Jointer or Planer or both?

[Tim Allaire]

Would it be worth saving the money for a combo (jointer/planer) machine or going individually for the jointer then planer (or vice versa)?

Tim

If so, any brands or recommendations for inexpensive combos or deals on either or?

Plan on fairly light (weekend warrior) work. Mainly small furniture made from home-milled wood.

[Lee Koepke]

I bought just a planer. ( DW734 )
With the right lumber ( buying stuff surfaced at least one side / one edge ) you can use your TS or router to get your edges right.

My next step ( or two ) would be a joiner, just to help with the faces being flat and less trouble to square up the edges for panel glueups.

[Frank Drew]

Tim

Using wood you've harvested and dried yourself you'll almost certainly need to flatten some or all of the boards, which is why a jointer makes sense. Then to dimension it to an even thickness while cleaning up the sawmill rough surface, you'll need a planer. (This is all assuming you don't want to prepare your stock entirely by hand; it can be done, but it takes a very, very long time compared to using machinery.)

With your projected schedule (mostly weekends), I think you could get by with a combination machine but I can't give much advice on brand. Hitachi or Makita, maybe?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Tim, I recently purchased a Hammer A3 31 combination jointer planer.

Both are 12 inches wide, which is great, as a stand alone 12 inch jointer is huge.

The combo unit saves floor space, and its performance is incredible..........Rod.

[Scot Ferraro]

I second Rod's comments -- the Hammer combo is awesome. The other manufacturers more than likely offer similar performance and folks from each brand have given great reviews on these space savers.

[Peter Quinn]

I think the choice of combo vrs stand alone is specific to your budget and shop space. Its probably cheaper to buy the combo than stand alones of a quality similar to hammer/felder/minimax. I know a very good pro cabinet maker who uses a mini max combo in his home shop due to space constraints. He says it does a good job but he would much prefer stand alone units if space permitted. I have never use a combo, have the space to park both and am not inclined to move towards combos.

In any event you will want a good jointer and planer if you want to prepare flat stock with machines. With out either you are subjected to less efficient work around methods or hand tools, which may work for you but cannot compete on speed with a jointer and a planer. I suppose not every thing made of wood has to be perfectly flat, but if your work requires flat stock a jointer and planer, be they a combo or otherwise is the quickest way to get there.

For those who claim they are finding stock flat enough to work off the rack, where are you buying and what are you making? I've yet to find a single board in a yard that was suitable for use without flattening at least a little.

[Paul Simmel]

>>> For those who claim they are finding stock flat enough to work off the rack, where are you buying and what are you making? I've yet to find a single board in a yard that was suitable for use without flattening at least a little.

QFT.

[Jim Andrew]

When I was shopping for a new jointer, found the combo units were priced very nice, only thing I could see that I didn't like is that the tables are not as long as the stand alone units. Check out the grizzly units. Jim

[Jim Becker]

I'm a fan of the J/P combos. While the space savings is obvious, my other reason to like them is the fact that you get wide jointer capacity that would otherwise be very expensive with separates and I'm a believer in wide jointers for both flattening wonderful boards as well as being able to do things like skew the stock for a clean cut in figured woods or accommodate odd shapes as you might want to with a bent lamination.

There is also a valid argument for separates if you have the space and money or are someone who's work habits would be made uncomfortable with the one to two minute conversion between functions on a combo.