I very much enjoy all your videos. However, I do want to share a safety note on this video. I as you like using steel or machinist squares in my work. A while ago while using my joiner and squaring the vertical alignment with my metal square inadvertently left it on the horizontal face. It blended in with the “steel on steel” face. Without seeing it, I turned on the jointer and it was caught by the spinning blade launching it past my ear, close enough to draw blood. It continued past my head and embedded itself in my ceiling! After getting over the scary shakes, I tried to pull it out of the ceiling, however it found a ceiling joist behind the sheet rock and could not be easily removed. I still use steel squares but, they all have an added big yellow warning mark on them. Oh yes the square in the ceiling ie still there to remind me to be safe & triple check.
Thanks for the blade adjustment tips. I never use my jointer because it seems like it never does what i would hope it would. It is definitely a tool of technique. So it would be informative to know 1) how much lower the infeed table should be, 2) which grain direction to push toward the blade, 3) where to apply the pressure with your hands, for example apply pressure on the infeed and let it rest on the outfeed, or switch pressure to the outfeed once there is enough room and drag it across, etc., and finally how many passed you actually took to remove that crown.
Bought a jointer this morning as I have hundreds of cheap, warped hardwood posts to 'straighten' - This video just taught me all I need to know! Awesome, cheers!
I just put together my first jointer yesterday, found this video and thank you..... now I understand the next steps of checking the knives and the tables and the square...very helpful. and of course I like the comments, too, it alllll helps me.
Just bought a 'good ole' ( heavy cast iron) pre loved (old) jointer and first try, it wasn't quite performing to my expectations. Your video showed me how to just tweak the height of the outfeed table (1/8 inch movement), it was set a bit too high, and ouala! now it works like a charm! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Lessons learned about the jointer, in high school woodworking shop class (about 1966). Always check the setup first. Never try to joint anything less than 12 inches long. Always use push blocks. Safety glasses and hearing protection. Never work in a hurry. One memorable day, one of the shop teachers violated all of those rules. Short piece of wood, no push block, in a hurry. He sacrificed his right thumb to the jointer - presumably so we would have clear memory of the rules all these years later.
Colin; Thanks for this excellent video, especially the part about setting the outfeed table with respect to the knives. I was always frustrated with my jointing results because my jointer would remove a huge amount from each end of the workpiece and virtually nothing in the middle. I tried varying my technique (more / less hand pressure at various places, etc) but nothing worked. In hindsight, the knives were too low vs the outfield table even though they looked right. I set my outfield table as you suggested, using a steel rule and having the knives engage the rule enough to move it a specific amount. On my 6" Delta bench top jointer (Model JT160), I had to adjust each individual knife to get the right setting, but in the end I immediately got much better results. Now I can perfect my results by focusing on my technique, knowing that the jointer is set correctly. Many thanks for restoring my enjoyment of my jointer.
Hey Collin, thank u for keeping people informed about using big machinery in woodworking. Your Video reminded me about using safety protection. Only safe is cool! FH22
Thanks Colin I couldn’t figure out why the used jointer I bought seemed to cut the ends but not the middle. Now I know jointer blades are too low. Greetings from Maine.
Thank you for the video. My friend came across a Rex cut jointer which was made in British Cloumbia it the mid 1970s. we had to make a base and find a motor for it. We have it running I was trying to fine tune it and your video was what I needed.
I really appreciate the way you explain things. Using the whiteboard graphics is tremendously helpful. It's like" planer 101", which is what most people are looking for, as opposed to other how-to videos which seem to be "advanced whatever", Thanks.
GREAT video Colin! Easy 2 follow & understand. I just bought a new 6" jointer and excited about using it. I'm researching as much as possible. Safety is my PRIMARY goal! Have A Super Blessed Week!.....Gus
Thanks for the video. I was having trouble with my jointer and it was getting frustrating to the point I was about to give up on it. Everywhere I looked it said the blades needed to be even with the outfeed table. I adjusted them just like this video said and it worked perfectly.
OMG that piece of wood looks like something i did my first weeks in boatbuilding school...LOLthese vids for beginners are great..we do things in the trade that we dont gjve a second thought to..but new people dont have a glue what or how to do things..
I learned this at ENGAGED ENCOUNTER. "Please take this in the spirit it is intended. (compliment - truth) I love your videos. They are very informative and helpful. Thank-you. But I think your messages might engage more people if you made several slight improvements. 1. Microphone and echo. Investing in a wearable mic to reduce echo - as well as dampening material in your shop / studio. 2. Lighting. Tips from Matthias Wandel on lighting are excellent. 3. Rehearsed script. Don't hesitate to stop/backup and re-PERFORM a section if you flub or UH or UM. Filmora makes it effortless to edit out the flubs, UM or UH...' Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing. .... ok, ready, set HATERS...GO!
good video but i set the knives and then set the out feed table height to the blades so i dont get snipe. run two boards across your jointer and then put them face to face. if there are no gaps then you have your jointer correctly set. i do explain this on my own channel.
