What is the difference between jointer and planer

Basically this is the name for a jointer that has just a little bit wider cutting head than necessary. See Also: 50 Awesome Reasons to be a Woodworker. So, which one is the best for you and your particular shop? It really just depends on what types of wood you need to smooth, or actually where on the pieces of wood you need the smoothing to be done.

If you know that the majority of the work you need has to be done on the faces of boards, then I recommend getting a planer. For the few times that you need the jointing capacity, you can always make a jig.

However, the wide surface will give you plenty of room to planing down even bigger boards. This extra capacity is really nice, and the few times you needed it will be worth it.

Start doing a little research, and pick up one or both of these tools to add to your arsenal. Once you have a new tool in the shop, you start to find uses for it immediately. That means better looking projects, and joints that are almost invisible to the naked eye. But, you also want a flat surface once the boards are joined, which is where the second tool comes in.

Planers are a piece of equipment equivalent to a hand planer, only powered and planing the entire surface of a piece of lumber rather than a specific strip or joint. A planer has a flatbed to support your board as it rides through the machine. The cutting head of the planer is above the flatbed and runs the width of the bed. Rollers feed the lumber along the flatbed under and against the cutting head, removing a layer of the wood as it moves through and out of the machine.

The result is a smooth and uniform flat surface on the board. Turning the board over and running it through the planer again creates parallel surfaces. Again, think new tabletop or desktop, or new shelves, or even a new benchtop for your workshop. Speaking of benchtops, you can opt for a benchtop planer to save a little money instead of a floor model planer. In order to get a board that is perfectly flat, square, and at your desired thickness, you will need both a jointer and a planer.

So getting two machines, or a jointer planer combo is generally the best idea. But if you only have room or the budget for one of the two machines, which one should you get? For me, the answer is simple: get the planer first. Andrew Klein made an excellent short video showing this technique of combining jointing with a hand plane together with a power planer. In contrast, to get a board to perfect thickness by hand, you have to scribe the height all around with a marking gauge, and make sure you plane off exactly to the line.

This is quite a precise and tricky process. Another downside is that if you want to take off a large amount, it will be a lot of work using a hand plane.

Check the video below by Paul Sellers , who shows how to plane a board to thickness with a hand plane. Additionally, using a planer sled , you can turn a planer into a makeshift jointer. The perfect combination of professional-grade cutting and newcomer-friendly operation, the Cutech H-CT will be just as home in a commercial workshop as it would be in the garage of an amateur enthusiast. At its core, a powerful amp motivator drives a modified spiral cutter head which ensures a remarkable finish every time.

At only 40lbs, it packs barely half the weight of our other top two models. Sure, this may not seem like a big deal for a benchtop power tool, but it does come in very handy if you decide to upgrade your garage workshop or even if you decide to lend it out to a friend. Fence with 90 to Degree Tilt. Cutterhead speed: 10, RPM. DeWalt DW Delta Portable Planer. Combining ample power with unrivaled precision, this high-performance model consistently earns rave reviews from both industry insiders and enthusiastic hobbyists alike.

It comes with a strapping 15 amp motor capable of driving the unique three-blade cutter head at speeds of up to 10, rotations per minute.

Read our full DW review here. However, it is not the best choice for professional and commercial use and heavy-duty work. There are some professionals out there who will tell you that the Makita NB Inch Planer with Interna-Lok Automated Head Clamp offers even better performance, precision, and power than our number-one ranked Dewalt model.

Like the Dewalt, this one is powered by a 15 amp motor, this one driving a two-blade cutter head for a maximum no-load speed of 8, RPM. No, that honor goes to its outstanding efficiency and quiet operation. The two blades can be changed and adjusted with incredible quickness. Engineered for faster, easier blade changes. Essentially, they describe certain deformities in your wood which are created by changing moisture content. Ultimately, the part that dries quickest also shrinks quickest, causing a change to the shape of the wood.

This can mean that was once a perfectly flat board is now bent, twisted, or cupped having a groove in the middle of the wood , and is therefore unsuitable for use. The best way to prevent this from happening is to store your lumber in a cool, dry, and well-shared location.