Squaring Timbers With Jointer

Folks, I've never used a jointer in 40 years of building / woodworking!

well I just bought a Grizzly 8" x 72" and am figuring out how to use it. Jointing a face or edge seems easy enough, but how about if I want to square up a timber, say a 6x8 x 12'.

it seems like I'd need to hold the one face against the fence as I run it over the knives? How would I do that? Put a long thin shim under one edge of the timber? Or, is there a magnetic feather board that would also hold the timber's edge up a bit?

Joe,
It's better to "take the tool to the timber" rather than vice-versa. Efficient timber handling is key to the craft; I don't think there's a good safe way to joint a timber on a stationary machine, except maybe for brace stock.

It would be better to snap lines representing square planes on the sides of the timbers and use a portable power planer to the lines, or saw the timber square on (portable) sawmill. The layout system (snap line, square rule, scribing) should be able to take care of variations so jointing is unnecessary anyway.

Hi Joe,

I am so sorry, but I have to "strongly" suggest that what Will B. is saying is not only "traditional" but much safer and a better overall modality.

At current "rough count" (over 35 years) I have more than five woodworking friends/colleagues that have "jointed body parts."

I work in more "Asian" modalities of timber framing so literally everything is based off a "line" inside the timber that "surface registration line" represent. We can work in round, tapered, live edge or just about any shape a timber comes in, yet the joinery is always very true and tight. This is how temples in Asia are built with round, tapered posts that lean in up to 8% yet the joinery is "true."

I would further add that, I have more than once observed fellow woodworkers "obsesses" over trying to "square" a piece of wood (which tends to move no matter what we do) and the time they have taken to do this is up to 10 times more work than just using the traditional methods of "lining," "templating" and moving the "tools through the material."

Good Luck, and Regards,

j

I am in agreement with both replies. Use a layout system that will accommodate your timbers or try to resaw them. In the future, try to buy square timbers. Whenever I try to square up small stock, I use the jointer in conjunction with a thickness planer. Trying to hold a timber against the fence would be very difficult.

Darn, not what I wanted to hear guys. That's mainly why I got it, guess I'll have to find another need for it, or put it on craigslist for a loss .. should have researched the tool a little better.

thanks for the good answers, maybe that's why I have never used one!

You could use a power feeder to hold it against the fence, but it would have to be a beefy fence. There is such a thing as a right angle jointer, that joints two faces at once, but they're quite rare. If you want S4S timbers, and your supplier can't do it, your best bet would be find someone with a 5 head moulder.

Or just accommodate for it in your layout system as everyone else mentioned.

Hi Joe,

I do feel bad about my (our?) advice, and really didn't know how to share it without sounding like a downer...Again, apologies for that.

A rule of thumb (mainly for safety in good practice) I teach (and it kind'a holds true throughout) is to never "max out" a tool's capacity whenever at all possible.

If some tools cutting capacity is 150 mm wide (~6") at its max then only put 75mm (~3") into it. Of course you can go wider, but this is where things become more challenging (and dangerous.)

Power planners (whether stationary or handheld) are massively dangerous tools and I have used hand held planners as large as 400mm (~16") and some that have two cutting heads at 90° to each other just to "try" and achieve what you are wanting. These are very much "specialty" timber framing tools and one most go to Japan, Korea, or China to get them or have them made. Minka city Japan has a long (millenia old) history of such tooling and smithing...I will post some links below for curiosity sake...

All in all and every thing considered...We have become very psychologically driven to "believe" that power tools save us time. In some ways they absolutely do, however this dependence on them has generated its own "normative culture" (habits) and "thinking" that is more about "making a the machines work" to do a job "we want it to do." We need to take a step back from a great deal of this, and ask ourselves whether we really need it to do that job in the first place...Often traditional methods (big picture view here) are much faster, efficient and just plain better than modern technological based ones the IR (industrial revolution) has habituated us to believe we need...

I love "good tools" power or otherwise, yet I do really try hard to examine "traditional modalities" first and often these "win out."

