in while when gluing short panels of a soft wood
like white pine you can make a spring joint with short pieces. You raise outfeed higher than you would for longer stuff
and bang the leading edge of stock on infeed table to let stock clear the high edge start. Obviously ,I hope!, the
method is just a way of using short up short stock. And you have to take care to press down harder when starting the
cut.

[glenn bradley]

Totally possible, the technique is still a bit awkward for me when I'm transitioning from infeed to outfeed.

Sometimes a good mental picture of what is going on can help me adjust my posture, arm or hand position and stance. Starting to joint a really irregular piece of wood will require a few passes just to get to a reliable state that the material meets the infeed table without rocking. There are various ways to deal with this. I have a plastic tube-like container attached to the jointer. I drop thin strips from the tablesaw and bandsaw into for this for use as shims.

434263

In the videos you will see people shim a high spot on the board to allow a reliable feed. I started out taping the pieces on but, have developed my skills to where I can pretty much just put a piece or two under the offending end of the board and feed it through. The shims are pretty well destroyed and sucked into the DC during the pass. Whenever I end up with some thin strips after ripping material to width I add them in; I have yet to run out.

Once you have a reliable infeed table to material contact remember that a light touch on the infeed is all that is required. You need to control the material but, you do not need to hold it down like crazy. The area of the material that is past the cutter head is different. This are you want to keep under strict control as the material feeds past. This post-cutter head, freshly milled surface is your reliable reference surface. You want it in solid contact with the outfeed table. My mental picture is that I am pulling milled material out of the jointer more than I am feeding rough material into it.

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