Is using a jointer really this hard?

[Texfire]

I've had an uphill battle getting square stock out of this combo jointer/planer. I'm wondering if it's me, the tool or a combo of both? I've adjusted the fence square to the jointer bed, and the bed to be as level as I can on this model. If only I knew then what I know now... Still the first piece of stock I tried to get two square edges on ended up looking more like a parallelogram than a rectangle.

I ran some 2x4s through the jointer today to get them square, it went much better this time, I first jointed the wider side in the middle of the jointer, then turned that straight side up against the fence to square the edge. So far so good, except the distal 1/4 of the board is not getting jointed while it's up against the fence. Since this happened on every board I jointed, I suspect it's the infeed table sagging or something like that. I finally ended up taking a final pass with the board away from the fence, hoping that my new reference edge would lay flat on the outfeed table. This seems to have worked well enough for this project, but I have to wonder how accurate the final board is.

I flipped over the dust collection and ran the newly squared boards through the planer side to achieve the final thickness. I think the boards are pretty square to each other, and since this is a mobile wood rack, a little inaccuracy won't kill me in this application. But I've got to wonder. Is my technique flawed, or have I reached the intrinsic accuracy of my combo device?

I'm willing to get another jointer and planer if I have to, probably should have gotten them instead in the first place, but I was seduced by the 10" capacity and didn't really know better.

[Torch02]

Have you checked the height of your outfeed table? If it is below the top of the blade, you could see the issues you're experiencing.

[Vic]

sounds like you may be having the issue Torch brought up. Also make sure your cutter head is coplaner to the table. Sounds like it might not be if the fence is square to the table.

[Beechwood Chip]

So far so good, except the distal 1/4 of the board is not getting jointed while it's up against the fence.

Do you mean that there's a 1/4" gap between the blade and the fence? If so, maybe there's a way to move the fence inwards. The fence should be right on top of the blades, and on my jointer the fence is adjustable in and out.

[Vic]

Do you mean that there's a 1/4" gap between the blade and the fence? If so, maybe there's a way to move the fence inwards. The fence should be right on top of the blades, and on my jointer the fence is adjustable in and out.

Wow..I didn't even catch that. Yea, the fence in jointer mode should right at the very edge of the jointer blade when jointing. At least it needs to be for square an edge.

[minorhero]

I've had an uphill battle getting square stock out of this combo jointer/planer. I'm wondering if it's me, the tool or a combo of both? I've adjusted the fence square to the jointer bed, and the bed to be as level as I can on this model. If only I knew then what I know now... Still the first piece of stock I tried to get two square edges on ended up looking more like a parallelogram than a rectangle.

I ran some 2x4s through the jointer today to get them square, it went much better this time, I first jointed the wider side in the middle of the jointer, then turned that straight side up against the fence to square the edge. So far so good, except the distal 1/4 of the board is not getting jointed while it's up against the fence. Since this happened on every board I jointed, I suspect it's the infeed table sagging or something like that. I finally ended up taking a final pass with the board away from the fence, hoping that my new reference edge would lay flat on the outfeed table. This seems to have worked well enough for this project, but I have to wonder how accurate the final board is.

I flipped over the dust collection and ran the newly squared boards through the planer side to achieve the final thickness. I think the boards are pretty square to each other, and since this is a mobile wood rack, a little inaccuracy won't kill me in this application. But I've got to wonder. Is my technique flawed, or have I reached the intrinsic accuracy of my combo device?

I'm willing to get another jointer and planer if I have to, probably should have gotten them instead in the first place, but I was seduced by the 10" capacity and didn't really know better.

A couple of things

1) As others have said your fence is probably not correctly placed and should be right up to the edge of the blade so that a board placed against the fence will have all of its surface that is facing down touched by the blades.

2) 2x4's are not very good as far as wood quality is concerned and will literally move within minutes of being jointed if they are in an environment different from where they acclimated. That means if they spent their life in an air conditioned warehouse and then went to your humid unconditioned shop (or vice versa) and were promptly jointed or planed, they will move within minutes or hours after being cut. They won't move a lot but I have seen 2x4's move as much as a 1/4" over a 6' length in 10 minutes in my unconditioned shop. Hardwood can do this as well but it will do it much slower then softwoods. That is why it is a good idea to let wood acclimate to your shop for a few weeks before cutting it (or to cut it and glue it up right away).

3) You really should not both face plane a board and then joint the edge on the jointer. Unless you are very precise and have a decent piece of wood to start with it is simply too easy to shift your weight a little bit and make a parallelogram. The better practice is to plane a board on the planer, joint one edge, and then use the table saw to joint the opposing edge. I frequently skip the last step in favor of using the jointer for both edges, but I always use a planer for thickness in any application that requires truly square boards.

[wilburpan]

I have the Rikon version of the 10" jointer/planer combo, and like it a lot. Unfortunately, I do think that the Jet version of the 10" jointer/planer seems to be built less well than the Rikon version. But here are some suggestions for your situation.

1. Make sure that your infeed and outfeed tables are coplanar. I had to spend quite a bit of time adjusting this when I first got the machine. Unfortunately, having the beds "as level as I can" won't be good enough for good performance. On my machine the options for adjusting the jointer tables are a bit limited, and I finally had to use shims to get them level.

2. Double check your jointer knives to make sure they are in line with your tables across the width of the jointer. But you need to make sure that the tables are coplanar before doing this, otherwise it's a waste of time.

3. The fence is mediocre at best. I do use it, but I am pretty careful to not put too much pressure on it when trying to joint an edge square, as it's easy to flex the fence if you push on it too hard. On these machines, the fence just has to be over the blade for edge jointing. You need the fence to be at the very edge of the blade to preserve the 10" jointing capacity, which is more important for face jointing. Most people won't be using a jointer to square up an edge that is 10" thick.

4. Since I first got the machine, I'll use other methods for getting a square edge. I tend to use the jointer to get close, and then use hand planes to make the edge perfectly square. Or I'll face joint a board, use the planer function to get to my desired thickness, and use my bandsaw to cut a square edge, which I finish up with hand planes. You may want to look for alternatives if your machine is giving you too many problems.

5. Make sure that your jointer infeed and outfeed tables are coplanar. This can't be emphasized enough.

6. Finally, call Jet technical service and see if they have suggestions on how to adjust your jointer/planer. I can't speak to Jet, but I've called Rikon in the past about my jointer/planer, and they've been very helpful, especially when I was trying to get my jointer tables coplanar.

Having said all this, I do like my 10" jointer/planer combo a lot. Over the long haul, a 10" jointing capacity is really great to have. And the planer is really good. I think that one of the reasons is that with this design, the bed moves up and down while the cutterhead is stationary, unlike lunchbox planers where the bed stays still and the cutterhead moves up and down. I never have snipe issues unless I do a crappy job feeding the board into the planer. The only way I'll replace this machine is to get a 12" jointer/planer combo.

[thewoodwhisperer]

After having used that unit, I have to be honest in that I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. You will chase your tail with all these recommendations on adjustments. Problem is, an adjust or calibration is only as good as the machines ability to BE calibrated and then HOLD that calibration. The unit I tested couldn't do either. Too much plastic on this unit to bring the price down. And as much as I'm a fan of Jet products in general, this one.....not so much.

[Texfire]

Have you checked the height of your outfeed table? If it is below the top of the blade, you could see the issues you're experiencing.

I did check it when I first set the tool up, but not before the last time I used it. I know the infeed and outfeed tables were coplanar at setup, but not sure about the cutter head and outfeed.

Do you mean that there's a 1/4" gap between the blade and the fence? If so, maybe there's a way to move the fence inwards. The fence should be right on top of the blades, and on my jointer the fence is adjustable in and out.

Sorry, I wasn't very precise. The fence is right up to the edge of the blade. It's the final quarter of board length I was referring to, not of width. The last one quarter of the board being fed will not get planed unless I move it away from the fence. The first three quarters of the board will plane away the pencil marks just fine from edge to edge. That might point at a problem with the cutterhead and outfeed.

You really should not both face plane a board and then joint the edge on the jointer. Unless you are very precise and have a decent piece of wood to start with it is simply too easy to shift your weight a little bit and make a parallelogram. The better practice is to plane a board on the planer, joint one edge, and then use the table saw to joint the opposing edge. I frequently skip the last step in favor of using the jointer for both edges, but I always use a planer for thickness in any application that requires truly square boards.

I jointed the first two edges, checked them for squareness and marked them with a check mark on both planed surfaces, then used the planer side to size the board off the new reference surfaces. I considered using my table saw for that but wanted to try out the planer function, and the final size was supposed to be 1-1/4"x3-1/4", so the amount of stock removed was small.

Make sure that your infeed and outfeed tables are coplanar. I had to spend quite a bit of time adjusting this when I first got the machine. Unfortunately, having the beds "as level as I can" won't be good enough for good performance. On my machine the options for adjusting the jointer tables are a bit limited, and I finally had to use shims to get them level.

Double check your jointer knives to make sure they are in line with your tables across the width of the jointer. But you need to make sure that the tables are coplanar before doing this, otherwise it's a waste of time.

The fence is mediocre at best. I do use it, but I am pretty careful to not put too much pressure on it when trying to joint an edge square, as it's easy to flex the fence if you push on it too hard. On these machines, the fence just has to be over the blade for edge jointing. You need the fence to be at the very edge of the blade to preserve the 10" jointing capacity, which is more important for face jointing. Most people won't be using a jointer to square up an edge that is 10" thick.

