Is a jointer useless without a planer?

[Admiral]

Thanks for the input all....I think I was under the impression we have been talking about an electric planer the whole time (which is what I was using on the board shown in picture. The boards were to wide when I used the hand electric planer, so I had to make two passes and thats why they were so uneven, I guess i was using to much pressure between the two passes on one board.

bloomington mike...are you saying to joint the face and edge of one board so its 90 degrees, then put it thru a table saw but standing up rather then laying it down, if so I do not feel comfortable at all doing that

Electric planers are meant for rough work, when you have to remove lots of material, and fast.  They can be adjusted, but are still a blunt force type of tool.  A #5 hand plane is an order of magnitude more precise, but as has been pointed out, requires some technique, including its use and preparation, i.e., sharpening the iron.

[WilliamHodge]

I am getting married in November, and have been trying to make things for the wedding out of pallet wood, to save some money. Now I know pallet wood is the absolute worst thing to use to make nice things, but were on a tight budget and I'm trying to make due.

Stop using pallet wood.

Pallet wood is full of grit from being on the ground, on concrete, on truck beds, etc. Running pallet wood over your jointer will make it very hard to get flat wood, even if you have decades of experience running a jointer. When the knives hit dirt, the edges round, and the wood tends to bounce off the tables. As you push the wood through, the dull knives beat at the wood, the wood bounces, and the jointer cuts less and less through the pass.

How do I know so much about running dull jointers? Why do I care? I have run salvaged wood and teak over jointers. There is no way around just cjanging the knives a lot.

[mdhills]

I can't really see the issue from the photo.

Is your issue that the sign face is not flat because the boards in the panel are not a consistent thickness?
You should be able to get a glued-up panel face flat without a planer.
(Your back may not be even if you are not thicknessing with a planer, and you will need to be careful when edge jointing to ensure that your edges are truly square to the jointed face)

Matt

[nickm62388]

No the photo is hard to see, and dont have the board to take a better pic. Its sooooo wavy throughout the whole thing, from me planing each board unevenly..Id make a pass on one board, then try to make another pass on the same board next to the first pass, and Its so uneven/wavy/groovy...

I learned alot of tips and pointers on here, and will def be buying a planer when I can afford it. Dewalt $399 or the $270 porter cable planer.

[Gary G™]

Why not just make the sign from plywood and be done with it.
Time is money too!!

[MichaelMouse]

Nick, it is about technique as much as experience.

As others have pointed out, a jointer only flattens one side. A planer makes two sides parallel. However, if you are planing a wedge, it is likely that you are applying pressure unevenly. That is experience. Further, if you are chewing up boards with a handplane, then I'm afraid you need to learn to use one. That is technique.

One can use a jointer to flatten one side, then use a bandsaw to resaw it evenly. Do you have a bandsaw?

Alternately, joint one side, and then scribe the desired thickness with a gauge, and plane to the lines. You need a sharp blade, and ability to read the grain.

Regards from Perth

Derek

There, in the last paragraph, is the ultimate answer.  Not surprising, since  it's the way things were done before the advent of thickness planers. Once a year I demonstrated the old way with hand planes, and had a few of the more trustworthy students prepare a board before turning them loose on the machines.

I find that a hand plane is a worthwhile place to begin if the lumber has twists or cups badly, because I can make a surface that will run through a surface planer (wide jointer?) or thickness planer without tipping.  I nip off the high spots so I can keep myself from tipping it as I feed the machine, or as the machine feeds itself.  Don't need perfection, just close.  

That's the way you joint an edge, too.  Sight first, take off the high spots to make it run through true for the final pass, then rip.

[Tapper]

I am getting married in November, and have been trying to make things for the wedding out of pallet wood, to save some money. Now I know pallet wood is the absolute worst thing to use to make nice things, but were on a tight budget and I'm trying to make due.

Ive learned that no matter how many times I try different pieces of pallet wood and run it thru jointer, face side first and then the edge (which I do get a perfect 90 degree angle on those two things), I'm never ever able to make 5 identical pieces for a 5 board rectangle piece for a wedding sign (as shown below). 

It always comes out to be a wedge, no matter what, therefore being uneven and not flat with other pieces I try to make for the wooden sign

I don't know how people just get by with just a jointer, if they want a perfect parallel piece of wood. I am correct in saying without both a jointer and planer its impossible?

What you are attempting to do is admirable, and BTW congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Unless you are willing to put in the time it takes to get boards perfectly flat (as perfect as wood can be) by first jointing them with a hand plane on one side, and then doing the same thing on the other side (arduous and time consuming) the best and most used way to flatten boards is definitely with a stationary power jointer and planer. If you don't have the resources for these tools right now, consider having a shop do the job for you, generally for a nominal fee.

Craigslist can be your friend for finding these two tools at a reasonable price. Best of luck with everything!

Doug

[Alan S]

Do you need both faces flat and smooth? If only one face will show, you can flatten a reference face on the jointer, and straighten a reference edge on the jointer. Then with the reference face down on the table and the reference edge against the fence, you can use a tablesaw to cut the other edge parallel. If the saw cuts cleanly, you can then glue up a panel. If not, a single pass on the jointer (with reference face against the fence) will smooth the sawn edge. If you are careful to align edges as you glue (yes it's a skill worth learning) you will have one face flat and pretty smooth. Your powered hand planer set to a very shallow cut may be good enough for the back side, but it's a harder tool to use to flatten a face accurately than a handplane.

[mdhills]

No the photo is hard to see, and dont have the board to take a better pic. Its sooooo wavy throughout the whole thing, from me planing each board unevenly..Id make a pass on one board, then try to make another pass on the same board next to the first pass, and Its so uneven/wavy/groovy...

Are your boards wider than your jointer?
(I had originally assumed that the jointer was wide enough for the boards, and that you were then gluing them into a panel afterwards)
Matt

[nickm62388]

I appreciate all the input, I also sorta realized question why my jointer has blade depth between 1/8-1/2....I feel if you try to shave off more then 1/8 at one time it will just jam....It jammed and over heated trying to do 1/4 shave on the jointer. I feel its nearly impossible if I tried jointing face or edge with the depth at more then 1/4... If I put the depth to 1/2, as soon as the wood touched the blade, I feel it'd stop and jam.