Jointer question, (new member)

[Ken Potts]

I just ordered a jointer, it's a six inch Delta. A small one. I've been wood working for many years and have made many projects. I have never owned a jointer, any tips, sugestions or what to expect would be appriciated. I guess my reason for wanting one is nice flat edges for gluing boards together. I'm sure there is much more. Thanks.

Ken.

[Mike Cutler]

Ken

First, Welcome to Sawmill Creek.

Delta makes a fine machine, I'm certain everything will work just fine with that jointer.

Square the fence, set the cutting height to about 1/32" inch on the infeed side, set the outfeed a few thou' below the top of the knife edge, and you should be good to go.

Have a can of lacquer thinner on hand to clean the shipping goo off.

Are you putting it on a mobile base?

[Ken Potts]

Ken

First, Welcome to Sawmill Creek.

Delta makes a fine machine, I'm certain everything will work just fine with that jointer.

Square the fence, set the cutting height to about 1/32" inch on the infeed side, set the outfeed a few thou' below the top of the knife edge, and you should be good to go.

Have a can of lacquer thinner on hand to clean the shipping goo off.

Are you putting it on a mobile base?
Mike, thanks for the welcome and the info. I will make the jointer portable, I don't have a lot of room in my garage, I have a four by eight work bench in the middle and my tools are spaced abound. You mentioned infeed and outfeed, can you tell me a little about that? I have no clue since I've never owened a jointer. Thanks again.

Ken.

[Richard Daly]

Pleesse...never put anything in the joiner smaller than 12" and Always use a hold down...that is why they call me STUBBY...lost my middle finger tip to the first knuckle and the ring finger 1/2 way down to the first knuckle..

Pleeesse read the instructions First not last...:(

Keep you fingers out of joiners...STUBBY

[Ken Potts]

Excellent point Richard, thank you.

Ken.

[Sam Yerardi]

Ken,

Even if you've been using one for years and you told me you were going to use one tonight I would still tell you to be careful. Some power tools like a bandsaw are forgiving to a degree when you make a mistake. Jointers aren't. I have a 6" as well and I use it once in a great while because I do most of my work by hand. A couple of things to focus on, avoid pushing the wood though with your hands. Use push grips or blaocks made for this purpose. You will see a lot of pictures in magazines where hands are shown extremely close to the blades but usually they are done like that for clarity. Once in a while you'll here someone say something like 'I've done this for many, many years and I am extremely careful' which is always a warning flag to me that really says 'I've been lucky'. Never take your mind off of what you're doing when you're using this tool. I'm not trying to scare you but hopefully instill healthy respect for it. I read something one time that really made me sit up and take notice. It was an article written by a surgeon whose specialty was dealing with industrial accidents. He said when someone loses a finger to a table saw or bandsaw, there is a chance it can be sewn back on because more often than not, it is a clean cut. With a jointer, well... you get the picture. It is an extremely useful tool. Don't use it if you are tired or if your hands are cold. Don't leave anything to chance.

[Peter Quinn]

Been using a jointer since I was 14...I'm older now but it still keeps my complete attention. Had an uncle nick named "Stubby", and he had a jointer nick named "Chewy"...get the idea! I've seen a jointer kick back now and then, doesn't happen much but when it does it happens REAL quick.

Don't ever pass your hands directly over the knives...never...never...NEVER! Be careful to keep your hands a safe distance from the knives on the out feed side too, because if it kicks back you don't want it to take your fingers into the knives. Pay special attention to the trailing end of the board...don't push it through with your fingertips there either. Read one of the many great discriptions on technique in Tauton's or on the web and pratice with some stock you can afford to lose.

Keep your knives sharp. Dull knives require you to feed the wood harder which gives you less control, plus dull knives make poor cuts. I keep a sharp set in the machine and at least on backup ready to go. Keep your tables well lubricated with Boeshield or wax, which also keeps things moving smooth and controlled.

