power feeder on a jointer

[al ladd]

This isn't something often seen, and it's at least worth considering for some work. Of course it doesn't permit the type of finesse work an experienced woodworker can do to flatten a bowed or twisted board while allowing maximum possible thickness, so it's probably only worth considering for reasonably straight stock.

I'd be interested in ideas of a good auxiliary guard to compensate for the required opening made necessary by the feeder width.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvN75oh5AYM

[Jimmy Harris]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a jointer with a power feeder is just a thickness planer, turned upside down.

[Aaron Inami]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a jointer with a power feeder is just a thickness planer, turned upside down.

No, I think you're right. If you're dealing with thin stock, it can press the stock down flat enough so that it flexes flat. Then, the "jointer" action is not working the way it should.

[Kevin Jenness]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a jointer with a power feeder is just a thickness planer, turned upside down.

Not at all. There is no means of determining a consistent thickness as with a planer. True, thin stock that can be pressed flat by a powerfeed is not suitable, but if you start with reasonably thick non-twisted stock without significant bow a properly set up powerfeed on a jointer is a good way to produce a flat face on lumber. The wheels must be over the outfeed table.

Al, there was a thread on the subject here not that long ago. A Euro guard can be slid to the side or above the material while a porkchop can be set with a limiter pin against the side of the table to keep it from fouling the feed wheels. You can remove the first wheel if you want the feeder housing to overhang the gap fully.

[John Lanciani]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a jointer with a power feeder is just a thickness planer, turned upside down.

Not at all. A jointer removes material from the reference surface, a planer removes material from the side opposite the reference. When set up and used correctly, a power feed on a jointer mimics a person hand feeding a board only smoother and more consistently.

[Ed Aumiller]

I have used a feeder on a jointer when I built my sons house for a lot of trim, etc.. It worked very well... The important thing to remember is keep the feed wheels ONLY on the outfeed table...
I removed the guard and clamped a temporary guard to protect myself... it was basically a 2-3" strip of wood about 2-3" above the knives... (sorry do not remember exact sizes).

After flattening a board, it was then fed thru the planer on both sides...
I also used the feeder on my table saw a lot..

[stephen thomas]

As others, i have sometimes used a typical roll feeder. Outfeed pressure only. IME works best if you are used to jointing hump down. Will average lumber, not fully flatten long, wavy pieces. Instead of multiple passes like hand feeding, it is better to figure what the most you can lose off any board is, and use that as the standard benchmark for depth setting. If you want to better flatten really bad boards, set them aside to do by hand later, or on a separate parallel jointer. Or like in any case, to cut up into shorter blanks for short parts. Actually, unless the lumber is rather flat going in, most feeders of all sorts work best on relatively short pieces, say 6' long & under. Even shorter if the boards have a lot of unflatness.

I even have a couple jointers with factory feeders; and have rebuilt and set others up.

smt_Billstrom on 16 F & E jointer.jpgsmt_oliverfacer.jpg

A friend bought the Oliver, but it is still stored here.

The Billstrom is nice for thick wide planks. Even though usually shown straddling the cutterhead, it, too, really only works well when over the outfeed only. I never found the Olivers to be exactly outstanding for flat, they do a good job of removing twist, and averaging. The factory does not recommend it, but on one i set up, better results were obtained by biasing/tilting the feedworks so that pressure increased at the outfeed end. & fingers or plungers (depends on style) have to be *sharp* or the operator keeps dialing in more pressure to get it to feed, counter to good operation/good work which occurs with minimal pressure.

Any of these, if the depth of cut is less than a major kink in the board, you are defeated if you try to let the feeder take it and do all the work. It will feed nicely flat until the kink passes the cutterhead, then rock the board down, and tail it off in a taper. So material is lost but the board still has a big kink. If you feed crown up on a board with a big kink that is more than the DOC, it will taper the ends and still not remove the kink. If there is enough thickness to get rid of the kink, the ends will likely be very thin, and when the board goes through the planer removing the hump, it will most likely bow dramatically the other way.

If the flatness defects in boards is minor, they work pretty well.

