On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:41:44 GMT, "Dick Snyder"
wrote:

I recently bought a used jointer so I don't have a lot of experience using a
jointer yet. This is a "newbie" question.

I needed a little extra mahogany to make the legs of the third and final
table in a set of stacking tables I am making. I had a left over mahogany
2x4 so I cut a 24" piece off of it. When I put it down on a flat surface I
could see that there was a twist in the wider (3 1/2") side of the board. If
I pushed on opposite corners at each end of the 24" piece it would rock. I
thought I could flatten it with my jointer so I made a number of very fine
passes. I had scribbled pencil marks on the side I was passing over the
jointer knives so I could see when the knives had gotten everything. After
awhile I saw that while I was flattening the wide piece of the board, it was
not square to the thinner (1 1/2") edge. In fact one thinner edge was wider
than the opposing edge. I'm guessing I was pushing down on the twist in
different ways when I passed it through the jointer. Should I have ripped
the 2x4 into separate smaller pieces so that the twist was not so dramatic?
Then I could run each piece thru the jointer and glue them back up. I'm not
sure what I should have done. Your help would be appreciated.

TIA.

Dick Snyder



Twist is about the worse thing to correct. Fasten the twisted board
to a perfectly flat and true board to create a straight edge that can
ride against the fence. You'll eventually end up with a smaller
profile. Putting a twisted board through the table saw is not a good
idea either. You could use a hand plane to get *some* of the twist
out--that will make it both safer and easier on your jointer.