Hmmm, lots of good input; thanks, all who've responded so far.
I'll chaw that over & see what spits out.

One couple Q's if I may: How important is a vacuum attachment
for either? Will a shop-vac handle it or does it take a real DC?
I'm wanting to make this portable to roll it out of the way when
it's not in use.

In a limited space:
My ideal location would be to have the outfeed side feed out
and over my wood lathe, above the heads. I could easily put a
"helper" roller on the lathe table for long boards, too that way.
But, it'd be about 42" floor to wood. That might be convenient
for a planer? but I don't think a jointer would be much use at
that height.
Or is it too high for either?

I have an alternative, but it'd require opening the door and
letting the outfeed feed into the garage parking area but it's
cold/hot there depending on the season. Not a deal breaker, but
if I could keep it inside it'd be more comfortable working with
it. My shop's only about 12 x 22 feet with 8' of that 22 down to
8' wide vs 12. Wife won't give up the sewing room on the other
side g. Yet.

Pop




"Pop" wrote in message
news:9wFTf.3570$hI1.3441@trndny06...
Hi all,

Birthday coming up, and I'm in a bit of a quandary. I've been
given the opportunity to pick up either a planer OR a jointer
(not both) and I'm not sure which to go for first or which
would be the most useful. I also have little experience with
either tool.

I'm leaning pretty strongly toward the 13" Dewalt Planer as
opposed to their jointer. I don't do much edge gluing, and
what little bit I've done has always come out OK using a good
blade on my TS, so that directs me toward the planer. I think
I'm more interested in getting repeatable thicknesses and
smooth finishes to minimize sanding, plus as long as it's
reasonably straight, it looks like a planer makes almost any
type of wood usable.

My woodworking skills run from fair to good, probably more good
than fair. Most people are suitable impressed that I can get
an ego boost from showing off my work, so I assume I'm not too
bad. I see a lot of my mistakes, but others don't seem to.
Since I have no actual experience since my high school daze
many many year ago, I thought I'd see what the folk here think.
Am I right in thinking that a planer would make the better tool
for me at the moment?

Basically, all I see a jointer being good for is making a
straight edge, not that I mean that's not important! But I
think the practicality of being able to slice 1/16 or 1/32 or
less, to a max of 1/8, of materials from 3/4" to 13" would sure
make a nice tool.
Oh, and yes, I understand what snipe is, and that a warped
piece of wood will still be warped after planing it where
that's not the case with a jointer; done enough window shopping
to be able to see that.
But, a jointer is rather limited to not much more than
straigtening and edge, right? Wrong?

Whatever your thoughts, happy to hear them.

Oh yeah, a little sidelight: While perusing the local Ace
Hardware this morning, I noticed a no-name "Planner" sitting
next to the Dewalt planers. I wonder what kind of plane job a
'planner' would do? ;-) It -was- a lot cheaper; wonder why?
g

TIA,

Pop