We will start with a whole bunch of flat trim in a few weeks, and I am thinking of moving my jointer to the site.
How many of you find a jointer useful when doing a job in flat trim?
We will start with a whole bunch of flat trim in a few weeks, and I am thinking of moving my jointer to the site.
How many of you find a jointer useful when doing a job in flat trim?
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Replies
I've had one on site. Depends on the work. A good blade in the TS and a block plane does the job, too.
Andy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
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Haven't had much use for a jointer, there have been a few occasions where it might have been nice but did well without it. If your flatstock needs to be jointed, I'd have problem with the mill. But the smaller ones are Ok and don't make too much noise. If you want to lug it around have at it. Just don't get a planer! Just subbed for a big contractor for T&M, they needed our trim crew to hit deadline (a school). They had one company trimmer who had a portable planer. It seemed that his answer to every problem was to shove a board through that infernal machine. What made it worse was that the blades were half shot in the a$$. Evil thing made so much noise it made us nauseous. He was installing extension jambs (for the second time) in a huge bay window. I got so sick of the planer (no the windows weren't centered and the jambs were too thick) I went over with my framing chisel, chopped stop cuts top and bottom and then split the eigthth inch off the jack stud (the header was steel with steel posts, the jacks were just for packing and nailing. In the time it took him to plane one jamb board I had chopped out a window and a half. Trimmers use hammers and chisels, I tend to leave the planing and jointing to the mill boys. He didn't talk to me all day and still only got one window done, my partner and I did the other three the next day, plus the casing and half the crown.
I bought this one, and it is great for site work. Leaves a nice edge. Light weight, and easy to move around site. I use it on all edges that will be exposed.
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Edited 8/26/2005 4:34 pm ET by dustinf
I have found myself wanting the same thing. I don't want to lug a 6 or 8 inch model down the road with me, and I don't like the short and flimsy look of the little cheap versions. I knew a guy who had an old Delta thing, it was 4" but had like a 5 ft bed. Cast, but you could still move it. I think about that thing pretty regular. If I found one working, I'd buy it in a snap. And even at that, there's only been a handful of times that I've thought having one on site would really be worthwhile. But if I had one that was semi-portable, I'd get more use out of it. Not for base and case obviously, but all the more specialty stuff that comes up - mantles, window seats, etc.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
Back in Wyoming I worked for an outfit that only built one big summer home a year. We had a 20" planer and 8" long-bed jointer that were really handy to have on site, especially for the many "western" style accents that were made from pine or doug fir in various stages of straightness. We became good at constantly scanning structural lumber for those that had desirable grain patterns which would be stacked and dried for later use.
While 1000 lbs isn't portable in the normal sense we would only move once a year and that would only be down the road 1/2 mile or less.
I've missed the freedom to straighten and plane boards at will and it would be great just to have a small 6" jointer on site, although we've had disapointing results with the small delta. Looking at the basic Delta 6" stand model, it looks like the stand comes off preatty easily and the package could be somewhat movable at 175 lbs. If a job comes up with a couple months worth of "design as you go" stain-grade built-ins and such I wouldn't hesitate to move a full size jointer on site. Otherwise it's probably more hassle than it's worth.
Cheers,
I worked as a job forman for a company for about 4 years and during the course of that stint I insisted that they let me buy a jointer and a planer and have them reimburse me. They were very tentative at first, but after the first month, they went out and bought another. We used the little Delta jointer pictured above, and the planer was the Ridgid 13" which was rated #1 in portable planers a few years back, I have one for myself. They are great to have, especially the little planer because it's so light and does the job very nicely. Of course they don't have the same capacity as a large 8" long bed, but for a good size trim job, they are great to have on board.
The down side to having planers and trimmers on a larger job where there are several workers is when they fall into the hands of carpenters (so called), who don't think or care about what they run through the machines, how they do it, or sharpening or replacing the blades. We had this one doofus who would regularly run aezak board and wet pressure treated through the machines and would always adjust them to bite off as much material as it could in one pass. By not maintaining it, they put the machinery through stresses it wasn't really designed for and it breaks down before it's time. This is all too often the case.
If all you are going to do is dress edges of 3/4" stock, a router table is a more portable option.
Unless I'm milling the molding myself, I'd leave the jointer at home. I've done a bunch of reno's on older homes where it was just short of impossible to find a match to the existing profiles and I made my own. And step one for milling your own is to make certain you've got a dead flat board, then it's off to the planer. But running flat stock, I'd rely on the mill for having a decent cut. I would tote along a portable planer to insure that all my stock was the same thickness though.
Jim
We do a lot of custom trim on the houses and additions we build, and find a portable thickness planer an indespensible tool. Like AndyE said, a block plane works too, but if it's not scary-sharp and you run into reversing grain you can get tearout.
We also have a couple of the portable jointers Justin linked to--though not for fine furnituremaking (I have an 8" shop jointer for that stuff) it is actually a very sturdy tool and is great for smoothing the occasional edge.
If all we did was stock moldings or 1x casing, the jointer and planer could stay in the van. But, for all the unusual and interesting stuff, out comes the planer.
Mike
Absolutely move the jointer to the job. If you have an edge sander, that will do the job too. The quality of the work often depends on how easy it is for the guy doing it, and if you provide a jointer for me I will do some things more cleanly than without. Make sure the knives are sharp and well set, or the mill marks will be as bad as a ripped edge would be.
I mill all my trim on site. I don't buy store bought trim unless it is for someone else and it has to match some existing. I couldn't do it without a jointer. I can straighten a few pieces with a table saw but if it is a whole house then I need a jointer to make things right.
If the trim package is stuff like 2.25" reversible base, 2.5" beveled casing and drywall wrapped windows then no need for a jointer. If you got window and door jambs to build, craftsmen style trim and you make your own cabinets then I don't see how you can do without a jointer. If you go to the tablesaw and the piece is not tight to the fence from a pass on the jointer then it is kind of unsafe anyway.
You can't beat a jointer for tapering pieces for jamb extensions. A jointer is one of my favorite and handiest tools when I do trim. For making beads and crown or any kind of cheese that is going to the router table then you need to pass it on the jointer first so that you get a straight edge. I use a jointer when tiling shower stalls and I need a straight piece of scr@p for the first course of tile to bear on. I love my jointer. She makes everything look good and I can still haul a$$ and not look back.
Thanks for your input. We've got a big job to do, all in sort of a "Craftsman style meets Japan" trim scheme, all flat board maple and cherry, jamb extensions for 66 openings, window benches, continuous headbands, and we'll have lots of need for doing some tapering to get things right.
We'll truck it in right from the start, dust collection and all.