(http://www.matsui-j.co.jp/products/powertool/sumizori.html)

(http://www.matsui-.co.jp/products/powertool/naraimentori.html)

(http://www.matsui-j.co.jp/products/powertool/yokozuna.html)

(http://www.matsui-.co.jp/products/powertool/kaneteplane.html)

There are other options for timber frame specialty tools.

http://timberwolftools.com/

http://www.timbertools.com/

Both companies are supporters of the TFG and are here in North America offering direct and prompt service.

Sorry...

There are indeed many options all over the globe for great "power tooling machines" applicable to the craft of timber framing...I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, yet rather that these "large power planners" are quite a hand full to operate for some folks, and need some caution when operating.

The company I referenced was more for "curiosity sake" than purchasing their tools, as they make some rather unusual ones compared to what is in the "mainstream" of our craft.

Apologies again if my post seemed to suggest they are "best to buy from"...

I nearly had a severe mishap with a 300mm planer. I had come to the end of a beam and lifted the plane off the beam as the plane wound down, as I was holding the plane my working partner started to speak and as my attention shifted to Pete I let the plane dip and the spinning blades caught my apron and shredded it. After briefly considering the what ifs, I came to several rules.

1. After coming to the end of the beam, continue to hold the tool on the beam, with the blades beyond the timber, until the machine winds down to full stop. Only then pick up the machine for the next move

2. Coworkers should not seek attention of the tool operator nor should the operator give attention until the tool is at a full stop, preferably with the tool out of the operators hands.

3. If one must stop planing mid-beam, lift the rear off the beam with the nose supporting the planer and wait for the planer to come to a full stop.

4. Everyone one on the site must reflect on a part of their body be reduced to a spray.

Great Rules!!!...and should be not only in the box with the planer, but repeated over and over again while engaged operating the tool...

Boy Roger...That description seems to happen to many of us that use those size "power hand planers." I am so glad it didn't "get flesh and bone" and only killed an apron. Chainsaw chaps (that fit well) aren't even a bad idea with operating these hand power planers.

I warn and warn folks that the "spin-down" (or wind-down) is when it will "get you" 90% of the time...NOT...while it is in play on the beam.

For the sake of this post (and warning that it happens to the best of us) I share the following two (of many unfortunately) accounts...

About 25 years ago a young Timberwright I had been guiding along on building his house and other projects was using a 6" big jointer (it too was a Grizzly.) For whatever reason (nobody still understands how exactly??) the 6x6, near the end of the timber jumped out of the way and my poor friend "jointed" his little finger and damaged his wrist bones. I have been told since, this is a common injury with jointers as is "pull ins" with loose garments.

This next account is two fold...first a young Timberwright...then, two weeks later a very stupid and dimwitted older one (me!) Did the exact same thing with the exact same tool. Using a Festool rabbiting power planer, our "middle finger" of the left hand got "rolled under" the spinning blade on the "rabbiting drum face" and the finger pulled it...YES...there is visible red mist in the air when this happens!!!! Fortunately we have both got to keep our finger but they resemble more what you find on a "tree frog" than a human.

I have had all manner of little nicks and scrapes...We all have those doing this type of work. Only the bloody freaking power planners have ever really "gotten me" off guard!! They are just that horridly dangerous and I rank them higher than chainsaws, old table saws, or routers in my book.

Good luck to all that own and use them!

I think the central problem with power tools is once an operator gets comfortable, accurate and proficient, the next drive is toward speedy use, of which I AM GUILTY. Picking up and walking with an unguarded tool with spinning blades is unreasonably risky, what you loose cannot be sewn back. Inspire coworkers with deft use, while remaining safe.

100% spot on! I couldn't agree more!!

A former employer of mine was saved serious harm from a circ saw whose guard didn't come down by the tape measure in his coat pocket. The new, and very expensive, wool coat was a total loss by the time we'd cut it out of the saw. He would have been cut deeply right across his upper thigh. I always try to look to see that the guard is down now. I've seen circ saws take off across the floor, too.

Here is a short saw safety video I have made:

http://youtu.be/z6aFiNO7QEw