Planer without jointer — doable?

[Eric Schmid]

Steve, in principle you make a good point. Whether it makes sense to work with commercially milled stock, depends largely on what we’re building, however.

I do a lot of laminations and panel glue ups, and the primary wood source is reclaimed. For this work, it’s really important to have both a jointer and a planer; as well as a bandsaw. It’s also important to have hand planes, but the machines do the heavy lifting.

To your point, the work I do with commercially available lumber can often be done without a jointer or planer. Stock selection is important in this pursuit.

The difference between the two is where stock selection happens. With reclaimed or rough lumber, stock selection is in the milling process; by the woodworker in their shop. Having logged enough hours doing this, I agree that this is not a cost effective or money making endeavor. Even with free lumber it’s more expensive than buying commercially available lumber, in my experience.

Cost and profit are not the driving factors in milling your own lumber for many. It’s done for other reasons. At least that’s what I tell myself each time I engage in another project. 🥴

[Warren Lake]

table saw, bandsaw, 8" jointer, planer, drill press, stroke sander and shaper. Edge sander good addition as well. Now you are set up like old guys and can build anything from any material. Its no mystery what machines they bought and all of them did. Zero chance I would not have a jointer.

[Andrew Seemann]

Jointing without a jointer is inconvenient but doable. Thicknessing without a planer is just plain miserable, and beyond the skill and/or stamina level of many people.

Before getting my 8" Jet, I survived with a 6" Craftsman fixed outfeed jointer then a crummy open stand 6" Jet for around 30 years. I normally only used them for edge jointing short boards. Given the option, I would live without a jointer before I lived without a planer.

[Jim Becker]

A planer is not a surface prep tool. No surface is finish ready without sanding or hand planing anyhow. If your stock is coming in S3S, why do you even need a planer?

That would be pretty limiting relative to projects unless they are served well with preconceived thicknesses proportionally. A good example that came early in my woodworking endeavors was Norm Abram's Shaker Wall Clock project. Proportionally, it required thicknesses like 5/16" and 9/16", for example. So while I will agree that many folks can easily work with S3S and S4S material for many kinds of projects, having a thickness planer opens up a lot of opportunity for projects that will be a lot more satisfying when they are not built from 3/4" and other "standard" thicknesses. And, of course, if one wants to work in metric...which is a perfectly valid choice...S4S and S3S isn't going to happen in most of North America. This is just a devil's advocate think because you are not wrong, either.

[lowell holmes]

I have a 734 and a jointer. I would not do without them. The 735 is nice, but I chose the 734 and I have never regretted it.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

That would be pretty limiting relative to projects unless they are served well with preconceived thicknesses proportionally. A good example that came early in my woodworking endeavors was Norm Abram's Shaker Wall Clock project. Proportionally, it required thicknesses like 5/16" and 9/16", for example. So while I will agree that many folks can easily work with S3S and S4S material for many kinds of projects, having a thickness planer opens up a lot of opportunity for projects that will be a lot more satisfying when they are not built from 3/4" and other "standard" thicknesses. And, of course, if one wants to work in metric...which is a perfectly valid choice...S4S and S3S isn't going to happen in most of North America. This is just a devil's advocate think because you are not wrong, either.

I do enjoy debating it with you Jim! I do have a couple planers, so I'd do the shaker clock that way too, but you could also do it resawn off the bandsaw and cleaned up with handplanes. That approach would get allow bookmatch panels if you wanted. Last thing I did that needed thinner stock was a kid gate out of quatersawn white oak, so the thinner slats had to be kept quartered. I did use the planer for that because I didn't have enough 5/4 stock on hand, but it could have been done with the resawn technique with way less waste. This project was years ago....

You know I do this full time, so there have been several projects in between, and I have not had a single reason to use a planer to dimension stock in the mean time. Maybe you guys are just making cooler stuff, but the 734 gets used to knock filth off recycled redwood when we use it, and the Felder has probably died of boredom waiting on a job worthy of it. Oh, I can spec any custom thickness I want from my supplier to should it be needed, metric included. 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4 are the normal stuff.

[Ed Mitchell]

If you're a hobbyist it's entirely doable, and coming from a hand tool background, I'd say it's a luxury.

Remember, you do not have to get that initial face flat. All you have to do is get it to the point where it won't rock going through the planer. If you're buying your lumber from a lumberyard where it's skip-planed or better, that's often very little work.

You can use wedges to support twisted boards and all sorts of other shortcuts. You're just taking off the worst offenders of the high spots that can't play well with others, then you're on to the next board.

[Andrew More]

I think you raise some good points, but I've got some questions.

First, how do you clean up resawn boards? Maybe you can avoid this because you've got a certain type of projects you're building.
Second, how do you handle boards that warp overtime, or after being sawn?

