Jointer Question

[John Myer]

I own a Delta JT360 6 inch jointer and usually keep the depth cut set at 1/32 inch. When cutting furniture pieces I sometimes rip a board at a width that may require me to make three or four passes through the jointer to get to my final width that is needed. (That may very well be a bad habit.) Anyway, I have noticed that on those occassions that I make three or four jonter passes my the two edges are slightly out of parallel. As an example, if I wanted the board to be four inches wide final measurement, one end may measure 4 inches, but the other end may be 4-1/32. Is the jointer out of adjustment or is it simply a user problem. I never have a problem with snipe.

One other question - Are spiral cutting heads worth the expense?

[Gary Keedwell]

I own a Delta JT360 6 inch jointer and usually keep the depth cut set at 1/32 inch. When cutting furniture pieces I sometimes rip a board at a width that may require me to make three or four passes through the jointer to get to my final width that is needed. (That may very well be a bad habit.) Anyway, I have noticed that on those occassions that I make three or four jonter passes my the two edges are slightly out of parallel. As an example, if I wanted the board to be four inches wide final measurement, one end may measure 4 inches, but the other end may be 4-1/32. Is the jointer out of adjustment or is it simply a user problem. I never have a problem with snipe.

One other question - Are spiral cutting heads worth the expense?
Hi John....1/32 inch is standard with alot of woodworkers. I, myself take off a little less. If you are taking 3 or 4 passes, that means your leaving your hypothetical board at 1/8th an inch, which seems like too much to me.
Standard procedure is to joint one edge and put that edge against your table saw fence and rip it to the width you want. That will get you your parallelism. Alot of woodworkers then bring it back to jointer and take one pass to "clean it up".
I have heard alot of good things about spiral cutting heads. My next jointer will be equipped with one.
Hope I helped a little.:o
Gary K.

[charles lewis]

John I`m no expert in woodworking but I don`t see any need to joint both edges.I joint 1 edge and 1 face square to each other and rip to final width on the table saw and plane to final thickness with the planer ,hope this helps have no experience with spiral cutters but everything I have read as far as longivity says their worth it.

[glenn bradley]

Repeated runs across the jointer will multiply any small error. Where as one pass may be almost perfect, 4 passes is 4 x 'almost' perfect. I would avoid using the jointer to trim to width and leave that job to the tablesaw. IMHO.

[Mark Singer]

You can dimension lumber to fit using the jointer....what you discovered is the first step....now compensate a little by adding pressure to the "fat" side and less to the other. I can use it to fit out of square situations also....you just need to develop a keen sence of what is happening and work with it. The other way is to get closer on the tablesaw and then just make one pass...this is fine too

[J.R. Rutter]

You can also use planer to dimension narrow stock like this, up to the capacity of your planer. Just run it through on edge.