On 4/7/2012 9:54 PM, Pete S wrote:
I think there are a lot of people who buy their lumber S2S or better at a store
and then work with those boards. Assuming that you select only the good
straight stock before you plunk down the big bucks, you already have "jointed"
and planed stock.
If that is the case for you, then you could expect that the board is pretty
flat and not twisted. Then you don't need a wide jointer. But you would still
need a wider planer if reducing the thickness of an already good board for some
particular purpose.

On the other hand, if you work with a lot of rough sawn lumber, as I do, you
are working with twisted, cupped and bowed stuff real often. I could really use
a jointer wider than my 6 inch in this case. But come people have told me that,
even then,
they simply cut boards down to fit the jointer and glue up for wider stock.

FYI/FWIW, if you're going to rip wide boards that are bowed or twisted down to
a width that's manageable on your jointer, you'd better be doing it on a
bandsaw and not a tablesaw. Ripping a twisted board on a tablesaw is dangerous
as hell.

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