[Bill Dufour]

Does it have to be reset after each pass?
Bill D

[Tom M King]

I’m sure there is a use for one, but I’ve never had such a need or want.

[Alan Lightstone]

I had a small power feeder (Comatic 1/4 hp) that I wound up not using on my router, so I built a stand for it to use on my jointer. I started a thread here: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....t=power+feeder

Unfortunately, despite all the cost and time spend building the cart for it, the unit seems underpowered for the task. It stalls commonly. It could be that I was feeding very heavy boards through it. Also, was more than a little annoying changing the height before every run through the jointer.

So I do have one, but now it really just gets in my way as I don't use it.

[Joe Calhoon]

I use one occasionally. It works well for facing thick material. 8/4, 10/4 12/4 and such. 4/4 can be done with a little care keeping lighter pressure on the feeder. Also works well for facing glued up panels. I don’t take the time to set it up unless it’s 100 bd ft or more. And I usually set it so I can hand face difficult or twisted boards keeping the feeder to the outside of the jointer table. Always set it on the outfeed table. It is really nice for units of thick hardwood. Saves a lot of muscle work. A bridge guard works well with these. My S4S straighting moulder works on the same principle by releasing the pressure on the infeed rollers. The jointer feeder and S4S machine don’t work miracles and a little hand feeding of difficult material is still needed.
I always have extra feeders around and use those but Comatic makes a single wheel feeder that looks a little like the carpet feed on a facer or Stratoplaner that would be quicker to set than a conventional power feed. I use my jointer for a lot of other operations so making the feeder disappear quickly is important.
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[Jonathan Jung]

I use one occasionally. It works well for facing thick material. 8/4, 10/4 12/4 and such. 4/4 can be done with a little care keeping lighter pressure on the feeder. Also works well for facing glued up panels. I don’t take the time to set it up unless it’s 100 bd ft or more. And I usually set it so I can hand face difficult or twisted boards keeping the feeder to the outside of the jointer table. Always set it on the outfeed table. It is really nice for units of thick hardwood. Saves a lot of muscle work. A bridge guard works well with these. My S4S straighting moulder works on the same principle by releasing the pressure on the infeed rollers. The jointer feeder and S4S machine don’t work miracles and a little hand feeding of difficult material is still needed.
I always have extra feeders around and use those but Comatic makes a single wheel feeder that looks a little like the carpet feed on a facer or Stratoplaner that would be quicker to set than a conventional power feed. I use my jointer for a lot of other operations so making the feeder disappear quickly is important.
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Joe, I always enjoy seeing your shop. What is the Oliver on the far left in the last image?

[Jonathan Jung]

I too use one occasionally, when I have a lot of material or a lot of material to remove. Like Joe says, the thicker the better the results with less setup fuss.

[Joe Calhoon]

Joe, I always enjoy seeing your shop. What is the Oliver on the far left in the last image?

Jonathan, it’s a 381 spindle sander.

[stephen thomas]

Based on where this attaches, not sure if Q is to me?

Does it have to be reset after each pass?

When i sometimes used a wheel feeder on the handfeed jointer, it was usually for short resawn boards for parquet floor stock. So there was seldom much re-adjustment or second pass.

The Oliver and the Billstrom have quite a bit of compliance to the fingers - maybe 1/2" on Oliver, maybe a bit more on Billstrom?
And you want the sharpest fingers/plungers possible with the least pressure, so it more or less drags the board. As noted in my post - IME the most effective way to use any feeder is to take the largest cut you can spare on any single board, and then run one pass, crown down.

If you have a lot of excess thickness and can afford multiple passes, yes, sometimes in a random lift of boards it might be necessary to correct the height adjustment at times. I ran a lot of flooring and moulding stock, so averaging was ok. OTOH for long 4/4 boards as for moulding, sometimes it was just easier to hand joint for better yield, though doing that all day is a workout. I would not use any of the machines shown or my other feeder to make door stiles and rails or window stock.

Again, all the options mentioned by most of us work quite well on relatively short, thick boards. They work pretty well on longer boards that are not too un-flat to begin with. They don't really work well at all on long 4/4 & thinner boards with deep bows and kinks

smt