Take light passes. Most jointers let you drop the infeed table 1/4" to 1/2"...thats for rabbiting capacity not flattening. Your outfeed table (the one further from you when the machine is to your right) is set (by YOU) even with or a few thousands of an inch below the knives. Your infeed table (the one which is not the outfeed) is adjustable, the lower you put it the more you take off per pass. 1/32" (ie:not very much) is about the most you want to take on the face of a board per pass. If you think its going too slow and want to drop the infeed table to speed things up...don't!

Good jointer technique is not complicated but difficult for me to explain in words. It takes pratice, careful observation, smooth controlled purposeful motions, and a little 'English'. Easiest time to get hurt is at the begining or as soon as you feel comfortable and stop paying attention. Good luck.

[Ken Potts]

Sam,
I totally get what you're saying. I have a deep respect for all my power tools. I had two stiches from a table saw about fifteen years ago. That taught me a lesson. But like you say, a jointer is a little different. Thanks for the advice.
Ken.

[Scott Haddix]

You'll see this in the instruction manual, which by now I'm sure you'll read two or three times before operating the machine, but...pay attention to the direction of the wood grain when you feed it through the machine. It affects not only the safety of the cut, but also the quality of the cut. Your manual will show you the correct grain pattern more clearly, but is should basically be flat or angling down from left to right (i.e. "\" as opposed to "/").

I've only had my jointer for a few months and reading this post has helped remind me of some important safety lessons. So thanks for the prompt!

[Mike Cutler]

Mike, thanks for the welcome and the info. I will make the jointer portable, I don't have a lot of room in my garage, I have a four by eight work bench in the middle and my tools are spaced abound. You mentioned infeed and outfeed, can you tell me a little about that? I have no clue since I've never owened a jointer. Thanks again.

Ken.

Infeed table is exactly that, the table that the material is supported by as it is fed into the cutterhead.
My personal preference is to remove small amounts of material, and do multiple passes. So, I have the infeed table set approximately 1/32-1/64 of an inch below the highest point of the knives on the cutter head.

The outfeed table is of course the table that the material is fed onto when it exits the cutterhead.
My outfeed table is set just a few thousandths below the highest point of the cutterhead knives.
The easiest way to approximate this is to set a piece of wood about 1 foot long on edge( This piece of wood needs to be very flat, a ruler works fine too). Mark a line about two inches from one end. Align the mark with the edge of the infeed table closest to the cutterhead (The knives will have to be rotated out of the way for this.) Rotate the cutterhead clockwise by hand. The knives will "catch" the material and push it towards the infeed table.
Adjust the height of the outfeed table until the knives catch the material, as they rotate through, and move it approximately 1/8" inch each time a knife "catches" the material.

That's really about it for setting the bed heights.
Prior to setting the bed heights you may want to establish that both beds are "Co-planer with each outer. This requires that a long straight edge be positioned on along both tables, and seeing that they are "flat" across the entire length. However, in my opinion, it's of more importance that the outfeed table be dead flat,and no part of the infeed table is above the outfeed table when the bed heights are set.
Once the material is on the outfeed table, the infeed table is of significantly less importance.

[Ron Coleman]

I second the safety precautions, especially the 12" rule and never putting your hands over the cutters. I learned to use a jointer in the 9th grade, the machine was locked and you had to show the instructor your work piece and recite what the sign hanging over the jointer said before you got the keys. The sign said "NO WORK SHORTER THAN 1 FOOT" and "NEVER PLACE YOUR HANDS OVER THE KNIVES". And you had to make sure you said "SIR" at the end of your recitation or you got this very ominous glare. The funny part of the whole exercise was that there was no sign over the jointer but we all knew what it was supposed to say. I can still see that little sign 47 years later. :) Thank you Mr Tanner, SIR!

Some jointers come with rubber padded push blocks that are supposed to grip the board with friction allowing you to push it through. They work for a while and then get coated with dust and about the time you get a board half way through they start slipping. There you are, you can't push the board through and you can't back it up cause the guard won't let you. The solution is a push block with a hook that hangs over the tail end of the board.

Be sure to pay attention to grain direction as you pass the work over the cutter. All the rules about tearout with a hand plane still apply to the jointer.

