Thread: jointer vs hand planning

Hi Mike--welcome...

The obvious answer anyway, I guess is on everyones lips.....
Learn and use both methods !!!

bottom line is that it doesn't matter what the rest of us advise, so long as you can live with your choices and the results they produce...

Good words for all. Having made enough furniture over the years to count for something [don't know what <g>] my personal experience is unless one is making kitchen cabinets or some other uniform production-based furniture, power tooling isn't a total answer.

Many times I can tear down a set up to run drawer bottom grooves in a set of drawers or simply run them with a plow. And run them faster than tearing down the machine set up and of course set it back up for the original purpose.

I can likewise joint boards typically faster for a piece of one-off furniture as I am building rather than using a jointer. Which is one reason why as a furniture builder of one-off custom pieces I eventually sold my jointer.

But there isn't one proper method for each of us. A friend of mine who does very nice work hasn't used a hand tool except the occassional chisel in years I reckon.

Take care, Mike

Tripper is on the money with the learn and use both methods. Machinery will get you there fast and mean you have time to do the finishing properly. As an Apprentice Fitter I was taught to do the roughing quickly and spend my time on the finishing. Straightforward stuff I would have thought. When you want to get a job done you can get a lot of timber ready with a jointer thicknesser combination, they are a team after all. If your machine has good blades all you have to do then is run over the top with a smoother and you are there.

Studley

I have flattened a couple of scrap bowed or cupped boards using a hand plane. I use a few perfectly straight rectangular winding sticks of equal dimensions to check that the board is flat & not twisted they will also help detect high & low areas that need fine tuning with a hand plane. I hope this information will help.
Use several straight non-bowed winding sticks depending on the size (length & with) of your work. Next look or sight approximately eye level at the winding sticks they should eventually look or approx the same height when the board is planed flat.
I'm going to upgrade to long rectangular aluminum 1" square tubing to help avoid moisture problems associated with wood winding sticks.