Jointing boards with a planer

[Dustin Cranford]

Anyone joint on a planer? Or would it just be easier to joint on a tablesaw? I realize a jig of some sort would be needed on the tablesaw, but can't seem to grasp doing it on a planer, but have read somewhere you can.

[Peter Aeschliman]

do a search for "planer sled" and you'll find plenty of info. The planer sled method only works for face jointing... you'd have to make a straight line ripping jig for the table saw to make the edges square to the faces.

[Chad Easterling]

Tablesaw - From what I understand, you have to mark your boards and rip them in a specific order and "this side up" pattern. That way, any deviation from 90 degrees is cancelled by the opposing cut. I've done this a time or two and it works ok. Problem is saw marks, etc.

When you say planer, are you talking about a surface planer or jointer-planer? To joint on a surface planer, you would have to stack enough panels on edge to have a large enough surface to support the stock and then find some way to clamp them together. I'd be scared to try this myself.

[Dustin Cranford]

Yes edge jointing is what I am referring to.

[Quinn McCarthy]

I use the planer to size boards that I use to make trim. It is sort of like jointing one side but I start with a straight edge before I rip.

Quinn

[Joe Scharle]

If you mean jointing a board edge that is perfectly square from one end to the other, then a planner is not a good choice because one edge has to be made square to give a reference to the other edge. A jointer or tablesaw is capable of giving you the reference edge, but personally, I prefer a router and straight edge. I'm much more able to push a small router than wrestle a big piece of lumber and I never have to play around with jointer knives and bed adjustments. I have a jointer, but I don't use it anymore.

[Phil Phelps]

I don't know if this is what you have in mind, but when I make stiles and rails, I rip boards 2 5/8", stack them on edge and run them through the planer. I usually run a gang of four or six at ten or twelve feet long. Works for me.

[Stephen Edwards]

I have several simple jigs that I use with the TS for getting one edge of a board straight, different jigs for different length boards. You can do this after you've face jointed one face of the board and then planed to the desired thickness.

After one edge of the board is straight, you can rotate, or flip, the board and then use the newly created straight edge against the TS fence for sizing the board to the final size needed. I've found that with the proper blade in the TS, more often than not, I don't need to joint the edges of boards. I still do it quite often, though I attribute that to "old habits are hard to break"!