Jointer Education

[Michael Merrill]

Well roller stands don't help with the accuracy needed but they help a bit.

Pete it sounds like what you are suggesting is to clamp the boards together back-to-back with the glue edges up and then take a final pass, Right?

Now what are you using? #7? L-N? Record? Sorry I'm not familiar with any of these?

[Tom Jones III]

For the people who think the hand plane is too hard ... This is the plane I made. The size is between a #7 and #8. Victoria is going in to the 1st grade this year. She made a step stool from 4/4 rough poplar using only hand tools.

[Don Baer]

For the people who think the hand plane is too hard ... This is the plane I made. The size is between a #7 and #8. Victoria is going in to the 1st grade this year. She made a step stool from 4/4 rough poplar using only hand tools.

Tom,
I agree with you. Thats why when I was setting up my temp shop I'm not to concerned about getting the jointer ot of storage due to a lack of space. If I can't get acceptable glue line rips from the TS I'll just clean em up with a hand plane. On my next few projects. Who know I may never set it up..

[Jeff Morgan]

Tom,
I agree with you. Thats why when I was setting up my temp shop I'm not to concerned about getting the jointer ot of storage due to a lack of space. If I can't get acceptable glue line rips from the TS I'll just clean em up with a hand plane. On my next few projects. Who know I may never set it up..

I completely agree. I have a jointer but rarely use it. It is so easy and
rewarding to use my jointer plane.

[Matt Day]

I highly recommend using the router with a straight edge. I used this method to make an 8' long table out out of about (6) 6" wide pieces of maple, and it worked great.

[Michael Merrill]

OK, this certainly has been educational for me. I'm surprised that edge jointing to build panels isn't the standard procedure but OK. I can see the process of TS rip followed by some "finish" planing to get things just right would make sense.

I looked at LV planes and did see that there is even an edgeing guide for this type of process. Are those of you who do plane using something like this or just going freehand? Seems like with a poor hand you could have to return to the TS to fix a fouled plane mistake?

[Jeff Morgan]

I looked at LV planes and did see that there is even an edgeing guide for this type of process. Are those of you who do plane using something like this or just going freehand? Seems like with a poor hand you could have to return to the TS to fix a fouled plane mistake?

My approach really depends upon the thickness of the board to be joined.
My jointer plane has a 2" wide iron. If the boards I am joining are 7/8" or
thinner I just place the two boards on my bench with the faces to be
joined clamped together face to face. This produces the best joint
possible sicne both boards are guaranteed to have the same angle for
the joining faces. If the board is thicker then I plane them individually.
I have never used a guide and have not experienced any problems.

-Jeff

[Tom Jones III]

I have also never used a guide. What Jeff is saying about two boards at once it that even if you are off, the boards will have complementary angles, i.e. 89* and 91* so the boards will come together perfectly.

[Quesne Ouaques]

Hi Michael:

No one should rip into you for having to compromise on space or budget. I jointed my boards for 5 years on a thickness planer and router table before I could afford a jointer.

I often find myself in a similar situation. Even very recently, I had to flatten four 50" long walnut boards on my 6" Ridgid jointer. Jointing boards that are much longer than the infeed table is a real challenge. Mostly, however, it requires only a slight change in technique.

There are several rules of thumb that people have given, and these are good guidelines, but if you understand the tool and modify your technique based on the wood you have in hand, you can get away with much more than you might think. A perfect example of this is jointing a long, cupped board.

Under normal circumstances, you would lay the board on the infeed table cup down, so that each corner of the board get cut by the knives on the first one or two passes. Eventually, of course, the knives will work their way toward the center of the board and, voila, you get a nice flat board. You could call this standard method of flattening a cupped board "from the bottom up".

If you try this with a long board whose edge is hanging out over the side of the infeed table, however, you are likely to come away with very different results, especially if the degree of cupping is greater than the depth of the cut. This is because, as the board gets fed onto the knives, the cupped edges tend to "lift" the board onto the infeed table and away from the knives, ruining the flatness of the cut.

So what to do? Change your technique. Turn the board over and start by carefully cutting a flat area at the very top of the crown of the cup (I say carefully because the board will rock unless you keep it under control). Pick the high spot based on inspection of the board and keep pressure on the exact same "high" spot each time you run the board across the knives and onto the outfeed table.

Your starting cuts will not begin at the edges of the board as they normally would but rather toward the center. On each subsequent cut, make sure you are running the same flat area along the surface of the tables by keeping pressure on the exact same "high" spot. The board will want to rock and find it's own "flat" area. The trick is to exert your own control over the board and cut only from the flat area outward.

Eventually, the high spot will grow into a perfectly flat reference area, and you will have an adequate flat area on the infeed table to guide the rest of the board over the knives. This is how I flatten boards "from the top down" and I've found that it allows me to flatten boards that are considerably longer than the infeed table.

P.S. Your edge cuts can be done in a similar way, of course, cutting the "high" area(s) down first to establish a flat reference surface from which the rest of the edge can be made flat.