On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:19:17 -0500, "Stoutman" .@. wrote:


All of my training involved not expecting opposite faces to remain
parallel off the jointer, so I'll agree to disagree.

Maybe my faces are parallel, but since I don't expect them to be, I don't
check.

I'm confused. If you guys aren't getting parallel faces at the jointer than
why do people drop all that dough on those fancy Besseimer TS fences? I
guess I will stick with my $15 delta stock fence. g

Stoutman,

I don't know why this is irritating me tonight, but it seems like
you're overlooking some pretty important things again.

Things have to be done correctly, in the correct order, with the
proper tools. It's your shop, and I'm glad you're happy with it- but
you're going through a lot of extra work and probably frustration by
apparently trying to make silk purses out of sows' ears.

So here goes, a few tips you're sure to ignore.

You've got a jointer, so I'll include that in the process- nothing
wrong with the tool, and you already have it.

When you get your stock, joint one face... if it needs it.

When it is flat, joint one edge, if it needs it, by putting the
jointed face against the fence.

If it needs it, plane the board to final thickness with the planer.
This insures that the two faces are parallel, which the jointer does
not do. If you do not own a planer, your next step involves a hand
plane and winding sticks, which can be fun to use as well- but going
back to the jointer will not help you unless you are doing a lot of
stock removal and just need to do some hogging off the thickness
before truing the piece by hand. You could also use a router with a
pair of "rails" on either side of the stock to adjust the thickness,
then sand or handplane the routed face- this will insure parallel
faces if done correctly.

After planing, rip the stock to width using your table saw, with the
jointed edge against the fence. This insures that both edges are
parallel, which the jointer does not do. Rip the piece to final
thickness- if you re-hit it with the jointer, you risk tapering it,
tearout, or leaving mill marks that are very difficult to sand out if
you feed too quickly, and will show up in your finish.

A good fence on the table saw is parallel to the blade without
excessive fiddling, is sturdy enough to prevent deflection when
ripping, and has an accurate indicator to allow for repeatable setups.
This will result in a glue-ready edge provided that you have a good,
clean, sharp blade, and have carefully set up your saw.

Then, crosscut the board to finished length. Occasionally, it will
make sense to route or rip dadoes down an entire length before
crosscutting, or route a profile on an edge, but we're just talking
about a simple rectangle here.

There you have it. It's a simple, time tested method for preparing
stock. All the gadgets and gizmos in the world will not do a better
job if you ignore the process. You can get your jointer to
micrometric precision, but if the fence on your table saw is out by a
sixteenth, it isn't going to matter. Nor will it matter if your table
saw is set to within one-tenth of a second of 90* if you are not
cutting a final edge with it, or if the ass end of the fence is
sliding out of adjustment when you're ripping (which happens fairly
frequently with your $15 Delta stock fence, if mine was anything to go
by.)

Once again, there is no magic bullet. There is no substitute for
thought, care and practice. A gadget will help you in some cases, but
you are losing something very important in the long run. If you're
not willing to discover what that is, there is no way for me to
explain it to you.