Thread: Difference between a thicknesser and a jointer?

A jointer is for making one face flat and an adjacent face flat at 90° to the first. Or another angle if that is what you need.
A thicknesser is for making two faces parallel. But one face needs to be flat first.
My routine for dressing rough sawn timber is as follows:
Use the jointer to get one face flat.
Place that face against the fence and flatten an adjacent face ensuring the fence is at exactly 90° to the bed.
Place the flat face on the table saw with the flattened edge against the fence and cut close to finished dimension.
Run through the thicknesser with the flat face down until the piece is at or close to the required thickness depending on what it will be used for.

Which should you buy? You can use a thicknesser to flatten a board but you need a sled and wedges and a fair bit of mucking around. If you mainly buy DAR timber and just need to reduce the thickness occasionally a thicknesser would be the way to go.
Ideally both or a combo machine (which is what I am saving for). If you use DAR then a thicky, if you mainly use rough sawn stock, I would say a jointer. And get the biggest jointer you can afford. I have a 6" but often need wider.

Originally Posted by BaileyBoy

Hi,

i'm looking at a thicknesser and a jointer/planer? deal world, I'll get both but budget only lets me one. What is more useful for woodworking?

My understanding:

Thicknesser - can be quite handy getting rough sawn to good working timber but the ones I looked at, they don't seem to have much of a horizontal surface so i'm not convinced they are good at making thing perfectly flat. Thoughts/advices?

Little bit jumbled there. Thicknesser/planer, and jointer (or buzzer in industry talk).

NCArcher has offered some good advice already. I'll just add that the table size of a thicknesser is more or less irrelevant. It's more important that the table is of a sturdy construction, and that the unit's rollers press the board down properly to keep it in contact with the table with sufficient force. You then just support the board at the start of the feed and at the end of the tail-out. If you are concerned, investigate thicknessers that have fixed tables and head units that rise and fall. It's easier then to use roller stands or shop made table extensions that don't require height adjustment when you change the setting of the machine.

Irrispective of which you buy first you should seriously consider it/them having the helical cutter heads rather than the old 3 blade cutter head. The difference is like chalk and cheese, it gives a cleaner/smoother cut resulting in a lot less sanding of the timber and a lot less downtime in blade sharpening. I've converted both my machines (thicknesser and buzzer/jointer) to the helical heads.

Also if you are doing some research into the machines note that us Aussies and the yanks use the terms in reverse to each other which can confuse things.


Australia: Planer is a Jointer , Buzzer is an older term for Jointer


USA: Planer is a Thicknesser



Now I'm not sure if I got it around the right way or not.. See I told you it was confusing.

Thanks. Looks like I need both. Which means I should save up some more. I saw a Ozito thicknesser but don't really want to go down that road...

I can see myself buying mostly DAR but not entirely happy with some of the DAR finishes...

Originally Posted by BaileyBoy

Thanks. Looks like I need both. Which means I should save up some more. I saw a Ozito thicknesser but don't really want to go down that road...

I can see myself buying mostly DAR but not entirely happy with some of the DAR finishes...

Hi BaileyBoy,

Do you own a router? If so you can use the router, a specialized bit and a jig as your jointer.

When I (re)started out I bought what is now an inadequate 6" tabletop jointer. It is really the last machine I need to upgrade as I have progressed on my woodworking journey. I am not really in a hurry to do so as I do most of the small amount of surface jointing that I do with my router and a sled to guide the router over the surface to be jointed. It is not as quick as a big jointer, but it takes stock bigger than my 6" jointer will take and it does a very good job. Some jobs that are traditionally performed on the jointer can be done on the router table or saw table too. Google is your friend

This method also removes the width restriction of a jointer's cutterhead. It is also better for surfacing a large burl because in the twisted grain you can control the speed of the cut by hand. Do a search on the forum and google. you will turn up plenty of relevant information.

SO if you have a decent router, I say get the thicknesser first.

Cheers

Doug