In this week’s video, I show how to use an electric hand planer to join longer boards in a tiny woodworking shop. An edge guide for jointing is frequently included with an electric hand planer. To be honest, jointing is what these machines excel at.
You can simply produce a glue-ready edge on any sized board after you learn how to set up your planer properly. When compared to using a bench top jointer, this method has a few advantages. I also demonstrate how to use a number four Stanley Bailey smoothing plane to finish the edge to make it glue-ready.
Can an electric planer be used as a jointer?
Woodworking jointers and planers grind wood to the precise proportions so that it can be used to create furniture and other tasks. If you don’t have a jointer in your workshop or your wood piece is too large to fit through, you can flatten both pieces of wood with your planer.
Colin from the WoodWorkWeb YouTube channel walks us through the exact scenario of trying to joint a twisted piece of wood that is too huge to fit through his jointer.
Is a jointer required if I have a planer?
I recently received an email from Doug, who had a great question about some large power tool purchases.
I can only afford to purchase one tool at a time, with months between purchases. Which would you select if you had to choose between a planer and a jointer? Doug
Most woodworkers are aware that to get the most out of raw lumber, you’ll need both a planer and a jointer (at least for power tool users). The planer is used to make the second face flat and parallel to the first, after the jointer has flattened one face and squared up one edge. Check out this Milling Lumber video to learn more about the process. Given the high cost of these instruments, it’s not unexpected that most of us will only be able to purchase one at a time. Choosing which one arrives first could mean the difference between having a functional new tool in your shop and having a decoration that collects dust in the corner until its mate arrives.
You should, in my opinion, buy the planer first. You’ll be able to achieve more with it than you would with a jointer on its own. The jointer is only capable of producing one flat face and one square/flat edge. You may surely flatten the other rough face on the jointer, but it will not be parallel to the first face. As a result, one end of the board is thicker than the other. And, while we’re on the subject of thickness, a jointer won’t let you easily thickness boards to a specific measurement. A planer, on the other hand, was designed specifically for thicknessing. When you buy pre-milled stock, you can build your boards whichever thickness you choose.
But what if you don’t want to utilize pre-milled material and your boards aren’t perfectly smooth? There’s good news! The planer can also assist you in this area. You can send your rough boards through the planer in alternating light passes on either side as long as they are pretty straight. Both faces should be clean, flat, and mostly parallel once they’ve been cleaned. Your edges will, of course, remain rough. Trim with a circular saw and a saw guide, trim at the table saw with a jointing jig, trim with a hand plane, or trim at the router table are all choices for cleaning them up. Granted, none of these options are ideal, but keep in mind that this is only a temporary predicament. You’ll eventually have both a planer and a jointer, and 4-square boards will be a matter of minutes. Until then, the planer offers a wealth of other features that can significantly boost your productivity.
But that’s just my point of view. Doug would benefit from hearing everyone’s thoughts on this typical topic, in my opinion. So, if you had to choose between the planer and the jointer, which would you choose?
Is a jointer the same as a hand planer?
The size, quantity, and shape of the chamfering notches on the planer’s cutterheads are important to consider because each planer makes various cuts and has varied heads. They must be planers because they plane stuff, right? Yes, but if you look at the business end of a planer, you’ll notice that it’s designed almost identically to another shop tool: the jointer. The only actual difference, aside from language, is the orientation and the fact that these are handheld; otherwise, they are identical.
Power planers have a rotating cutterhead similar to your jointer, but the blade is positioned to cut in the opposite direction of the workpiece feed. A jointer feeds the stock into the cutterhead, which cuts toward you; a planer feeds the tool into the stock, which cuts away from you.
What may an electric hand planer be used for?
And there’s the electric planer, which combines the functions of a hand plane, a belt sander, and a jointer to shave and shape wood. This post will demonstrate how to make the most of your power planer. It can be used to level joists, make difficult doors close easily, and develop projects in your workshop.
Is it worthwhile to invest in an electric hand planer?
You may still be undecided about which tool is ideal for you now that you understand the benefits of both manual and electric planers.
Not to worry, we’ve compiled a list of the top tools for various tasks based on the following criteria:
Edges and Surfaces
Do you have a lot of rough edges in your work? If you answered yes, it signifies that you’ll have to put in a lot of effort to plane your wood’s surface.
In this scenario, an electric planer would be the greatest option because of its speed and capacity for material removal. If you’re dealing with less rough edges, the hand planer is the preferable alternative.
Wood Measurement
If your project involves smaller pieces of wood with intricate detailing, a hand planer is the best tool for the job. It’s because the manual tool allows for greater control and precision, resulting in a higher-quality finish.
Flatness
Because you didn’t keep your wood properly, it may lose its flatness if it was exposed to a lot of humidity. So, if you have to work with warped wood, an electric planer is the best option.
Surface Imperfections
Do you want to get rid of dings, holes, scratches, and other surface flaws on your wood? In this instance, the manual planer is the perfect instrument to use because it is both effective and convenient.
Wood Finish
The finish of the wood dictates the tool you’ll use for your woodworking project. Either S2S or S4S wood is used. Two rough surfaces and two smooth surfaces are typical of S2S wood. To manage the S2S’s rough surface, you can use an electric planer. Because the S4S has four smooth surfaces, it requires less effort. As a result, with S4S wood, a hand planer is ideal.
Is it possible to utilize a table saw as a jointer?
The table saw can be used as a jointer to flatten the faces of a wood piece, but it can also be used to square an edge so that the faces are completely perpendicular.
The table saw blade must be square with the tabletop for adjacent faces to be perpendicular.
Check that the blade is perpendicular to the tabletop by placing the speed square next to it.
Is it possible to straighten wood using a planer?
This is one method for flattening* huge boards with an electric thickness planer (without the help of a jointer).
A common method for flattening a warped, twisted, or cupped board is to use a jointer to create one perfectly flat face.
After that, you pass the board through a thickness planer with the flat face facing down, and the planer aligns the top and bottom faces.
However, for boards or slabs that are too wide for a jointer (but still narrow enough to fit through a thickness planer), the method illustrated in this Instructable is one way to execute both stages required to flatten boards using only a thickness planer, rather than a jointer AND a planer.
*In this context, “flatten” implies to remove warps, twists, or cupping from two board faces so that they are perfectly parallel to one another.
Is Dewalt planning to release a jointer?
DEWALT cordless routers, joiners, and planers are available in both portable and fixed versions to match your professional woodworking needs. Today is a great day to shop online or in person.
What is the primary function of a jointer or hand plane?
No instrument is better for shaving the edge of a stuck door, chamfering the corner of a board, or straightening one that is twisted or warped than a hand planer, which can pare off only a thin slice of wood. That’s why most carpenters have a few of hand planes in their toolboxes.
At the hardware shop, a quality new aircraft can set you back $40 or more. Woodworking catalogs have a wider range of products. However, don’t underestimate the numerous excellent used planes available at flea markets and antique stores. These old tools were made to last, and they still have plenty of life left in them.
What is the maximum amount of material that an electric planer can remove?
An electric (hand) planer is a tool for shaving off small amounts of wood in small increments. To accomplish this, they normally use two or three blades, and the highest quantity of material that can be removed in a single pass is often around 1/8″ (3/32″).
