To joint, or to plane?

[Jim Murphy]

I'm about a month away from my Ivey-Cypress® being dry enough to transmogrify into Adirondack chairs. Whilst pre-planning my attack strategery (Bushism) I'm wondering if I need to waste my time (and blades) jointing. Since 8" jointer blades are significantly more expensive and difficult to properly set as contrasted to the PC lunchbox planer blades, maybe I'll just run them through the planer only. I mean, heck, it's an outside chair and there's no delicate joinery involved.

So the query to those experienced in the chair building process: joint, then plane, or just plane both sides? :icon_scra

Footnote: I have no internet access from Thur morn until Monday afternoon during the summer and early fall (since I'm cooling it at the lake), so if you miss me, well, I'm sorry.

But I'll think about y'all. ccasion1

 

[gator]

Jim -

Unless you have some edge gluing to do, I wouldn't worry about edge jointing. If you do have some rough edges and the boards are not tapered, you might be able to stack them and run them through the planer on their side. You may have to face joint depending on if you have any cupped or warped boards.

Have fun at the lake.

George

 

[Travis Porter]

For me, it depends. On wood that is cut with a circular mill, I have and do skip jointing and go straight to planing. On wood with a band mill, it depends. If the board has waves where it varies in thickness due to the blades glancing off of knots, hard spots, etc then I would joint it. If it is pretty consistent, then I would just plane it. For adirondack chairs, I would probably just plane it. My .02.

 

[DavidF]

Planing only gets the two faces parallel, if they are warped or cupped then they will stay that way, only smooth. Face jointing gives a flat face to work off. Also, remember that if you do have to rip to width on the TS then it's both difficult and dangerous to try it either without a flat edge against the fence or a flat face to put down on the table - I would face joint.

 

[Mike Davis]

My jointer is only 6 inches, my planer is 12. Sometimes if a board is cupped I will cut strips the right thickness and tape to the board then run it through the planer to get one side flat, then flip, take off the strips and plane to thickness.

Last week I had to make some 6 inch x 75 inch boards dead flat and straight. I took them over to Rick's and got his help.

A 12 inch jointer comes in very handy! The long tables make all the difference.

For outdoor chairs, I would rip to nominal width and plane each side. Even if the board is slightly bowed it won't matter.

 

[DavidF]

The key there is slightly bowed! if the board is even "slightly" twisted I wouldn't rip on the TS. If nothing else, use the BS instead; much safer with a twisted board.

 

[JackLeg]

We build adirondacks out of Mr. P's cypress weekly. We don't own a jointer! Plane and simple, that's the ticket. Adirondack's ain't "fine furniture!" (Or ours aren't!)

Most of the boards in our chairs are max of 4 1/2", so that mostly eliminates problems with warp and bow. A little cupping also won't stop the show after ripping.

M2CW

Good luck! :wsmile: