Why do they call it a jointer when it planes wood?
Why do they call it a jointer when it planes wood?
Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask about one of the least understood tools in the workshop!
-My favorite jointer paddles: https://amzn.to/3eOSC8C
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Thanks for making this videeto James. I recently purchased a jointer and it took me a little bit of practice before I got good at jointing boards but I have it down now. My jointer has a spiral cutter head. Do you think it’s a good idea to try and joint boards at an angle, i.e. having one side at a 30 to 45 degree angle from the fence? I work with a lot of walnut and the grain direction is sometimes a bit of a mystery.
My dad lost two fingers to a jointer when the board kicked out from under his hands. High school wood shop in the 50’s didn’t emphasize safety much!
Probably the best video on YouTube explaining jointers. Much appreciated!
Dear Stumpy, this is a great video. As a professional cabinet maker, I have been using a jointer for more years than I care to remember. The use of a jointer requires far more skill than your examples would suggest. The reason I mention this is because some of your viewers may not realize that a monkey could joint a board that is shorter than the the in feed table. The real skill comes when your board is long. One should always joint crown down. The skill comes in by being able to sight the board and make a flat that when the crown is removed you are skiming the heal and the toe of the board evenly. That way you maximize the thickness of the board. Nothing worse than to come into the shop and find out that all of the material that you needed for 8 ft face frames had been jointed wrong and now the best you can do is 1/2" boards. In an 8 ft run a 1/4 inch of material is not that much.
I use a 6 inch jointer with a spiral cutter which gives a great finish and I then use a thicknesser to get the required thickness ,but the thicknesser has knives in the cutter block which doesn’t give a great finish.
Is it good practice to keep the board about 1/32 thicker through the thicknesser then take it down to finished dimension on the jointer to produce a great finish on both sides?
I have to say the concept of squaring wood was for some reason so complicated to understand, but you did a fantastic job explaining, almost as if your answering my question directly.
Do you really need a table saw for the second edge? Can’t you just use the jointer again with your flattened face against the fence?
I’ve been skeptical in the past of grizzly tools, especially being accustomed to working in a primarily powermatic shop, but I recently purchased the same jointer shown in this video (G8057) and I have to say it’s a real machine at an unbelievable price compared to other brands. Also the parallelogram jointer of any brand is a huge selling point for me just because of ease of adjustment
I need help taking a bow out of a 2x6x6 cedar board. I have the bench top grizzly jointer/planer set up nice and square. I have ran the board through several times and the bow is still in the board. It’s frustrating because it seems it works great on the short boards but not so much with the longer stock. Any help would greatly appreciated. I have watched sever videos that you have made on jointing.
When my dad was a apprentice his partner once held his hand over the spinning blade,the blade got grip on the wood and yeeted it away leaving the blade and his hand left,the next thing he know is that half of his palm is gone and the jointer got a new paintjob.
Thank you stubby
ThankYou for your time!!! I’m relatively new to woodworking but not to power tools or technique. I was a machinist/ toolmaker for 40 years till I retired. I appreciate your willingness to give tips and ideas that a newbie like me can appreciate!! It wasn’t like that in the trades when I started!!! Older journeyman weren’t as willing or quick to give up their lifelong learning experiences, you had to ‘earn’ it for lack of a better word!!! Believe me, a humble attitude went a long way 🙂 You and others are willing to show and teach and I find that a credit to your person. I’ve made an edge planer by just inverting a hand planer and adding a entrance and exit table and attaching it accordingly. It’s ok for edges but after your tutorial I see the benefit of using the tools in sequence ad you’ve directed!!! Thanks again
James – I just bought a Jointer and wish I had watched this video before I tried to use it today. There are other videos out there about how to use Jointers, but none of them came close to this one. I was pushing down on my workpiece today and asking myself if it made more sense to push on the outfeed side or not, but I wasn’t sure. One question, the manual for the Grizzly benchtop jointer I bought says to make the infeed and outfeed tables level right to left. The manual actually says to make the outfeed table level with the body of the cutterhead – which is spiral (I’d call it semi-helical) and not the blades – and then make that level with the infeed table. There are 4 screws per table so I’m now back to adjusting all of them which is frustruating. This Grizzly jointer looks like a great machine, but one of the screws seems to be stuck so I’m close to sending the whole thing back. Anyhow – maybe I should have just left the tables at the factory settings. A video about this would be great. As you say, these machines are a bit mysterious.
Stumpy, I hope you’re still checking comments on this video. I’ve always had a question:
I see a lot of reputable woodworkers joint their boards in what I believe would be the opposite order. They’ll edge joint it first and then register the edge against the fence and joint the face. This seems like it is not possible to guarantee a perpendicular edge and face.
Do you have an explanation for why people might do this?
I always figured it’s because you slip up using it it’ll take everything upto the elbow joint
In french the name is "dégauchisseuse", literally "uncrookeder" or something like that as it takes a crooked surface and make it flat.
Thank you! Your videos have advanced my knowledge of workworking more then any other channel I’ve come across.
Fantastic information. Thank you for sharing this with us from Henrico County Virginia
Hey I know this is an older video, but I thought I would ask a question and hope for the best. I have a workshop with limited space. I currently have a small 5” jointer with a 1200mm bed and a Dewalt Thicknesser. Love the Dewalt. Looking to upgrade my jointer and started contemplating a combination jointer / thicknesser. I have a number of concerns though, not the least being giving up my Dewalt. But is there a reason to be concerned about the jointing function on one of these combination units and the switching between thicknessing and jointing requiring resetting up each time?
Why can’t I find a jointer/planer in the USA like they have in Europe? It is to much to ask? Dewalt even makes one they sell over seas…
Great information. I bought a rusty old 6” Central Machinery jointer that had been left out under a shed structure. The price was right so I bought it. I cleaned off the rust and replaced the worn out blades with new blades from My Wood Cutters. The quality and thickness of the steel was so much better than what was in the router originally. I’m very happy with my purchase.