[Don Bullock]

Congratulations on the new jointer. It sounds like you'll put it to good use. Others have already given you some great pointers on safety. It is definitely a dangerous machine that should be respected. That said, I just started using one this year and am amazed at how well a jointer does its job. You are going to wonder how you did woodworking without one. Unfortunately you'll quickly see the need for a planer after using the jointer.;):D

[George Carion]

I have a small Delta jointer as well. It's a JT360. I've been using it for a couple of years and I've never been happy with it's performance... until just this weekend. I really recommend getting a machinists straight edge to set up the tables and knives. I was using something I thought was straight and flat to true up the machine. And still, getting a board flat was 1/2 skill and 1/2 luck.

After purchasing a Starrett 36" straight edge I'm very pleased. If the tables aren't level, even if it's only off by .02 or so, a jointer can be a frustrating tool. Another thing.... if you're forced to move/lift it by the by the tables you'll probably need to adjust it again.

Have fun!

[Michael Wildt]

Hi,

I'm a beginner to woodworking and this thread has been very informative. Though I have to ask the following 'dumb' question:

Since the board has to be min 12" long for the 'safe' operation of the jointer is there a way to work with smaller pieces safely ? like a jig. Or do folks always purchase longer pieces and then machine them such that any potential left over can be used without additional planing/jointing.

Michael

[Sam Yerardi]

I do most everything by hand any more but if were using a jointer on a regular basis and was going to joint a board that was that small I would do it by hand. You could, as you indicated, joint a longer board and then cut it to length. That would be the easiest and safest route.

[glenn bradley]

Mike, thanks for the welcome and the info. I will make the jointer portable, I don't have a lot of room in my garage, I have a four by eight work bench in the middle and my tools are spaced abound. You mentioned infeed and outfeed, can you tell me a little about that? I have no clue since I've never owened a jointer. Thanks again.

Ken.

In a perfect world your infeed (where you set the board to feed it into the cutter head) and outfeed (after the cutter head) tables will be perfectly flat and coplanar (meaning they are flat and even in relation to each other). The infeed table is raised or lowered to determine how much material comes off per pass. As Mike states, lots of folks set this at 1/32" and rarely, if ever, change it.

The outfeed should be even (or as Mike prefers) a smidgen below the height of your knives as they pass top-dead-center (the highest point from the floor during their revolution). For the edge jointing you describe, your fence should be at 90* to the infeed and outfeed tables.

Your jointer will undoubtedly come with push pads but if not, get some. If you do not use any other push blocks around the shop, like a pair of GRR-Rippers http://www.microjig.com/photogallery/GRUses/CustomJigEdgeProfile1.gif (http://www.microjig.com/images/GRR-RipperImage/CustomJigEdgeProfile1.gif)or the like, small concrete floats http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/084389/084389032951sm.jpg (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=41606-51834-8043&lpage=none)work well and are cheap. Oh yeah, never use your fingers to push the board from the back edge (see 'Stubby post' in this thread).

Wax the tables and fence regularly. There are as many different techniques for feeding stock as there are woodworkers. I Keep pressure (a controlling pressure, not a death grip) on the 'infeed to fence' junction till 8 inches or so of material is past the cutter head. I then focus my control on the outfeed table and the now flattened portion of the board. This trails the remaining rough portion across the cutter head and through the cut. The variations and granularity of detail on technique will probably show up here and help you find your preferred method.

[Alex Carrera]

I just want to reiterate what everyone else has said about safety. I used to use my hands, until I took the very tip off of my little finger. I got really lucky, and I still can't remember exactly how I contacted the blades. I always use some sort of push stick or pad now, unless edge jointing a wide board.

[Ben Cadotte]

Clean the infeed, outfeed, fence, and blades with thinner before you plug it in. Put a good coat of plane jane paste wax on the tables and fence. The cleaning off of the anti-corrosion preservitave will leave the tables and fence prone to corrosion. But you need to clean the stuff off as its sticky. Plane paste wax works good as it has no additonal ingredients that will transfer to wood.

