Turn your planer into a jointer!

[Tom Henry]

Since there was no Eagles game on today I planed down some of the wood I picked up from Mike Morgan. I don't own a jointer so Alan Turner showed me a neat trick I thought I would share. You make a sled out of MDF and put a small piece of wood in the front of it. Then you shim up the high parts with some shims. Run the board through your planer until you have a side that is parallel to the MDF. Then flip over and finish the job. See pics below.
:D

[Tom Henry]

More pics of the process..:rolleyes:

[Jim Becker]

Yup...that works. Not the greatest for "high volume" situations, but certainly a workable and feasable method for anyone with a planer available!

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

I made a jointer into a planer. I drilled and tapped four holes in the infeed table to hold some 8" long 5/16" allthread. I then made a wood platten with holes bored to fit down over the allthread. Nuts on the allthread allowed me to fasten the platten down on a set of spacers that could be altered to change the distance from the platten to the infeed table. I made three oak slats about 1/4' thick and 1 1/2 " wide long enough to go from the front of the infeed table to the edge of the cutting head opening. The slats were attached to a block that hooked over the end of the infeed table. I steam bent the very end of the slats so they would hold the wood being planed up against the platten. By lowering the outfeed table I was able to adjust the depth of cut the jointer made. Worked really good for the small projects I was making at the time.

[Tom Henry]

Jim

For now it works... I am short on space in the garage so this will do for now. I would love to get a 12" jointer in the future.

[Jesse Espe]

Thanks for the pics! Wish you had posted this last Friday, before I butchered a beautiful 12" 4/4 cherry board on Saturday.

For the piece of wood that goes in the front, is there a certain height requirement for it? Asked another way, is it meant to hold the board in place without being planed itself, or is it sacrificial?

Jesse

[Tom Henry]

The board is there to stop the board being planed from being pushed through without the sled.

[tom blankenship]

I have wondered about this technique. Is it necessary to glue to shims to the MDF? Will the board being planed stay in position?


thanks for the insight!

[Tom Henry]

Once the planer takes the board it doesn't move. You have to help it with infeed and outfeed rollers or just hold up the back when it is going in and go to the other side and hold up the front as it comes out.

[Jim Becker]

I have wondered about this technique. Is it necessary to glue to shims to the MDF? Will the board being planed stay in position?

It's generally a good idea to consider a small dollop of hot-glue to keep the shims in place...they are critical to making the board flat.

[Tom Henry]

You can also hit them with some brads like I did, but the hot glue would probably come off easier...

[Jim Becker]

I sometimes us a pinner for this kind of jigging, Tom. The headless pins keep things in place, but it's easy to rip things apart afterward.

[David Rose]

An old deck or two of worn playing cards work well for shims. You can slip a few in adding one until they are just snug. They stay in place well, as long as you don't overdo the "snug" part on any of them.

David