Thread: Jointer or not that is the question

G'day Munruben,

Before my c/saw my jointer was invaluable, without doubt.

Now I can do most of the jointing on the c/saw. However and while it doesn't always get used, if I didn't have it I would miss it.

Heck, for the cost to replace my jointer, which is only an old Paul Call benchtop 6", but on it's own feet at a decent standing work height - even what I have doesn't cost much to buy.

Rather be with it than without it.

John,

What now seems like a lifetime ago I did not have a lot of faith in the accuracy of saws and so along came a jointer. Just the thing to flatten a piece of timber, take out the bumps etc, and of course once you have one side true all things start to fall into place, and where once you fiddled about to get a good result a jointer takes care of that, particularly if you are joining up boards. With a jointer you can achieve joins that to the majority of people are undiscernable.

I still use mine often to flatten out a piece of timber, but with the saw I now have and the right use of blade I can get joins that I think most people would love to get, but for perfection [if there is such a thing] the jointer still reigns supreme

John,
For many years I had a small (4") jointer on a Durden Junior Joiner, which I subsequently passed on to my son when I bought a 10" table saw, thinking I wouldn't miss it. BIG MISTAKE! Even though it was very small, it was very useful.
Now I have an H&F 6" jointer which I bought second hand and once more I am complete! It doesn't get a lot of use, but when I need it, it becomes invaluable, as I use a lot of "found" timber, some of which has warped or twisted since it was milled. I am averse to lots of hard work planing by hand.
Cheers
Graeme

Hi
I have and use a Carbatec 8" Longbed jointer. I guess the need for a jointer is determined by the type of work being produced and or the the grade of, or type of timber being used.
I personally use approx 50% purchased dressed timber. The other 50% is various twisted timber that I buy at between 10 & 20% of its normal retail price. ( Usually around 4 - 5 metre lengths and mostly the same sizes eg 4x2 - 3x2 in each bundle purchase)
All of this timber I joint 2 faces then cut to size and run through the thicknesser.
Mostly I am able to put to good use in excess of 80-85% + of this timber.
As I said at the start (type of work & grade of timber). In my circumstances the jointer is a valued piece of equipment, I guess if my local Mitre 10 stop the supply of twisted timber ..........lol. By the way I produce things like Lazy susans, Spice Racks, Folding tables, Cutting boards, Clocks etc etc ( Local Markets )

So many times I want to start a project but I can't until I can get my stock and my butt down to the local woodworking shop where I rent time on their jointers. Sure I could maybe joint the stock using my table saw or the router table but for those nasty pieces of figured stock nothing beats a jointer! If you don't start a project with stock that is flat and square then nothing else matters. Woodstock Wood show is only 4 weeks away. I have a feeling I'll have a jointer in my garage soon after. Oh and if you can get find 8" for only a little more then pass on the 6" models. You'll never regret it.

Originally Posted by munruben

Is a jointer worth having or not, that is the question I hear so many differing opinions on this. How many of the guys and gals on here have a jointer and if so, do you find it invaluable or does it just stand in the corner gathering dust. If you don't use a jointer, what method do you prefer to joint your timber and how accurate is your method?

The brief answer is a very definite YES

A jointer is for getting
one FACE of a board flat
one EDGE of a board square to the flat face

once that's done, then you can dimension to width and thickness and then move onto your joints


Now you can flatten one face with hand planes — but this gets pretty tiring as you get older and/or the timber gets tougher
You can square an edge for jointing with a hand plane — this is not that much work and in some respects produces a superior edge to that off the jointer. At least that's what I think and if I've jointed an edge for gluing, I'll take one or two light passes with a #5 or #6 prior to the gluing.
But quite often you just want the faces square to each other so you can set out and cut the joints.

IMO a jointer is invaluable and I wish I could afford a 400mm one like they have at Tech — where it's matched with a 600mm thicknesser

But, if you're mainly making smallish boxes, hand planes, a band saw and a thickness sander might be a better combination as the shortest bit you should put through a jointer is about 400mm long and this length is a doddle with a hand plane

Originally Posted by Expat

Oh and if you can get find 8" for only a little more then pass on the 6" models. You'll never regret it.

The price difference at Carba-Tec between their CTJ150 and their CTJ350 (8 inch bed width) is $466.00 Too big a jump for me unfortunately and I don't think I could justify the difference to the minister of finance.

John, I got the 6" Carbatec about 5 years ago. I wouldn't be without it. As someone mentioned above, esp with boards that are twisted and you need to get them straightened up before you rip the other edge... but generally, for all sorts of stuff. BTW, I am still on the original set of knives - haven't needed to sharpen the set so far

I have always had a preferance to using recycled timber so 4yrs ago I bought a 8" planer /thicknesser from leda. and I wouldnt be with out it.

