Just bought a Nutool bench planer - tips wanted

Jointing with a bench planer ? Are you turning the stock on edge to joint the edges or am I not understanding what you're saying....

Bob S.

Yes, edge planing to join two boards along the edges. This is a jointer if that makes sense.

Ian

Okay but your post did read bench planer.

We need to know a bit more about what kind of problem you're having. Could be a simple mechanical adjustment or a technique problem but most likely a combination.

Some easy points to cover without knowing what the problem is:

1. The manual should cover the alignment process - check it out.
2. Biggest technique error is applying to much pressure on the infeed side. Very little downward pressure is needed on the stock - just enough to keep it flush to the table and on the knives as the stock passes over them. Once you have enough stock past the knives, your hands should then only be applying pressure to the stock on the outfeed table side. You must keep the stock flat to the table. Pushing it through in one fluid motion (hand over hand) at a steady pace is recommended.
3. Remember, using a jointer does not make one edge or face parallel to the other. That's the job for the tablesaw (edge) and planer (face). So if the jointed edge is flat and square to one face of the stock - it's doing it's job.

There's a whole host of things that could be the problem and many books written on this very topic but it's not brain surgery and the technique is easily learned. I had a url that did have an animated tutorial on how to joint and generalized tune-up procedures but it doesn't work anymore. Perhaps someone else has a newer link for you to look at.

Bob S.

I'm a bit puzzled why you're having trouble getting an edge suitable for jointing--it's not really all that hard. What specific problem are you seeing with the edges you're getting?

I had a goggle with Google and found a pic of the NuTool here:

There's another on eb*y at

Go down to jointers on

Use a hand plane. The money you wasted on that piece of junk would have bought you a nice #7.

That thing is just too short to joint an edge fit for gluing.

Ok, thanks for that, just what I needed - some tips on technique. I'll persevere and see what happens as I've not used one of these before.

Also noted is Andy's comment (further down) that the thing is too short to get an edge fit for gluing - anyone have any comments on that? If this is the case then I'll have to get a better one, since I only bought this on to practise the technique - Norm makes it look soooooooooo easy!

Ian