Lousy jointer technique or maybe I just don't get it?

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:52 am

Take a look at Nick Engler's web site -- http://workshopcompanion.com/ -- for some information that should help in using the jointer.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:17 pm

pennview wrote:Take a look at Nick Engler's web site -- http://workshopcompanion.com/ -- for some information that should help in using the jointer.

Can you provide some hints about where in that site this information is located.

bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:42 pm

dusty wrote:Can you provide some hints about where in that site this information is located.

Try here, Dusty. In the "Techniques" section.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:00 pm

bffulgham wrote:Try here, Dusty. In the "Techniques" section.

Thanks. I guess I should spend some extra time on that site.

dlbristol · Post by **dlbristol** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 7:24 pm

Micheal, Don't get to upset, there is a lot more to using a jointer than meets the eye. Proper technique was and is something I still have to think about. I have made a lot of rabbit bedding practicing on the jointer. I ended up with a fair number of "rather nicely tapered" boards before I was done. One of the things that I did wrong and the forum helped me with was my use of excessive pressure. I was constantly rocking the stock back onto the in feed table. The other thing, already mentioned, but critical for me was to take very shallow cuts. I thought light cuts were 1/8 of an inch, I had better luck when I defined light as about 1/4 of that. I am not yet really good at this, but I can now get an acceptable level of performance out of my jointer. I have found it to be the hardest tool to manage so far.

fiatben · Post by **fiatben** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:46 pm

While this is not an SS solution, we all need to remember there is more than one way to skin a cat (or whatever little homile works in your area).

Look at this:
http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/tip ... inter.aspx

Using a straight edge and a router with a straight bit will provide a straight, square edge. Of course, if you've got severe warp, warf, twist, bow, etc. it won't solve all the problems, but I like it to clean up the first side of a really good piece of wood that I don't want to "practice" on.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:37 am

fiatben wrote:While this is not an SS solution, we all need to remember there is more than one way to skin a cat (or whatever little homile works in your area).

Look at this:
http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/tip ... inter.aspx

Using a straight edge and a router with a straight bit will provide a straight, square edge. Of course, if you've got severe warp, warf, twist, bow, etc. it won't solve all the problems, but I like it to clean up the first side of a really good piece of wood that I don't want to "practice" on.

That is an awesome solution Fiat. Thank you for sharing the link i think i might just build me one dem!

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:54 am

Well a quick update. I have been working pretty steadily in the shop over the last 2 months reorganizing and making things more efficient to work in my smaller space. I recently acquired a Grizzly 18" bandsaw and a Delta 15" DC 380 planer. The addition of these two tools made it necessary that I re-structure my work area so that i can move and work in it safely and efficiently. So I have not had a ton of time to actually devote to making things except for some needed shop stuff. So I finally got things pretty close to how I need them to be and today after shopping for a new dryer with the SWMBO I got out to the shop to do a little bit more cleanup and then get to finishing my tablesaw crosscut sled which has been sitting for several weeks now. I had some issue as stated here with my jointer that I had previously not had issues with. I deduced with all your help that it was the piece of wood that was the ultimate problem being that it was bowed/warped. Well today I got the jointer all setup and started to joint a small amount off of one of the Oak sled fences and I again was having the same issues with the jointer not jointing consistently? Well at this point I said to myself this just ain't right. So I decided that maybe the knives could be the source of my headaches. I have to sets of knives and i had one set all sharpened and ready to go. So I yanked the current knives out and put the nice sharp ones in. I adjusted the height on them and then set the jointer to 1/32" to just face the Oak pieces. The very first piece I ran through went through like butter and jointed across the full length of the wood......Yahoo! So then i took the piece over to the table saw and created a second parallel edge on it and then jointed jointed one face. After which I ran it through the planer and voila I had created a perfectly square piece of Oak to use as my fence. To make sure this wasn't a fluke or lucky one time success I then did the same thing to the second piece of oak for the back fence and it was also successfully made square.

So in my haste to make sawdust I forgot a basic thing which was check your blades/edges to make sure they are ready and up for making good dust. I am a happy camper as i also was able to finally get my Wixey Digital Planer Height gauge working accurately as well so I came out of the shop today with not one but two successes which put a smile on my face after many weeks of not accomplishing much of anything but organizing.

I also forgot to mention that I rewired my Rigid TS 3650 tablesaw for 240 V. operation after reading some positive comments online by other owners who had done the same thing. I have to say that it really seemed to make a significant difference in how the saw cuts. I didn't have any bogging down while cutting the relative thick Oak fence boards I made today which in the past would have made the saw really break a sweat. Rewiring was a simpe matter of changing two wires inside the outer overload switch housing and replacing the plug with a 240 V. model to match my receptacle and I was cutting in about 20 min.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:56 am

I used the jointer a good bit yesterday and, for the first time ever, had edges that when held together made a completely seamless joint! I was joining pieces that were shorter than my jointer bed, though. I don't know if the technique I worked on will translate as well to longer pieces.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:04 pm

heathicus wrote:I used the jointer a good bit yesterday and, for the first time ever, had edges that when held together made a completely seamless joint! I was joining pieces that were shorter than my jointer bed, though. I don't know if the technique I worked on will translate as well to longer pieces.

Build an extension for the jointer outfeed table!:)

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Lousy jointer technique or maybe I just don't get it?

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