How vital is a planer?

[manfre]

I'm equiping a new shop and the only major tools left of my wishlist are a grinder/sharpener, a drill press, a jointer and possibly a planer. My self imposed budget can easily handle decent quality grinders, drill press, but there isn't much left for the jointer and planer. I've read lots of reviews of the Jet combo jointer/planer, but there are way too many 1 star reviews about snapped rods and bent beds for my comfort. The grizzly reviews were a little bit better, but not much.

How much better is a planer compared to a bandsaw with a good resaw fence? Would the bandsaw do the job well enough? I plan on building a torsion box at some point and also making segmented bowls (to give an idea of planned projects). How often do the rest of you use the planer in your shop? Is it infrequent enough that a hand plane would suffice?

Given a flexible budget of $600, I'm curious about what the rest of you would purchase. Would you buy lower end tools for each or would you just buy a good jointer and hope to hit the craigslist lottery in the future?

 

[MarkE]

I have a jointer (7" Harbor Freight) and a planer (13" Ridgid).

I use the planer for just about every project I work on.

The jointer rarely gets used. I could never get good, consistent results with it. Could be that it is not properly set up. Could be because it is not a top-of-line machine. Mostly, though, I think I get better results just cutting with the table saw and then jointing with a hand plane (old Stanley #7 or #8).

If it was me, I'd get a planer before a jointer, but that's just me.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

For me the greatest value of a planer is in being able to buy rough lumber and surface it yourself. You tend to get better deals on lumber that way. If you prefer to buy your lumber already surfaced to a specific thickness, then you can probably get by without a planer.

Resawing on a band saw will get your thickness down, but you'll have to clean up the sawn surface w/ either a hand plane, scraper, or on the jointer. This is fairly manageable on shorter pieces (e.g. up to a couple of feet) but becomes more difficult the longer and wider your boards are. If you ever decide you want to do case pieces, where longer boards of a consistent thickness are needed, then a planer becomes much more desirable.

HTH

Bill

 

[Trent Mason]

Manfre,

I would suggest the planer be first on your list. You can get a decent grinder for fairly cheap and a drill press as well. But a planer is very important. Like Bill said, you can save money on lumber buying it rough cut. You can probably pay the guy at the lumber yard a few extra bucks to surface one face of the board, then go home and surface the other face with your planer. My jointer is probably the least used tool in my shop. If I have a really long board that I need a flat side on, it just isn't going to cut it because I have a small bench top model. I'd opt for a chalk line and a very careful cut with a circular saw to get one straight edge, then cut the other edge with the TS. I vote for the planer first. :thumbs_up:thumbs_up

Faces = the wide sides (faces) of the board
Sides = the small sides (usually about 2" or less) of the board

HTH,

 

[mxracer]

I use the planer and jointer on EVERY flat project. Getting a straight edge on rough cut lumber is essential even for ripping on the TS. Jointing two sides gives you two good sides, one for ripping and one for planing. Keep in mind the planer won't straighten a board out (unless you build a sled) it only planes to a thickness, the jointer is the tool that will get you the edge.

All that being said about the jointer I'd look for a deal on an 8" jointer. I picked mine up for $400 used, so they can be found.

You "can" build a sled for the TS that acts like a jointer with a jig, I did that on my first set of table legs. It is possible but a jointer is much easier.

All in all I don't think you will regret spending your $$$ on either of those machines.

 

[manfre]

I've never bought rough lumber before and didn't think about the potential cost savings. All of my projects to date have used regular dimensioned lumber.

 

[kooshball]

I am fairly new to the woodworking game and I bought both a jointer and a planer to start with (in addition to a table saw and band saw) and the only downside to them is that I now want bigger versions of both!

I have never bought a piece of dimensioned lumber in my life; only rough cut and as a result I have more than paid for both the planer and the jointer with the savings not to mention the fact that I can control all aspects of the construction process.

This thread will likely turn into a debate about "jointer or not", "planer sled or not" so I will offer up my opinion as a first year woodworker: get the biggest, nicest version of both that you can afford, if you can afford only one, go with the planer and build a sled to get by while you save up for a jointer. I have a sled for my 13" planer and I hardly use it as it is too heavy to work with safely but I now use my jointer and hand planes to flatten wide boards with no issues at all so I can probably ditch the sled but could never ditch the planer.

 

[erasmussen]

I have done a bit of segmrnted work.
I get by with the cheapest drill press and grinder.
But I get rough lumber so my jointer and planer get a good workout, being as I do segmented work a 6" jointer and a small planer is all I need, my ridgid jointer has worked well and my ryobi planer does the job.

 

[ehpoole]

When resawing (or veneer) on my bandsaw, I generally start out by jointing 1 face and both sides of my board, then run it through the thickness planer to take off just enough to square the board. Then I resaw. If I'm splitting a board down the middel (1/2 thickness), then I will register the two smooth sides against my planet bed and thickness plane them to final thickness for a nice finished surface on each side of both boards, which now are also identical in thickness through-and-through. If I am resawing multiple pieces from the original board (such as for veneer), then I resaw, set the offcut to the side, then joint the face of the original board to give me another smooth finish side, then resaw again.

FWIW Bandsaws -- no matter how good your fence might be -- do not, by the very nature of their blades, give you smooth, finished, glue-ready surfaces. The sawn surface will always need to be smoothed aftewards by jointing, thickness planing, or sanding.

Either way, both my jointer and planer get regular workouts whenever I'm preparing lumber in my shop.

