Thread: Why don't jointers have pressure rollers?

Some people fit power feed units to the out feed table . Some machinery company's sell or sold such things just for the jointer. Generally they are not needed and would get in the way of most jobs I believe . I have sometimes felt on really long boards doing a face like for big table tops it would be nice but I get by . And where I really would like it sometimes is for precise jointing of table top board joints. The long big ones. Keeping a board dead flat up against the fence can be harder on the big ones like 3 meters long x 400 wide x 40mm thick hardwood. So a power feed holding the board to the fence and pulling it through may be good for the joint , but all the work fitting it and handling the timber around it ?? I do get by t not having such a set up. I don't believe I'd need it for safety. Just the precise feeding may help.
Is it a bad idea? Probably not for large heavy stuff if you don't mind the extra fiddling around.

Another story I'll add which I think is more important for me . What I also would like is very precise micro adjustable rollers for the in feed and out feed sides. I use two decent heavy rollers atm and they work but are not as precise to adjust as is really needed. Lately, for me to get a perfect joint off the buzzer the roller has to be adjusted to match what part of the blade I use and the out feed adjusted as well because the set of blades in there atm are slightly different from one end to the other so its showing as snipe if fence position is changed for a sharper part of blade. Ill try much harder next set that goes in. Its fine for most machining but not perfect jointing. Even with perfect blade set, decent rollers with micro adjust are still needed for each time they are set up and used. Because a different floor position gives a different setting. Nothing beats a good sharp no 7 or 8 plane to finish them off at the bench which is what I have mostly always done .

Originally Posted by auscab

Some people fit power feed units to the out feed table . Some machinery company's sell or sold such things just for the jointer.

Thank you for your response.

I wasn't thinking of a power feed, just a couple of rollers to hold the workpiece down onto the outfeed table as it is fed through the jointer manually. I think this should pretty much remove any problems with uneveness from manual feeding pushing on both the infeed and outfeed ends at the same time, at least for novices like me who haven't mastered feeding timber in consistently across the cutters.

Rollers can bee a PITA and damage, especially soft, timber when chips get caught between the roller and the timber. This also happens with the feed rollers unless go dust extraction is employed.

I find using the jointer requires a degree of finessing the cut depending on how twisted, cupped, bowed the board is. It's not until the board is relatively flat that holding most of the pressure on the outfeed table is necessary. A bowed board would tend to get pressed flat rather than planing out the cup and would spring back once the pressure is released. The thicknesser is different, that should only be running through with one already flattened side pressed down.

Originally Posted by 419

... I'm thinking of making pressure rollers for my jointer outfeed table, similar to what's in thicknessers, ...

Do you mean something like this?

Felder Power Feed.jpg Variofeed 4 industrial power feeder - FELDER

They are rather expensive and I would prefer more control on the jointer.

There is almost certainly one or more videos showing the power feeder in use on the Felder website.

Further to Fuzzie's explanation, it's quite common to buzz either both ends or the centre "huimp" of a board before feeding the whole thing through in a single pass.

I wouldn't want feed rollers in the way of that. Removable rollers might work, but then you have all the fiddle of adding/removing and recalibrating after every change.

Thanks to all who posted.

Now I know why jointers don't have rollers.

Here’s a few cattle dog cuts from some Wadkin dirty paper.
Hold downs were fitted to their jointers and spindle moulders.
The machine must have a decent fence preferably cast iron not a cheap Aluminium extrusion like the current crop of Austrian crap being touted as the best
H.

419, don't take this the wrong way, but maybe find an experienced timber machinist to give you some tuition before you have an incident. Also do some googling on push pads and hooked push sticks to help prevent your pinkies getting near the cutting blades.
Rgds,
Crocy.