I had to buy one.
james,,,im in a bit of confusion,,im looking for a jointer and i perfer either the spiral or helical head and i know the benchtop models come at at good price but everyone i have talked to tell me to get a floor model,,i was looking at the grizzly or ridgid,,both of them would need to be changed over,,,may can you give me some info about this
I need to see this video once a year to fresh my memories 😉
What if you are doing a piece of wood that’s way too big for a jointer, such as a table top?
Norm Abrams used a 6” jointer for years. He did upgrade to a 8” at some point but he built a lot of projects with a 6” Delta jointer! I have had both the 6” and 8” Delta.
My preference is the 6” because it matches the re-saw capacity of my bandsaw and takes up less floor space. The 8” did have a nice long bed but since I don’t often joint 8’-0’ stock the shorter bed on the 6” jointer has never disappointed . The money gained from selling the 8” jointer bought an excellent used 6” Delta jointer and 14” Delta bandsaw with enclosed stand and fence.
A friend of mine bought the helical cutting head – nice but three straight knives works fine for anything material you are going to buy at a big box store.
Thank you
good stuff! I’m looking to add a jointer to my shop. I’m sure that it will be one of those tools that I wonder how I ever lived without
I really appreciate the time you put into these videos,very helpful. I could have saved a lot of time learning my jointer if I had watched this first. I would like to add one little tip. My push blocks tend to slip a little sometimes,drives me nuts. I used several small but sharp screws that just barely penetrate the rubber of the block. I’m usually running lumber right off a sawmill so the little marks disappear when I plane that side. I have these blocks marked well so they are not used on any finished surfaces. I run hundreds of feet of walnut of all different sizes.
Really, really, great video. I’m glad that you take the time to share your knowledge, research, and experience via these videos. Please keep them coming! Take care and have a good one, Adios! 🖐
7:28 Even though the machine is not running, you gave me the shivers right there. I bought my jointer second hand. The owner had only used it for edge jointing so the paddles were long gone. The absolute first thing I did when I got home was make some paddles. To me, the jointer is scarier than the table saw.
You are awesome! I love how you give subtle advice to those not only for safety and to become a better woodworker, much more than this. You offer help to people that will help them become better at the woodworking trade, better at business and cost savings, but ultimately being able to safely work for years into the future. I love your videos and I’m trying to watch ’em all. Thanks again, this type of help is very hard to find nowadays.
Extremellyyy useful channel. Big Thanks!
dig this channel
I can already roll joints like a pro.
Learned something new. Thanks.
I bought a Craftsman jointer a while back. Each time I use it, I get a wedged board. After watching this video I understand why. However, I try to stay away from this tool I seem to mess up my lumber when I use it. Recently I started working on a shadow box. After cutting the boards to length, I noticed one of the boards has a noticeable twist to it. I decided it would be helpful to use the jointer on all the pieces. The first board I picked was almost perfect as it was. There was just a small twist to it. I thought only a few passes would do the trick before taking it to the planer. However, after running the board over the jointer several times, I could never get a flat side. Eventually I noticed the right end of the board (back end) wasn’t even close to sitting flat on the table. When I look down the length of the board, I see a noticeable change in angle halfway down the jointed side. The left side of the board is wedged but sites completely flat. However, the right side of the board picks up off the jointer and does not get touched at all. Do you know what I am doing incorrectly?
If your board is rocking during a face cut, start in the middle of the board to take a light cut, flip it around to take another light cut starting in the middle and Bob’s your uncle, it’s rocking no more.
Great video and answered some questions I had and others I didn’t know I should ask. +1 on the use of paddles and wax – it’s scary enough being that close to the head.
My long bed six inch jointer with shelix cutter head does everything I need to build furniture in my one-man shop. When I need to joint a wider piece I use an MDF sled with an array of screws that can be set to support the uneven underside of a board up to 12" x 48". In effect, the planer becomes an overhead jointer. Once that side is flattened, I hang up the sled, flip the board, and plane as usual. The sled needs to have a stop on the front end to keep the workpiece secure as the feed rollers of the planer pull sled and workpiece forward.
Thank you! This is SO SOO INFORMAL!
-My favorite jointer paddles: https://amzn.to/3eOSC8C
-When you use this link to visit our sponsor, you support us►
MyWoodCutters HELICAL HEADS: https://mywoodcutters.com/
-Video about helical heads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UurAyAOfzGs
-Video about tapering legs on a jointer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPWzDthwQ4
(We may get a small commission if you use one of the above affiliate links.)
I just bought a used, 4 inch Craftsman jointer (got it for cheap). When working on a project, my stock was roughly 3 1/2 inches to start. When finished edge jointing, I found on pretty much all my boards they came out to about 3 1/4 inches on the leading end, and 3 7/16 inches on the trailing end. Any idea why that would be?
7:34 look Ma no fingerprints.
Let me get this straight (pun intended): A jointer does what a hand planer does except downside up and bigger. And a thickness planer does what a jointer does except parallel to the upside…. Right? Why didn’t you just say so?
4 inch jointer gang. If you take the guard off, you can essentially flatted the face enough that it doesnt rock and then put it through the planer and it wont cup
I enjoy your videos, but I am curious if you ever do tutorial videos where you build a project and show us how to do that??
Thank you
Tim
To use a helical cutter, your joiner needs to have an adjustable outfeed table. Mine is not adjustable so I can’t put one in.
Check before buying your joiner if you may want to upgrade later, it is an expensive upgrade though.
Will the real Stumpy stand up,.? John from Oz
Anyone who knows what to do with four differently set up bandsaws must know something.