I have a delta as well. Can you do a quick video on how to adjust the fence to 90? Trying to figure out how to do that... as well as raise and lower my outfeed table. It is sitting too low.
So you never put the crown side of the lumber across the blades? And how much pressure, if any, are you putting on the board when you're running it over the blades? Thanks!
Thanks for this video. I'm trying to adjust my Delta jointer 37-280 as you say with the blades just sightly higher than the outfeed table but can't figure out how to either raise the outfeed table or the knives. From what I can see only the infeed table is adjustable. I just got this jointer used. Thanks
I am new to woodworking but I have access to a public use wood shop. When I used the jointer, does it make a difference if I run my piece through it in one direction and then turn it around so that the back side is now the front side that I'm feeding it through and also should I use the planer for the crown instead of the jointer? Thanks!
Colin, I'm a raw beginner but I'm enjoying your videos... now to make the beginner series better... tell me what a jointer is, what it does, and why I want one in my shop. It's all well and good to know how to use something, but if I don't know why I'd want to use it then what's the point? From watching this, I didn't see anything different than a name for a planer. Thanks!
Hey Bill, what a jointer gives you is a FLAT and SQUARE reference point from which you can perform other operations on the piece, depending upon what you want. The 1st pass shown in the video gives you a flat, consistent surface. If you then want a straight, flat, parallel, and evenly thick board, you can run that piece through a planer (flat side down) because you now have a consistent reference. The 2nd pass gives you a square (and flat) reference. This allows you to do things like use that flat, square edge against a table saw fence to rip the piece to the desired dimension and have the board be straight all the way through. I hope that helps!
Thanks for the video. But I think it would be helpful to actually describe how you are pushing the wood through the jointer. In other words what directions you are applying force and how much force you are applying. My understanding is that you should apply as little downwards force as necessary to grip the wood, as otherwise you will deform the wood and it will spring back on exiting the jointer. you should apply downwards force on the out feed table but not the infeed.
Exactly.... Took me a long time to understand what is no obvious, but I couldn't understand why I couldn't get good results... I was alternating between putting pressure on the in-feed and the out-feed.... Pulled a lot of hair and wasted a lot of wood before the obvious was obvious.... Out-feed length and stability is important too...
What brand are your brass set up blocks/Where can I get some? Thanks for the video I have the same router and was have trouble getting it set up properly.
yes, this seems to be the case, infeed is perfect 90*, outfeed,,, not so much! Ive been doing everything I can think of, even checked the straightness of the fence with my $100 lee valley straight edge, apparently its straight but I still cant seem to get both sides at 90*...... The head scratching begins.
Rob White Yup ... this can be pretty frustrating. the only thing that I know of that can fix this is shims and this may not be pretty but you would have to ease off one of the sides of the infeed or outfeed table that you want to shim. For shim material I would suggest some sheet brass. Hard to find, but very thin and fairly easy to work with. With out being there, I would say you need to shim out one whole side and the sheet brass might be a perfect thickness, but you could check it ahead of time by using a small piece of the brass on top one of the table so see if it is the right height.
Question: Is it possible to use a 6" jointer to square up the surface of stock up to 12" by flipping the wood around and running it back through? Or will I get an uneven surface/tearout problems? (Haven't bought the jointer yet, but considering it.)
JohnFx I have seen this done but have not done this myself, though doing a full 12" wide may not be possible, but at least an 11" or a bit more. Most 6" jointers I have worked with don't quite joint the full 6 inches they are often a wee bit shy once they are set up ... just so you have a heads-up on that.
Great video. Do you know why there are so many jointer accident stories? I found a great deal on one, but I keep reading about stories of horrible accidents. When I watch jointer videos they look far, far safer than table saw videos. Table saws can twist the material and kick it back violently at your head, due to the blade lifting and shooting the material upwards. Table saws with no riving knife seem far more dangerous and likely to create a severe accident. What is the number #1 cause of jointer accidents?
If I had to guess, the cause is just what you describe. People look at a jointer, think it looks really safe (unlike the big scary table saw) and take it as a license to do stupid things with it. Just a guess though
See my comment elsewhere in this thread. Even teachers can have bad days. Every power tool can and should be used safely. If used in an unsafe manner, any power tool can injure, maim or kill in less than th blink of an eye. Safety is always the responsibility of the person using the tool - nobody else can do your safety stuff for you. The same tthing about safety also applies to operating motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft and a lot of other things. YOU are responsible for your own safety when you are operating them.
