Popular Woodworking 2002-10 № 130, страница 65
The fence should be set square to the tables, and slid over the tables enough to expose about 1" more than the width of the board. This keeps the knives covered by the board during the cut. Inspect your board. Most likely it will be bowed to one face or the other. If not, you're in pretty good shape and won't have to remove much material to prepare the board for the planer. If it is bowed, the concave side should be run over the jointer. Use the photos on the next page to learn the optimal stance to use when feeding a board over the jointer. These steps are repeated until the majority of the board's face is clean and flat. Once one face is flat, repeat the basic steps to square one edge of the board to the now-flat face. You will need to run the recently jointed face against the fence for this step. The stance and motions are similar. Overall, flattening a face, then squaring an edge to that face is what a jointer does, and it does it well. The flat face allows your planer to then reduce the thickness of the board while still maintaining the flatness of the board. Without the jointer work, a planer will just make a thinner bowed or twisted board. Jointing the edge gives you a straight surface so you can rip the board to width on your table saw and fence. There are a couple other things a jointer can be used for, rabbeting being an efficient option on almost all machines. By removing the guard and setting the in-feed table height and fence depth to the proper dimensions, a board can be rabbeted easily in one or two passes with little difficulty. Other jointer operations include tapering a board lengthwise, and by setting the fence at an angle you can cut bevels on the edges of boards. If you have a smaller-width jointer than your material, don't fret. With a simple tip in the section on planers, you can safely flatten stock that's nearly twice the width of your jointer's maximum capacity. Some Safety Tips Jointers are safe machines to operate if all the guidelines are followed. If you get sloppy on this machine, it can bite you in a hurry with a kickback or a slipped finger. Here are some basic guidelines that will help you operate your jointer in a safe manner: • Check your board prior to running the face or edge for knots or defects that could separate from the board and cause the board to jump during planing. • Always use a push block when jointing a thin piece of stock, or when face jointing. • Never run stock shorter than 12" in length over the jointer. • The safety guard should always be in place unless you are cutting rabbets or face jointing stock wider than the capacity of the machine. PW Point of greatest deflection PW Recommends OCCASIONAL USER • Grizzly 1182HW. For a few dollars more than the price of a benchtop jointer, we recommend the 1182HW ($325) with hand-wheel bed adjustment. SERIOUS HOME WOODWORKER • Jet JJ-6CSX. For $600, this 6" jointer is a proven bargain. • Delta 37-195. The convenience of the rack-and-pinion fence and top-mounted switch strongly recommend this 6" model ($550). • Delta 37-380. At ($1,060) the 8" version of the 37-195 is also a recommended machine. • Jet JJ-8CS. This 8" jointer offers a magnetic switch, handwheel adjustment and a long bed for $1,520. • Grizzly G1018. Without sacrificing features, this Grizzly 8" is a significant bargain at $695. ADVANCED WOODWORKER OR PROFESSIONAL • Powermatic 60. This 8" Powermatic ($1,710) is a pro-quality, accurate and reliable machine that will likely be handed down to your children. • Bridgewood BW-12J. If you want to move up to a 12" machine without emptying your wallet, check out this strong performer priced at a reasonable $2,495. Cup Straight boards shown dashed for context These tools have been tested or used by the editors of Popular Woodworking and have earned their recommendation. 65 |