If I absolutely had to choose one before the other, I would probably choose the thickness planer before the jointer. But, realistically, the jointer and thickness planer really go hand in hand and having them both in your shop significantly expands your capabilities and allows you to work with rough lumber and mill it to whatever dimensions you need. Unless you are really cramped for space, I tend to prefer dedicated machines for each task rather than combo units, though the combos may be the way to go if you are space challenged. When you buy your first jointer, really try to get an 8" jointer rather than the cheaper and more common 6" jointer -- there are just too many occassions when those extra two inches come in handy (unless your interests guarantee you won't be working with wood greater than 6" wide).

As suggested by others, if your budget is tight, Craigslist, et.al, may well be your best friend. In this economy there are a lot of woodworkers and DIYers selling off their equipment for extra cash.

Good luck, enjoy your new shop and your new hobby!

 

[junquecol]

Look on CL for a post "Thickness Planer and Jointer - $300. He has a Delta 22-540 planer for $75. This is an older,but solid planer, however it does snipe about two inches at each end of the board. I own two, along with my Delta 15", and Rockwell (when the name meant something)13". Knives are readily available for about $30 a set. They are two sided, and because they aren't indexed, they can be honed a couple times. Be sure and get knife setting jig. If you can't DeWalt service center has them for less than $10.

 

[Bas]

You can buy fully dimensioned lumber (surfaced 4 sides, or S4S), partially dimensioned lumber (S2S) or completely rough. Rough lumber is, of course, the cheapest. If you buy S2S, all you really need is a planer. A jointer is still useful to re-straighten an edge, remove saw marks etc., but you can do without out. Also, a 6" jointer is sufficient for edge work. You typically only need a wide jointer (8"+) if you buy rough lumber. Lumber can also be face jointed using a planer and sled.

The savings using S2S or rough lumber are substantial. You can get red oak for as low as $1 - $1.50 board foot, or pay $7 fully surfaced. Granted, you'll have some waste, and you have to buy knives for the planer, invest in dust collection etc., but it's still a 2x or even 3x factor. More importantly, with a planer you're not limited what you can buy at the home centers, which is typically red oak, poplar and pine.

As to whether you should buy a 6" or 8" jointer...go with what you can afford. Because it may turn out you don't want an 8" jointer after all, but a 12"!

 

[DWSmith]

As stated above, a jointer will flatten a warped board and five a true, flat working surface. A planer can't and won't, it will follow the curve of the stock. I have a 8" Grizzly jointer and I use it a lot. It hasn't let me down or skipped a beat. The 15" Grizzly planer is a dream and it also gets used a lot.

BTW Dimensional lumber isn't consistent so you need your own tools to make it so. A jointer will flatten a face and square an edge for further ripping on the TS and planing to thickness quickly and accurately if properly set up and maintained.

 

[merrill77]

Given a flexible budget of $600, I'm curious about what the rest of you would purchase. Would you buy lower end tools for each or would you just buy a good jointer and hope to hit the craigslist lottery in the future?

I use my planer on nearly every project. I sold my jointer.

People will tell you can't flatten one side of a board with a planer because it follows the curve. That is quite false. With a simple sled, I flatten crazy-wavy boards all the time. This method is safer, quicker and can handle much wider boards (within a given price range).

For edge jointing, I either use a simple sled on the table saw or an edge guide and a router - depending on the length of the board. With the quality of the rip-blades available today, you don't need a jointer to get the perfectly smooth edge required for glue-ups.

Just my 2c.
Chris

 

[Cato]

I upgraded my shop this past year and added a planer, then a jointer and use both on every project, whether dimensional lumber or rough lumber.

The difference is night and day when you control the wood for a project instead of constantly working around lumber issues in dimension, warp, cups etc.

There are lots of ways as mentioned to work around either machine, but if you regularly spending time in the shop and have any kind of need or want in speeding up your projects, then include both the planer and jointer in your budget or wish list.

 

[ScottM]

There are a lot of members in your area. Go pay them a visit and prove it to yourself. I think you will end up buying both.

 

[Mt. Gomer]

There are a lot of members in your area. Go pay them a visit and prove it to yourself. I think you will end up buying both.

I totally agree! They're not as expensive as you think either and will quickly pay for themselves with money saved by by buying rough cut lumber. If you have to choose between them I'd get the thickness planer first. In many cases you can get pretty good "jointing" results with a good glue line rip blade on the table saw.

Travis

 

[Joe Scharle]

If you intend to do construction grade woodworking, you don't need either. Do what the trades do and buy your lumber off the shelf, sand the corners until they're flush.

As to jointers; I have one, don't like them and do all my edge jointing with a router/straight edge.
To flatten one side, I use a power plane. But I could not work without my lunchbox planer. Good work requires consistent thicknesses and not all thicknesses at 3/4".

 

[cpw]

The savings using S2S or rough lumber are substantial. You can get red oak for as low as $1 - $1.50 board foot, or pay $7 fully surfaced. Granted, you'll have some waste, and you have to buy knives for the planer, invest in dust collection etc., but it's still a 2x or even 3x factor. More importantly, with a planer you're not limited what you can buy at the home centers, which is typically red oak, poplar and pine.

I would add to that that when you get wood from a home center, or if you are working with pieces that were dimensioned at different times that the thickness may not be consistent. If you have your own planer you just dimension everything for the project at hand and everything is the same thickness.

 

[michaelgarner]

Buy a Jointer Plane (if you already have a good bench) and you don't have to worry about a jointer, add a scrub plane and a smoother and you can dimension all of the lumber you need. It will be a little slower though.

 

[manfre]

Thanks for all the good feedback. I'm now leaning towards ignoring my arbitrarily chosen tool budget and buying the quality tools I'll need in a year or so, instead of entry level ones. It's a lot cheaper in the long run to skip past tools that are purchased with the expectation of upgrading shortly after. I also have really bad luck with selling things on craigslist.