Thread: Carba-Tec Shopping Spree

Originally Posted by silentC

Because I have the lines to cut to. Same as with a hand plane.

You are still not telling me how. It is a jointer not a hand plane.

Go back and read what I said about how I take out twist or bow. Same as that. Little cuts. Gradual cuts. Sneaking up on the line. When I flatten side one, I have an imaginary plane that I work to. I look at the board and imagine what bits need to be removed to make it flat, so I cut them off with the jointer. The perfectly parallel tables don't come into it until I can get a full length pass. Until then, it is just an upside down electric scrub plane.

To do the other side, the edges are marked parallel to the good face, so now instead of working to an imaginary line, I am working to a real one. Otherwise, same same.

And no I'm not going to video it. I have better things to do with my time Lou.

Try it for yourself.

So you lift the timber, somehow the red line may be parallel to the tables, and put it through. Only the high point touches the in-feed table then the blades and out-feed table.

Just like you do with a hand plane. Right?

What I would try to do is to establish at least two high spots that are parallel to the red line. I may not be spot on, but I can adjust on subsequent passes. Eventually I will have a reference flat area that is parallel to the lines. It depends on what the problem is. In your picture, the opposite side is flat but not parallel, so all I need to do is cut more off one side or end than the other. This is dead easy. If it was warped, then it's a bit harder but not really any different to what I do for the first face. Just requires more patience and probably shallower cuts - more passes. Sooner or later it will get there.

I am goint to try it because it just won’t work.

If you want to cut more from one end than the other, you don't need to lift, you just put the leading end up on the outfeed table and hold the trailing end down on the infeed, then feed it through. This will remove a wedge shaped section from the bottom. You can do that many times until you have a straight edge and both ends the same thickness.

If it is thicker on one edge than the other, you can either freehand it (lift one edge and feed) or you can rest it on a shim clamped to the table.

If it is twisted, you can sit the trailing end of the board on the infeed and use the centre of the board on the outfeed as a reference to plane the trailing end flat. Then flip and repeat. Then use one or both of the above methods to get the resulting flat face parallel to the line.

Silent, you have some amazing skills with a jointer. I would love to see how you do it one day.

Don’t forget.

Showing off is how you lose fingers

But seriously, I thought everyone would have to do this stuff. Maybe you're lucky that the boards you use are already reasonably flat to start with. I'm not kidding when I talk about 1" twist end to end. Some of that Banksia is like that. There's no way I can get the boards flat by just passing it over the jointer end to end. I'd be lucky on the first pass if I have a 1" wide by 2" long flat strip to reference for the next pass.

In actual fact what I do is aim to get a flat spot for 90% the length of the board and 75% of the width. Then I run it through the thicknesser to establish a flat surface on the other side and then turn it over and pass it through a few times to flatten the other side.

Originally Posted by Wongo

Silent, you have some amazing skills with a jointer. I would love to see how you do it one day.

Don’t forget.

Oh come on Wongo surely your not now convinced.

Just because he wrote more than you and it almost made sense doesn't necessarily make it right

Just because he wrote more than you and it almost made sense doesn't necessarily make it right

True, this would be a very dangerous assumption

What did I miss?

Silent what makes you think I have never worked with twisted boards? Do you know how easy it is to get it flat by just passing it over the jointer end to end?

You should try it.

what makes you think I have never worked with twisted boards?

Just the fact that you reckon you can get it flat by just passing the whole thing over the jointer. Next time I'm up, I'll bring one of my boards and you show me, OK?

Originally Posted by Poppa

Edit - Mr Wongo, you can get two surfaces parallel on a jointer. I've done it. You joint a face, then joint the edge square to the face, then joint the second face square to the edge. If both faces are square to the edge then the two faces must (and I mean mathematically MUST) be parallel. Then you can joint the second edge square as well and end up with a square flat board. You can even dimension the piece with a jointer, but Silent is quite right, it is dodgy and painful to do! But I've done it....

You need to think harder my friend.