Jointer Technique

[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.

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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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