Never face joint your boards?!????

[Alan Lilly]

IMHO... a better name for both machines would actually be:

A jointer should be called a planer, since the board surface "planer". This is what the British and Aussies call it.
A planer should be called a thickness coplanar, since it makes opposing surfaces parallel/coplanar and adjusts material thickness. The British call it a thickness planer.

[Prashun Patel]

I vote to drop the word 'planer' and 'jointer' together (especially when I'm feeling Neander using my 'jointer plane'). Both terms are confusing. I vote instead for 'thicknesser' and 'flattener'.

[Jerry Olexa]

I respectfully disagree with the advice they gave you...I always joint first...the planer merely reflects the good side you created..

[Ian Moone]

Alan Lilly is correct - working 20 years with my Aussie joiner father, he always referred to the jointer as the "Planer" and the planer as the thicknesser!.

I just swap the terms around for US forums.

[Ole Anderson]

Where I get my wood, I always have them rough thickness it to save wear and tear on my lunchbox planer and to avoid having to empty my cyclone catch bucket too often. They always surface it first on an old 24"? jointer, then run it through a planer to get the thickness I want, usually 1/16" over final. And they always sight down the board first to make sure they surface the correct side.

[Jason Roehl]

I think some are missing the point.

I'll stipulate that the BEST practice is to face joint, edge joint, plane (thickness), rip.

However, not everyone can just plunk down a fully-equipped shop and start with the best practices. This leads to gaining experience in "workarounds" as one builds up their tool inventory. I think the problem with the club is that they've dwelt on the workarounds as good practice, turning them into gospel.

If I have a 5/4 x 8 board that is cupped, putting it through my lunchbox planer WITH APPROPRIATE TECHNIQUE will remove the cup. It's just time-consuming (one of the trade-offs of workarounds usually). I send it through taking a very light cut (1/64"-1/32") so that the board is not compressed much by the planer feed rollers with the cup down. This gives it a smooth stripe down the middle. Then I flip it and lower the head for another very light cut, producing two smooth stripes down the outer edges of the board. Repeat as necessary. With each pass, the stripes get wider until they cover the faces.

For twist, one would need a sled and shims. The bottom line is that the cutting action of a planer/thicknesser and a jointer is the same, just different fence, bed and feed setups. With workarounds, they can be made to function similarly.