Tattooed and Dusty wrote:
Yesterday in a post I saw something indicating that if you try and
joint pieces larger than the width of your jointer you run into
problems with the grain direction. Can someone explain this to me? I
have a newly acquired jointer and am trying to get it all dialed in, and
running properly, but if I need to be careful of feed direction I would
appreciate the help.

So if grain direction matters, which way should I feed and how do I
tell which direction the grain is going in along the length of a plank?
I know this is probably a very basic question, but I don't know the
answer.

Thanks in advance for the help.


In order to joint a board wider than your jointer, you would have to
remove the blade guard and run the board through (doing 6" or 8" of
width) then flip the board around and do the rest. Either way, on one
of the passes the grain will be in the wrong direction.

As for grain direction, there have been several articles recently posted
to this forum, and also in FWW magazine (check your library). It's way
too complicated to try to explain with words alone (at least for me).

Rob