The reason I got the combo is because of shed room

Pretty much wot everyone else has said.
Got by for may years with hand tools - good for the soul (oh yeah ) & good for perfecting technique, but eventually, finances allowed purchase of a side by side planer/jointer (Hitachi) & that was a big boost to my enjoyment of hobby w'working. I use almost 100% rough stuff, so have to dress every board. The machinery does the grunt work quickly & I can get on with the fun parts, with flat, square & even-dimensioned material.

You can edge-joint rough stock (& a lot of what I use is REALLY rough) almost as quickly with a bandsaw (to make the initial clean-up cut to a chalk-line) & your favourite long hand plane (in my case a #7). You can do that at least as accurately as a power jointer can, and results are often better, especially on cranky grain. But as someone else said, you need TWO flattened & squared sides to start with, so that's why getting as wide a bed as you can afford is a good idea - to clean up the face quickly, too. So after a lot of years of cursing the 6" bed of the Hitachi jointer, I recently bought a Woodfast 12" combo. I've used it a fair bit in the 2 months or so I've had it, & it does a reasonable job, but clearly you gets what you pays for, & it's nowhere near as accurate or robust as the Hitachi, nor does it have the beautifully simple, accurate & quick blade setting system! . Still, it quickly gets stock to a state I can tackle with handplanes. I always handplane after machining, but it's generally a doddle once the rough bits are knocked off.

The jointed edges off the Woodfast have a lot of 'blade wave' despite its 3 knives vs. the 2 of the Hitachi (which has a screaming universal motor & turns the cutterhead about 50% faster!). However I would never dream of glueing straight off any machine, anyway. You will get a much more sound joint by taking off a couple of clean shavings - the clean-cut fibres from a sharp edge-tool take glue much better than fibres pounded by machine blades - especially dull ones!

Cheers,

The jointer is the basis for ripping a straight plank .
The saw and the thicknesser will follow a bend in a plank but the jointer will flatten the bend if its placed concave down on the jointer . Mostly the edge of the plank is straightened in the jointer then ripped to oversize with the jointed edge against the saw fence then thicknessed down to finnish size .
If the plank is thin and flexable then the wide part can be thicknessed to parrallel then sit the concave edge on the jointer and square and straighten it then rip saw the other edge.
If the plank is thin it may not be suitable to stand up in the thicknesser to finnish the ripped edge so finnish in the jointer to correct size.

Originally Posted by IanW

Pretty much wot everyone else has said.
Got by for may years with hand tools - good for the soul (oh yeah ) & good for perfecting technique, but eventually, finances allowed purchase of a side by side planer/jointer (Hitachi) & that was a big boost to my enjoyment of hobby w'working. I use almost 100% rough stuff, so have to dress every board. The machinery does the grunt work quickly & I can get on with the fun parts, with flat, square & even-dimensioned material.

You can edge-joint rough stock (& a lot of what I use is REALLY rough) almost as quickly with a bandsaw (to make the initial clean-up cut to a chalk-line) & your favourite long hand plane (in my case a #7). You can do that at least as accurately as a power jointer can, and results are often better, especially on cranky grain. But as someone else said, you need TWO flattened & squared sides to start with, so that's why getting as wide a bed as you can afford is a good idea - to clean up the face quickly, too. So after a lot of years of cursing the 6" bed of the Hitachi jointer, I recently bought a Woodfast 12" combo. I've used it a fair bit in the 2 months or so I've had it, & it does a reasonable job, but clearly you gets what you pays for, & it's nowhere near as accurate or robust as the Hitachi, nor does it have the beautifully simple, accurate & quick blade setting system! . Still, it quickly gets stock to a state I can tackle with handplanes. I always handplane after machining, but it's generally a doddle once the rough bits are knocked off.

The jointed edges off the Woodfast have a lot of 'blade wave' despite its 3 knives vs. the 2 of the Hitachi (which has a screaming universal motor & turns the cutterhead about 50% faster!). However I would never dream of glueing straight off any machine, anyway. You will get a much more sound joint by taking off a couple of clean shavings - the clean-cut fibres from a sharp edge-tool take glue much better than fibres pounded by machine blades - especially dull ones!

Cheers,

The blade wave could be caused by the blades NOT being sett all exactly the same distance from the guide surface.

Originally Posted by Retromilling

The blade wave could be caused by the blades NOT being sett all exactly the same distance from the guide surface.

True, but not in this particular case. It's simply due to overly-rapid feed rate. Among my other faults, I'm impatient.
There are always waves, it's an inevitable result of using a rotary cutting tool. You may strive to minimise them by correct feed rate, but they're there, nevertheless. Small enough to be neglible if all is done right & proper, but I still prefer the finish off that final pass or two with my Record......

A jointer's not indispensable. I don't have one and I don't foresee my getting one any time soon. All my jointing is done by thicknesser and tablesaw. However, this doesn't mean that there aren't times when I wish I did have one.

Like... when I've wasted half-a-day wrestling an errant plank with a machiavellian twist into submission, that a jointer would've flattened in a fraction of the time.