FWIW, after your comments, I decided to check my local sawyers. The most popular one does not offer anything but rough cut. There's another one about 45 minutes away that's focused on commercial customers, with a 250 bf minimum, who will do it for 0.45 per bf. 250 bf is a LOT for a hobbiest like me, so I usually don't go there. Finally we've got a fancy wood working place that charges about 2x for the s4s products. Then there are all the random people on Craigslist, who often carry rough sawn. So the ability to get cheap s4s does not always appear to be available.

[Tom Henderson2]

Thanks for your insights everyone; they are all very helpful.

I will likely “step up” to the planer now; hopefully a Jointer in the future.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I think you raise some good points, but I've got some questions.

First, how do you clean up resawn boards? Maybe you can avoid this because you've got a certain type of projects you're building.
Second, how do you handle boards that warp overtime, or after being sawn?

FWIW, after your comments, I decided to check my local sawyers. The most popular one does not offer anything but rough cut. There's another one about 45 minutes away that's focused on commercial customers, with a 250 bf minimum, who will do it for 0.45 per bf. 250 bf is a LOT for a hobbiest like me, so I usually don't go there. Finally we've got a fancy wood working place that charges about 2x for the s4s products. Then there are all the random people on Craigslist, who often carry rough sawn. So the ability to get cheap s4s does not always appear to be available.

Andrew, in a no planer shop, a smoothing plane works well. If the bandsaw is a little subpar, the work increases, but the added benefit is getting a ready for finish surface early in the process. As for wood that moves in storage, it either gets used for small pieces where the moving parts can be cut out, or just tossed. I do not trust a board that moved once to not do it again if I mill it out.

I've heard reports of similar lack of good mills. I'd recommend widening the search, figure out where the local pros shop, and you'll have a lead. My mill delivers twice a month, it's 100 miles away. 100 bf gets you free delivery. I commonly add a few boards on for the high school kids and their projects, always willing to add a little more to my orders to to help a hobbiest get some good stuff delivered too. It doesn't matter what I order really, just has to meet the minimum quantity, so multiple species in not a problem. One of your local shops or yards will probably provide similar resources. It does not allow sorting through the stacks for the exact board you want, but the price is usually enough lower so you get you more stock for the same price and have more to be picky with. Mills that cater to hobbyists in my experience tend to not have the volume to afford expensive new machines. One of the mill guys said their new Weinig costed $250,000 installed, so you can imagine small mills aren't buying many.

[Jim Becker]

Steve, I think there are many situations where S3S and S4S is the right choice...including many folks in the woodworking business, because of the time savings. It's great for beginning woodworkers, too, because as you clearly note, it doesn't require a whole shop of tools. Over time, we all figure out what our own directions are.

The OP's original question was whether a planer could suffice without a jointer, of course, and as has been noted in the thread, yes, he can. Many of us would certainly prefer to have that other tool, however. And that's ok, too.

[Matthew Hills]

I think it is viable to rough flatten a few boards or get a panel finished with hand planes.

This is satisfying sometimes, but I would prefer to not need to do that for every work piece. So I'd tend to echo the suggestion to consider a basic benchtop planer and looking for a 6" jointer.

Matt

[Andrew More]

I've heard reports of similar lack of good mills. I'd recommend widening the search, figure out where the local pros shop, and you'll have a lead.

I'm on a couple of local facebook groups for wood working. The subject has come up a few times, and most don't know about the place I mentioned that does milling, falling back on the other two, so from what I can tell, I am the local pro, at least when it comes to finding sawyers.

Part of it comes from looking for pine thick enough for interior doors, which is an odd request, so I've had to do some digging.

[Jim Becker]

Part of it comes from looking for pine thick enough for interior doors, which is an odd request, so I've had to do some digging.

I had to special order it and take a "bundle" which was more than I needed, but such nice stuff that I had no complaints, knowing I'd use the remainder for something else.

[Scott Bernstein]

Hobby woodworker here. I think this question relates to time, and how tolerant one is of frustration. If you start with rough lumber (or previously S3S stock which has sat around the shop and needs to be re-milled) it has to be edge-jointed and thickness-planed by some mechanism. Doing this all with hand planes can be done, but takes time. Accomplishing this with only a planer and tablesaw is also completely doable, but also takes time (although less than completely by hand) and you need to make some jigs/planing sleds. This is what I did when I started woodworking and I had a dewalt 735 (no jointer). The sled and wedges worked as advertised, but as my projects got bigger it became difficult to face joint very long pieces with this methodology. Once I got a jointer everything changed and got easier. Eventually I got a 16" combo machine and it has made things incredibly easy and I can use any rough lumber I want.