Hi Collin, just started my woodworking adventure, and used my bench top jointer. For the first time yesterday after setting it all up, with disastrous results, followed the manual to the letter too, it told me to set the blades level with the out feed table, after 5 or 6 passes only the front of the timber was being shaved, it also said to keep my weight on the out-feed table, so frustrating I’ve so much recycled Oregon to use and want to get started, Help!!!
Good... only what is a jointer and what does it do? A completely ignorant person comes away from this video not really sure what is being done by the jointer...
vaibhav Khandelwal You can do this a couple of ways and it depends how much "easing" you want. If just a small amount, I would just touch it up with some sandpaper, probably 120 grit. If you want more, a round-over bit in a router would work. There are many, many different radius to choose from and from many different manufacturers.
It looks like you have a delta 37-190 jointer or at least similar. So my question here is "How do you adjust the tables if they are not parallel? I have had one of these for a long time and the book that came with it doesn't show this. I've searched the web for it but to no avail. Thanks
i'm a complete novice, and i don't want to spend the money for a jointer, and planer.. do u think if i set up a movable fence on top somehow, that i could use the jointer as a planer.. i have yet to build either.. like i said i'm just getting into this.. i'm still a bit confused as to why a thickness planer leaves wood warped while a jointer does not.. having never used either.. i just got into this, because of some projects i got into, that evolved tangentally..
desalvo66 It is very difficult to get jointer to act like a planer, but it is possible to get planer to joint, so you may be better off with a planer. A thickness planer will only leave wood warped if it was warped when it was sent into the planer. The way a planer can joint is to find a very flat, probably 1 inch thick piece of MDF board to use as a base ... then put the board you want to joint on it and use hot melt glue to ship any gaps between the wood you are planing and the MDF. When you run this through your planer, you should end up with the top surface flat, you can then remove it from the MDF, flip it over and run it through the planer again. The one thing a planer may not be able to do is edge joint, but if you have a good table saw, with and excellent blade, you should be able to do that there. I am going to be doing video of this in the next few weeks ... hope this helps
I'm a bit confused about the "moving the ruler an 1/8 inch" rule. Wouldn't the ideal be that you just barely touch the ruler? Or if you want to make a similar rule, "move the ruler a 1/64 inch"?
Hey ... if that works for you, absolutely. There are often different ways to achieve the same end, so if your method works for you, no point in changing it :)
Push pads were needed on the first pass with the board laying flat as there was no easy way to grip the board firmly (and also at the same time keep your fingers well clear of the cutters. On the second pass there was a good gripping area at the top edge of the upright board, and with your hands centered there your fingers would not reach the cutters. I'm no expert, but this is what my logic tells me.
Running wood through with the crown side up cuts off only the "high" spots - where the board touches the table. Repeat until the jointer makes a clean straight cut along the whole board. (It helps to make pencil lines along the edge or face being jointed. When all of the pencil lines are gone, you are done. If you jointed an edge, you can make the opposite edge straight and parallell using a radial arm or table saw. Place the freshly jointed edge against the fence and adjust the saw to take off about the thickness of the blade, then push the board through. Repeat until that edge is straight. If you jointed a face, after one side is flat you can run the board through a planer (or drum sander) - with the new flat side DOWN - and plane it until it gets to the thickness you want. At that point the two faces will be flat and parallell. Or you can use a marking gauge to scribe lines close to the other face that are parallell to the flat face, then use hand planes to plane the wood down to the lines. (The pencil lines are really helpful here.) Start with the highest points and work on them until the board is flat. If a crowned or twisted board is only put through a planer (without flattening one face first) it will come out thinner but still with the twist or crown.
Everytime I use my jointer the trailing end of the wood comes out shorter than the leading edge. I have checked and my jointer seems to be aligne properly. What am I doing wrong.
Thanks for the video. Love your stuff. Quick question though. If you're always running the wood through with the crown up, how do you get rid of the crown? I can see how that would make 1 side flat, but how do you then flatten the other side?
+Aaron Schrank Good question ... once the side that is being planed flat on the jointer is finished the board is normally run through a planer which then flattens the to and makes the board parallel from end to end
I had to look through the comments to find this. Seems like a "Duh" kind of answer, you might want to add that into the video somewhere though. Great video though!!!!!!
The jointer shouldn't be used as a planer, the planer will make something flat and parallel to a reference edge and the jointer will simply make one face flat. More often than not you'll end up with two faces that are flat but not parallel by running them both over the jointer.
I bought a planer and now I am finding out I need a jointer. May I ask what kind of jointer are you using in the video. As a beginner which joiner would you recommend.
