At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

Disclaimer - yes I know the jointer vs. planer debate is hashed out
here weekly, and the correct answer is that you need both a jointer
and a planer, so no need to flame me with those answers.

So the process would be to first do the usual -- joint a face, joint
an edge, rip the opposite edge -- then where you would use a planer,
use the jointer instead on the last face to get the board to final
width. You risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

I know you can use the jointer to taper a board by starting or ending
a board short of one end. So if you're thicknessing with the jointer
and the 2 faces are getting out of parallel, can't you use the
tapering technique to reduce width on the wider side? It's a hack for
sure, but seems like it might suffice.

Thanks,
Michael

So the process would be to first do the usual -- joint a face, joint
an edge, rip the opposite edge -- then where you would use a planer,
use the jointer instead on the last face to get the board to final
width. You risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

A few weeks ago I bought a jointer and tried exactly what you are
suggesting.
I was trying to joint 4 pieces of 6/4 stock down to 1 1/16". It made an
incredible mess of things; some of the pieces were 1/8" out of parallel
before I gave up. Fortunately I still had enough thickness left to salvage
it when I actually bought a planer.

Frankly I don't know if they were out of parallel when they were raw and the
jointer accurately maintained the problem, or if the jointer created the
problem. But, either way it was a fiasco.

I agree with Toller, trying to plane with a jointer is a mess. I had a
bunch of scrap maple that I wanted to glue up and make my workbench top out
of. It was a complete disaster. Not a single parallel piece in the group
(tons of boards -- it was from flooring). I'm tossing the pieces and going
to buy the wood (~$45 anyway) instead. Oh, and I have a planer now and
can't believe I tried to get along without it. (i.e. you know what you
"need" to do

Mike

"Michael Press" wrote in message
...

At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

[snip]

Michael Press asks:

ou risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

Probably 87% of the time.

I know you can use the jointer to taper a board by starting or ending
a board short of one end. So if you're thicknessing with the jointer
and the 2 faces are getting out of parallel, can't you use the
tapering technique to reduce width on the wider side? It's a hack for
sure, but seems like it might suffice.

It's your life. How you spend it is your business. You have no way of measuring
the wedge, before or during, that would be effective, nor is it every easy to
take off a prescribed varying thickness slice across the board.



Charlie Self
"Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/m.../business.html

The problem is that you never get the faces parallel to begin with, so they
will stay out of parallel, as much as they were out of parallel at the
beginning. That's assuming that you do the face jointing sooo wells that
the faces don;t get even more out of parallel.

If this is acceptable, then go ahead.

--
gabriel

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 13:10:22 -0500, Michael Press
wrote:

At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

Sometimes (mainly for small pieces).

If you plane one surface, then rip it to thickness reasonably
accurately, then you can take a few thin passes on a surface planer or
jointer without too much trouble. My jointer is sitting out ready for
use, my thickness planer needs to be lifted out and set up - it's much
quicker to use the jointer, if it's only a surface clean-up I need.

If it's not accurate to start with, or you're trying to shift much
timber from the surface, then you'll have no end of trouble and will
make wedges in no time.

--
Smert' spamionam

"Michael Press" wrote in message
...

At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

Disclaimer - yes I know the jointer vs. planer debate is hashed out
here weekly, and the correct answer is that you need both a jointer
and a planer, so no need to flame me with those answers.

It's a PITA, but you can in theory use a planer, router and tablesaw to do
the job of a jointer.

You could probably use the same router sled trick that you would use to
flatten a board to also thickness a board.

The only way I can possibly imagine using a jointer for planing would be if
you first run the board on edge through your tablesaw or bandsaw as if you
would be re-sawing it, and then take a *tiny* cut off with the jointer to
smooth it. Your results might be acceptable.

disclaimer: this is all theory. I bought a planer first, then a jointer. I
haven't tried anything that I suggested, and don't plan on it.

--randy

I've done it but it is a pain in the ass and not really all that accurate.

First thing you have to do is scribe a line all the way around the edges of
the piece, registering it off of the flat face, so you have some idea of
where material has to be taken off and where and when to stop.

