Who Needs a Jointer?
December 30th, 2008Cheap = Good
I love Taunton.com. I pay a piddling sum every year, and they let me root through their PDF articles. They also have videos.
Today I found a great article. A woodworker named Gary Rust (good thing he’s not a welder) invented a sled you can use to run warped boards through a planer. It will give you one flat, milled side. Then you flip the wood over and plane the other side without the sled.
This is fantastic. Not only can you avoid buying a jointer; you can use a $350 planer to plane boards nearly a foot wide. Yes, I said “plane.” Let’s be serious; that’s what a jointer does.
Grizzly’s cheapest 8″ jointer costs $700 plus shipping, and it’s merely a Grizzly, and it’s gigantic. This guy’s sled will do bigger boards, and it costs $20.
Here’s what I want to know. Why isn’t somebody patenting and selling this? Too late now; he put it in a magazine article. But he could have made some money. I would have been thrilled to pay between fifty and a hundred bucks for a simple, compact tool that would let me avoid buying a jointer.
If this thing works, it means you can plane and thickness your wood on your planer, square up the edges with your table saw or even a circular saw and track system, and avoid the jointer altogether.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:44 PM
You posted something before about making small boxes as practice. I don’t think you need a planer or a joiner for that.
I’ve made some nice stuff, but a planer or jointer weren’t needed.
What would you like to start with?
All I’m saying is pick a project, maybe a work table, a magazine rack, gun case or something else you want and work from there. Something teak for your dad’s boat?
It looks like Florida has a surplus of inexpensive major power tools, unlike around here. Get one as you “need” it.
Geez, don’t listen to me, I’m not a woodworker. Talk to Gladys.
Whatever you do, I’m going to enjoy reading about it.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:08 AM
The sled has its attractions, but is a bit of a pain to actually use. There’s a lot of setup to using it. You have to do a lot of fiddling to get the shims right under the work piece (otherwise all you get is a thin warped board).
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Oh, it works. But a joiner is easier to use.
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Where a sled shines is when you’re working with wider pieces, and you don’t want glue lines.
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If the work piece is that nice though, you’re probably better off using hand planes.
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