Good point Matt, I am going to do more on this later, not really enough time in this vid ... but, yes, if you can, joint with the grain, if you cannot (which is often the case) run against the grain, then flip it around and run one last pass with the grain, downhill as you say. Thanks again for mentioning, others will pick this up too :)
you suggest 2 sheets paper high, what about some other postings that tell me to have the knives perfectly level with outfeed table. Which is best? why? Thanks for your help.
Rob White You can do either, the reason I like to have the knives slightly higher is because when they are even, there is a risk they fall below the outfeed, or with a bit usage, they fall below the outfeed and now there is no way you can get a flat planed board. If the knives are slightly above the outfeed, you will get a bit of snipe, which may or many not make any difference to what you are using the wood for, or it can be cut off. About the only time I really worry about snipe is when I am making rail and stile door frames, then I just trim it off. Often the ends of boards are split and need to be trimmed off, so always best to do this after planing regardless of where the knives are. lol ... in my opinion
This is a jointer. A planer is a similar idea of using saw blades to flatten a face, but the blades are above the wood and the assumption is that the face the wood is lying on is already flat (has already gone through a jointer). See video #8 in this series.
@@Dragonfly37b Yes, the jointer makes the wood flat on the side you run over the blades (the bottom side). The planer has blades on the top of the board you run through it, so if the bottom of the board is flat (which it is after jointing) the planer will shave off the top of the board until it is flat, too. (more accurately, the planer makes the top parallel with the bottom of the board) It took me a while to understand how the feeds and blades worked on wood for both pieces of equipment. Now I just have to buy them. :)
I have to ask and this is something that seems to be the holy grail that no one wants to talk about, when jointing twisted/cupped/bowed boards where to keep the pressure at the front and and alternate when knowing where the twist is means where you change the amount of pressure on the board, so say you have a twist from left to right, doesn't that mean you need to feed the board and alternate the pressure according to the twist to take out the twist or by just feeding 'smile up' board in sorts that out - I can't see how what you have said in yr vid works for anything more than just a cupped board... :( Hope that makes sense... :/
Ah ... I think I follow, doesn't really matter what the board is, you always need to keep pressure on the same portion, usually you try to work it so that the pressure get transferred to the outfeed table as soon as possible, but like all things in woodworking, there are often different ways, and sometimes you have to make judgements on what will work best. Hope that is what you are looking for
WoodWorkWeb Thank you for replying Colin, I haven't bought a jointer yet (lack of space) I use a thicknesser and sled. I also use my router table still to no avail with twisted boards, cupped etc yes fine, twisted no cigar :/ The part I don't seen to get or understand is with a twisted board putting pressure on the board on the out feed just seems to give me the exact same results just as twisted just thinner :( When I can figure out where I'm going wrong I'll spend the cash on a jointer... Hope you're having a nice weekend fella :))
ben celiz Ben, you would attach the board to a rigid sled (two thicknesses of plywood laminated together) with the crown side up. Chalk up the crown face. Run through the thicknesser/planer such that it only touches up the top most part of the crown. Then, with each pass, you slowly adjust down until the whole top face is planed (all chalk is gone of the crown up face). Now you have a flat face, and you can remove the board from the sled, flip it over, and plane it as you would usually do.
Hi Murray, as I skimmed over in the vid, once you have one face flat and one edge is at 90 degrees and also true, you can go to what ever machine you need, planer, table saw, bandsaw, router etc. really depends on what you are going to do with your wood.
i have a question? say i had a 4 inch think slab of hardwood and wanted to split in into 2 just under 2 inch thick slabs, how would one go about doing that without super expensive equipment? would it be possible to do with a chain saw or is there a specific type of handsaw i could buy? and as for a jointer, how much would one able to do something like a desk or bar top cost? or is there another power tool way of doing it?
I finally got my table co-plane,,,, perfecto! So I was a happy guy to say the least. I will confess: taking apart the jointer, removing the infeed table to have it machined to half of 1/1000, (it was off by 35/1000) and then reassembling the entire machine,, "all by myself" was a challenge to say the lest. My lack of patience only adds to my problems. Ive got my fence tuned right in at 90* to the table but for some reason after planning the face then the side of a 2" X 4" X 5', the corner is NOT exactly 90*. The head scratching starts! Could this be due to one of my knives being too high? Any advice? thanks a lot.
Rob White One thing to check Rob, is the infeed and the outfeed BOTH at 90 degrees. I have used planers where when you set the fence to 90 degrees using the infeed table it's perfect, then when you check it with the outfeed table it is out a tiny bid. Let me know if that is any help Colin
what are some examples of why i would want to use a jointer or planer? usually i just buy my lumber from the hardware store, cut to size and throw it together, so what are these fancy machines gain us?
Andrew A If you are buying rough lumber, these machines would be needed to plane and edge the boards but in your case you are purchasing finished lumber, which sounds like it is working fine for what you are doing.