I'll double check all the settings for coplanarness. Is that a word?

After having used that unit, I have to be honest in that I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. You will chase your tail with all these recommendations on adjustments. Problem is, an adjust or calibration is only as good as the machines ability to BE calibrated and then HOLD that calibration. The unit I tested couldn't do either. Too much plastic on this unit to bring the price down. And as much as I'm a fan of Jet products in general, this one.....not so much.

Yeah, I was not pleased with how haphazard the settings for the unit were. I didn't feel they afforded me any level of accuracy. I love my other Jet tools, so I guess this is the exception. I'll have to check into getting another jointer if setting up the unit doesn't resolve my issues. I don't need any additional challenges posed by almost square stock for my projects requiring more precision. I'm open to suggestions, though Powermatic is out of my price range.

On the other hand, I'm happy with how it works as a planer so I could get a jointer and use this as a planer for a little bit longer.

[Texfire]

Cleaned it up and checked it with my new straight edge this morning. The outfeed is coplanar with the cutterhead. The infeed is coplanar at the cutterhead, but I can slip a .004 under the straight edge at both sides at the end, and I can't find any adjustment to correct that. Not sure if that's the reason why it will face plane just fine, but has a problem with edge planing. I'm ready to kick it into the alley and go Office Space on it, but the jointer function seems to work just fine so I'll soldier on with it for that at least. Just got off the phone with Jet, they're emailing me some instructions on how to adjust the table, we'll see if I can get it working well enough for the current project.

If I can't get it working, I'll have to get another jointer, I'm really tempted to get an 8" model, with the shop still needing insulation in the walls and attic, sheetrock on the rafters, siding on the walls, and an air conditioner system, I don't think that's going to happen right now. Add in that I need get some 220v outlets installed before I could use an 8". But I can wish...

[Beechwood Chip]

Not sure if that's the reason why it will face plane just fine, but has a problem with edge planing. [...] the jointer function seems to work just fine

Umm, maybe this was covered in an earlier post.

I've heard of edge jointing and face jointing, but I''ve only ever heard of thickness planing faces. To set the width of a board I use a table saw, and if I want to clean up the edge after sawing to width, I might use a jointer. I don't think the tool was designed to do "edge planing".

I apologize if I misunderstood or this was all covered before.

[usacomp2k3]

I've but 2x4's through my planer on edge. Anything more than that I'd hesitate to do without stacking multiple and passing through together.

[thewoodwhisperer]

Umm, maybe this was covered in an earlier post.

I've heard of edge jointing and face jointing, but I''ve only ever heard of thickness planing faces. To set the width of a board I use a table saw, and if I want to clean up the edge after sawing to width, I might use a jointer. I don't think the tool was designed to do "edge planing".

I apologize if I misunderstood or this was all covered before.

There's actually nothing wrong with running boards through the planer on edge (assuming the other end is jointed and its within the capacity of your planer). In fact, if I'm not mistaken this is a much more common practice in Europe. We just don't see it much here in the US. But its a great way to create a perfectly parallel edge.

[Texfire]

Umm, maybe this was covered in an earlier post.

I've heard of edge jointing and face jointing, but I''ve only ever heard of thickness planing faces. To set the width of a board I use a table saw, and if I want to clean up the edge after sawing to width, I might use a jointer. I don't think the tool was designed to do "edge planing".

I apologize if I misunderstood or this was all covered before.

I think I got it flipped in my previous comment. I face jointed, then edge jointed. After I had those two reference edges, I used the planer function to size the 2x4 to final dimensions called for on the plans.

If it was thicker than a 2x4 I would have used my table saw for the other edge, but I was only removing a 1/4" and didn't see any reason why I couldn't use the planer to do that.

[Texfire]

I think I've got it as good as it's going to get. After a second round with the tech support, I realized that I had been trying to adjust the infeed table. While this may work on a better jointer, the orientation of the infeed "normalizes" every time it's adjusted for depth of bite. So I went back and adjusted the outfeed to be coplanar with the infeed. I managed to get it to take a cut, and was even able to tweak the fence to give me something approaching a true 90 degree angle.

Marc was right, I wouldn't wish this jointer on my worst enemy. The adjustment "mechanism" consists of loosening two of four screws, allowing the table to pivot on the screws closest to the cutterhead. You then manually hold the table against the straight edge while tightening the screws back up, hoping that it doesn't drop too much. There is no real way to set it side to side, so you better hope it's close.

On the plus side, I think I've got it working well enough for the wood rack I'm working on and the Adirondack guild build. That said, I'm replacing this thing as soon as the shop build is done. Insulation and air conditioning come first, but it's the next priority.