After that you sort of use the jointer like a big hand plane varying where
and how much pressure you put on the stock as it passes over the cutters,
reversing ends when called for, etc.

All in all a very inexact procedure that is better done with a hand plane if
a thickness planer isn't handy.

--
Mike G.

Heirloom Woods
www.heirloom-woods.net
"Michael Press" wrote in message
...

At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

Disclaimer - yes I know the jointer vs. planer debate is hashed out
here weekly, and the correct answer is that you need both a jointer
and a planer, so no need to flame me with those answers.

So the process would be to first do the usual -- joint a face, joint
an edge, rip the opposite edge -- then where you would use a planer,
use the jointer instead on the last face to get the board to final
width. You risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

I know you can use the jointer to taper a board by starting or ending
a board short of one end. So if you're thicknessing with the jointer
and the 2 faces are getting out of parallel, can't you use the
tapering technique to reduce width on the wider side? It's a hack for
sure, but seems like it might suffice.

Thanks,
Michael

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 13:10:22 -0500, Michael Press
wrote:

You risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

Most of the time. G

Any one who has face jointed a board and then thickness planed it has
seen how the early thicknessing passes don't touch the whole board.
Joint both sides, you'll probably double the error. The more wood you
remove, the more likely you are to taper the thickness.

I'm sure some very skilled, and somewhat lucky, people can pull this
off on a regular basis, I just have never seen it.

Another problem is accurately controlling the overall thickness.

There really is a reason why there are two different tools to do two
different jobs.

Barry

"Michael Press" wrote in message
...

At the risk of getting flamed, I want to find out if anyone is using a
jointer for thickness planing

Disclaimer - yes I know the jointer vs. planer debate is hashed out
here weekly, and the correct answer is that you need both a jointer
and a planer, so no need to flame me with those answers.

So the process would be to first do the usual -- joint a face, joint
an edge, rip the opposite edge -- then where you would use a planer,
use the jointer instead on the last face to get the board to final
width. You risk getting the faces out of parallel of course (how
often would this happen?)

I know you can use the jointer to taper a board by starting or ending
a board short of one end. So if you're thicknessing with the jointer
and the 2 faces are getting out of parallel, can't you use the
tapering technique to reduce width on the wider side? It's a hack for
sure, but seems like it might suffice.

Thanks,
Michael

.....and at the risk of flames, You can thickness on a jointer! It's been
many years but I recall an article by, I believe Tage Frid, on how to do
this with repeatable results. You also need a table saw and a jig and the
board width is obviously limited to the jointer's maximum width of cut. I'll
attempt an explanation:

1. Joint one face.
2. Joint one edge square to the jointed face.
3. Rip the board to the maximum cut width of the jointer using the jointed
face against the fence.
Optional: Ideally the rough thickness of the board is close to the desired
planed thickness. If not resaw using whatever method is available.
4. Set the table saw fence to make a cut slightly thicker than the desired
planed thickness.
5. Set the depth of cut to 3/4"
6. Place the jointed face against the table saw fence and run a long edge of
the board through the saw. Repeat for the other long edge.
7. Assuming the board was close to the desired thickness you want you now
have rabbets on both long edges.
8. Now you need a jig. The jig is composed of two pieces 1/2" X 3/4" X the
length of the infeed table + 4" or so and another 3/4"X 4" X the width of
the infeed table. The 1/2" dimension is a function of how much infeed height
adjustment you have to work with, e.g., if you only have 3/8" then use
5/16". Screw the two long pieces to the short piece such that the long
pieces lie on the infeed table, 3/4" face down, and come up just shy of the
cutter while the short piece rests against the end of the infeed table. You
are making a long U shaped jig that rests against the end of the infeed
table and fence... a clamp on the end of the jig holding it to the infeed is
probably a good idea.
9. To thickness the board the rabbets ride on the jig and the infeed height
is slowly increased on successive passes until the knives just dress the
rabbets.

Rereading this it makes perfect sense to me... but I can understand it be
being difficult to grasp the process without graphics. I suspect the article
was in FWW as flipping through Frid's "...Teaching Woodworking..." books
didn't reveal the article.

John
....has a jointer, a couple planners, and a bunch of handplanes. ;-)