Jointing boards for tabletop

[Doug Winterburn]

I'll get a couple this afternoon and put 'em on abpf

-Doug

[Bruce]

Sounds neat, got any pics?

[Kevin P. Fleming]

Thanks for the pics Doug, this looks like a pretty nifty idea. No reason that 1/16" shim on the outfeed side couldn't be laminate or anything else either. Maybe I'll give this a try this weekend :-)

[Bruce]

Great, I'm ready to make one.

[Mike G]

Mmmm, a bold remark. Possibly, so I will qualify it a bit.

You must have a flat face in order to have something to reference the other sides too. This job is best accomplished on a jointer rather then a planer , a tool not designed for the task, without some Mickey mousing with shims, jigs or what ever. The notion that one can accurately and consistently develop a flat reference face using a thickness planer and making light cuts is hog wash. Sometimes you get lucky mostly you don't because it still requires a fair amount of downward pressure from the feed rollers to get the stock to feed through the planer.

All in all, you want to do the job quickly and accurately the jointer is the tool to use. It is what the tool was designed for..

[Tom Watson]

I do it all the time on a lunch box Delta with soft feed rollers and nary a jig nor shim in sight. I'd be a little more careful about what you call hogwash.

Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet Website:

[Bruce]

Are the pics there? I don't see them yet.

[Dan]

On Mon 29 Dec 2003 05:08:16p, "Kevin P. Fleming" wrote in news:ut2Ib.32757$gN.7498@fed1read05:

Yeah, me too. :-) Probably not this weekend but I've got no shortage of mdf or thinstock, and this setup looks pretty easy to make and store.

Dan

[Mike G]

Nope, my opinion and I stick with it.

[Roger McIlmoyle]

Have to agree. I'd have to see it done with a set of winding sticks on it to prove it. If the rollers have enough to pull the board through then they are following the board. At best it would be like using a smoothing plane rather than a jointer.

Might take out cross board cup at most, but, I'll bet twist would remain.

[Bruce]

Oh, now there is a precision instrument. How bout a granite surface plate instead?

[Guy LaRochelle]

You know..............I am a novice woodworker but I often wondered why a person couldn't do it that way. Thanks Tom.........I am going to try this before purchasing a jointer. Regards. -Guy

[Mike at American Sycamore]

way, but in my opinion and my years of experience is the best and most effective. Thank you for sharing. Mike from American Sycamore

[Mike G]

Thanks Mike, my pleasure.

And, as we all know, there is almost always at least three ways to skin a cat in woodworking and that is just as true for this process.

[Lowell Holmes]

That's why I have started paying a 15 cent premium to get my wood S3S. I can work around and do it without an adequate jointer, but it's worth the premium to start out with a square board.

****************************************************************************

the only way, but in my opinion and my years of experience is the best and most effective. Thank you for sharing.

[Tom Watson]

Opinions are nice but experience is better. I followed the more traditional method for many years prior to trying the planer method. My experience with both tells me that the planer method is faster and safer.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion so long as you do not misrepresent it as fact, which is what you were doing when you said, "The notion that one can accurately and consistently develop a flat reference face using a thickness planer and making light cuts is hog wash."

BTW: Does what I have quoted below represent your previous opinion on the subject and, if so, what changed your mind?

From: [e-mail] (Mike G.) Subject: Re: planers Date: 1998/11/02 Message-ID: #1/1 References:

Organization: The Internet Access Company, Inc. Newsgroups: rec.woodworking

"It is possable, with a great deal of care, and taking only the lightest of light cuts, to remove some warping from the faces of a board using a surface planer..."

Hope it helps Mike G. (AKA MtCowboy) [e-mail]

Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet Website:

[Mike G]

Actually my opinion is based on milling many many board feet of rough cut lumber.

And yes, it is my comment and I haven't changed my mind. It is possible but neither easy, efficient, nor accurately repeatable enough to be a truly viable option. Same with various jigs and shims. It's all hit and miss. Pretty much Mickey mouse stuff. A good hand plane can do a better and faster job of prepping stock if one doesn't have a jointer handy

[Larry Kraus]

I *think* I need to thank you for explaining this to my wife. She visited you one day earlier this month to make a toolbox and learn a bit about woodworking. Apparently she learned quite a bit and had a very good time. She called me twice while driving home to tell me how many tools she used and how much fun it was, plus there was some kind of giggling coming from the other side of the bed as I was drifting off around midnight. She is using your course catalog to plan her vacation. She has started showing a lot more interest in the shop and my tools, to the extent that she decided the 4" jointer on my Shopsmith was inadequate, and the Stanleys were too slow. So I am now re-arranging the shop to make room for a newly-arrived DJ-20. If my gratefulness seems less than 100%, it is because I think SHE plans to use it! If you are going to encourage her to move in on my last refuge, I hope you are planning to offer brewing courses so I can drown my sorrows while she is making sawdust.

[e-mail] (Mike at American Sycamore) wrote:

[Jeff Gorman]

"Lowell Holmes" wrote

: ..............I have started paying a 15 cent premium to get my wood S3S. I can : work around and do it without an adequate jointer, but it's worth the : premium to start out with a square board.

The snag with this approach is that you have to work pretty swiftly before drying or 'change of skin' (my jargon) cause dimensional and angular changes (ie going diamond shaped through shrinkage).

Jeff G

-- Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK Email address is username@ISP username is amgron ISP is clara.co.uk Website

[Hylourgos]

I know what you mean--I initially got a cheap import model, all shiny at first but the motor whined rather than purred, frequently broke down and always gave an unsatisfactory edge, no matter how many times I ran a board through. I was mad at first when it was stolen, but after having upgraded to an American model my boards have become much straighter and I couldn't be happier.

H,

...on a slow day trying any sophomoric diversion rather than working on the paper I should be writing.