Basically you set the outfeed table to just below the cutting blades at the top of their arc (highest point). Once you set the outfeed table there is no real need to adjust it anymore for normal jointing and planing use (just check it periodically). The infeed table is what would be moved the most. This is what you set for depth of cut. Like others I keep mine around 1/32" or lighter. I rarely move my infeed table. Some will take large cuts to rough size a board that may need alot of work to save time. But for me I am not doing it professional so saving a couple minutes really doesn't matter. So I leave mine alone and just make extra passes.

As for safety, a forward push block with rough grit sandpaper glued to the bottom works really well. I also recommend a rear block with an edge that sticks down 3/8" or so to hook the wood. You will push down on the front of the board as it passes the cutter and keep it flat to the outfeed table, the rear block is just used to keep the stock moving. So the hook works really well to move the stock forward.

[Mike Cutler]

Hi,

I'm a beginner to woodworking and this thread has been very informative. Though I have to ask the following 'dumb' question:

Since the board has to be min 12" long for the 'safe' operation of the jointer is there a way to work with smaller pieces safely ? like a jig. Or do folks always purchase longer pieces and then machine them such that any potential left over can be used without additional planing/jointing.

Michael

Michael

I've been doing woodworking on and off since the 7th grade, (1970). The jointer has always been the machine I've had the most respect for.
Everyone will advise/admonish to keep your hands away from the cutterhead, but it is easier said than done. By nature of the operation your hands are close to the cutting head, it really comes down to risk.
Can a 12" long piece be machined on a jointer? Yes it can, but if there are any defects in that wood that cause it to split or fracure, your hands are in closer proximity to the cutterhead than maybe you would want them. Even a "catch" on a long board can be un-nerving. (I caught a 8D finish nail once in the edge of a board. It took a few minutes before I was just mad that my blades now had a nick in them.)

Sam has a good answer. Use a handplane. In the time it take to fabricate a jig to joint a 12" long piece, you'd be done jointing one side with a jack plane, and already have it dimensioned on the tablesaw.

There are no "dumb questions".

[Ken Potts]

Just to show you all how ignorant I was about the jointer. I thought the blades were the ones that moved up and down. I thought the table was stationary. You've taught me a lot about this tool and it operation. I appriciate all your input. Thank you so much.

Ken.

[Richard Daly]

Michael Wildt.....When I lost my finger tips ...I was just shaving a SMALL block of wood...2 days after the MISTAKE...i found out what happened ...I must have pushed down on the back of the block ..Out went the block ...Down went my hand ..Gone went the Tips....DON'T gamble ....


keep your fingers out of Joiners...Stubby:(

[Mark Singer]

Safety is an issue as mentioned. I would hand plane anything smaller than 18"

Learning to really use a jointer properly means you are reading the grain and not planing "uphill" or against it. Make yourself a sketch that shows the correct direction and mount it on your jointer.

Sound is really important. If it is planning correctly you will recognize the sound. You can hear tearout as it happens, once you know what to listen for. There are different levels of skill with machinery and the jointer is one that you can continue to learn on just like a bandsaw and cabinet saw. A lot of people use them , but there is a lot to learn after you think you got it!

[Wayne Cannon]

Safety first, then ...

(1) Only light downward pressure on the infeed table, otherwise, you flatten the board with the pressure and it will spring right back afterwards. The blades will tend to hold the wood down on the infeed table, anyway. Basically, you want just enough pressure on the infeed side of the cutter head to keep the work down on the outfeed table until there is enough there to safely apply downward pressure on the outfeed side.

(2) Forward (feed) force from the infeed end with a heel on a feed board (without a heel on your feed board, you have to apply too much downward pressure -- see (1) ). I like a 2"x6"x3' on edge with a heel glued at the back of the bottom edge and a comfortable curve along the back of the top edge for safely applying the forward feed force (like the top surface of a Jaguar XKE).

(3) Keep the newly jointed surface (it may be just an edge or a corner initially) firmly on the outfeed table once it is a safe distance across the cutter head.