Last Updated on March 7, 2022 by Naomi Nimu
A jointer is a must-have for every woodworking home shop. It offers such a wide variety of uses and it’s a great investment. This jointer buying guide will help you make an informed choice.
Also, this guide is about choosing the right jointer for your woodworking projects. It’s written by a woodworker for woodworkers, so you’ll find out from a real craftsman what is important and what to look for when purchasing the best wood jointer.
What is a Jointer?
A jointer like the one I have reviewed here is very essential electrical machinery that is used for flattening the surfaces of wood pieces as well as straightening the edges of rough lumber boards.
People have a desire to make wooden items at their homes with the help of a jointer machine. It is the most popular and essential tool you will need to join two pieces of board/piece of wood together smoothly, with precision and professional finish.
Just like any other machine, it also has some specific features or characteristics which help in increasing its functionality and durability over a certain period of time such as an infeed and outfeed table, a fence, a blade guard, a dust port, a cutter head, just to name a few.
Help Achieve straight Edges on Boards
A jointer is a great tool for achieving straight edges on boards. If you want to make furniture, you’ll want your boards to be straight and flat if you’re planning on putting them together with glue (which you should be).
Features of a Jointer
Flat Sharp Blades and a Cutter head
The most important two parts of a jointer for a home workshop are the cutter head and blades. The cutter head is actually a group of sharp, spinning blades that move against each other to slice off tiny shavings from the piece of wood you have fed into the machine. The sharp blades are usually made from either carbide or high-grade steel.
A Jointer Fence
A jointer’s flat surface and fence make it easy to straighten edges on your workpieces.
For guiding Wood through its blade
A fence helps you to guide and control your workpiece during any woodworking process such as making boards straight and flat.
This added stability allows you to make incredibly accurate edge joints. A fence can be purchased or built as part of your jointer stand.
These surfaces have a lot of uses within the workshop. You can use them for gluing pieces together to create cabinets or other woodworking projects.
A Blade Guard
A blade guard comes standard on almost all models these days. However, if you’re looking at used or older models that don’t have one, they can be purchased separately for about $10-$20.
Many woodworking machines are equipped with blade guards to reduce the possibility of operator injury from the sharp rotating blades used in the cutting operation. This is important because if a hand comes into contact with a revolving knife, it can be amputated, seriously lacerated, or receive other serious injuries.
A safety guard is classified under Personal Protective Equipment, the protective device that shall function to safeguard employees. The guard shall effectively prevent employees from coming in contact with the revolving knives.
In feed and out feed table
The infeed table is a crucial part of a jointer. The infeed area is where the blade of the jointer rises to cut wood (that is fed in).
The outfeed table is an integral part of any jointer machine. It helps guide the wood after it has been cut by the infeed table.
A Dust Port
A dust port on wood planers and jointers makes cleanup easier at the end of the day. The purpose of the dust port is to route the chips that are created when you plane or joint lumber to an external vacuum hose or bucket.
This keeps the work area cleaner while allowing you to keep working. Some models have built-in ports, while others require you to purchase an adapter kit. It’s important to note that many machines come with optional dust hoods, but not necessarily dust ports and that hoses can’t be directly attached to them.
Features of a Jointer Youtube Video
Bench Jointer Uses
A jointer is a work-horse when it comes to preparing lumber for use on other woodworking machines or to make your finished product look great.
If you have any notion to work with rough lumber or slightly imperfect stock, you may want to consider getting the best home jointer. Jointers are great for making one face and the adjacent edge of a board perfectly flat and square to each other.
Straighten Edges of lumbar
A jointer is a woodworking tool that is essential for any workshop. A jointer allows you to straighten edges of lumber and you can join boards together to make larger pieces.
This makes the work of many woodworkers much easier. Being able to straighten and square boards yourself allows you to save time, reducing the expenses and amount of labor a contractor would require when installing your cabinets or furniture project.
Trimming Doors to Size
Say you bought a cabinet and need to fit it with existing doors. You don’t need to buy new doors – they cost a lot of money. But the doors you have are too thick for the doorsills on your cabinets. This is an easy fix in the shop. Just trim off some material with a jointer.
Flatten a Surface
A jointer is a tool used to flatten a surface, removing any twist, cup, or a bow in the wood. Using a jointer is a great way to ensure your furniture pieces, as well as veneered plywood components, are flat. This will help keep your material from cracking or breaking later on.
Factors to consider when buying the Best Jointer for Home Work Shop
Your dream to have a home wood workshop is a huge step in your life. You have to be very excited about this new development which is about to happen in your live. Now you get to decide how to create your woodshop!
Don’t get me wrong, any workshop would be great, but if you get the best budget jointer, that would be great. There are a lot of things to consider before buying the best jointer which I will discuss in this section.
A High-Quality Jointer
A high-quality jointer is a very good investment if you are into woodworking. A good tool will last for many years and save you time, effort, and wood. It can do that by ensuring your cuts will be nice and clean.
A decent jointer ensures the straightness of the wood so that your other tools will have an easy time processing it. It really depends on the model of the jointer, but a lot of jointers today are very reliable and produce clean cuts.
Always remember that in using models with lesser quality, you might spend twice as much on repairing in the long run.
Price
People always think of jointers as being too expensive for their budgets, but when you know how to search for the best jointer for the money, you get an affordable one.
The price of a jointer is an important factor. Generally, the higher the price, the more you are getting for your money. However, if you compare models that are a lot cheaper than average but have specifications that are somewhat similar to other models at higher prices; don’t hesitate to choose the cheaper one.
It won’t happen often but you can sometimes find some great bargains on online stores. Of course, don’t buy just because a product is low priced – make sure it has everything you need before you commit to buying it. I have reviewed affordable jointers here, have a look.
Has all the Right Features
If you’re looking to purchase a new jointer, you’ll want to make sure that it includes all the right features, such as a powerful motor, a good fence system, an in-feed, and out-feed Table, and an extra set of blades.
The materials that your jointer is made out of are important as well and should be taken into consideration. Purchasing a great jointer is the first step in a successful woodworking project.
Size of a Jointer
When it comes to buying power tools, one important factor you should consider is the size of a jointer. With the many different sizes of jointers, you will need to think about which size will be best for your workshop. They come in various widths from 15 inches to 10 feet.
Even though the size is not that important to consider since it will save you space but the biggest size of a jointer will ease your work because it can accommodate a variety of wood pieces; both small and long pieces of wood.
However, no matter how big is the tool you choose, be sure to check how accurate it runs because this is what separates the good from the bad machine.
If you have a large shop, with huge workpieces, then you may need a large size jointer. However, if you have only small workpieces, then a small-sized power tool will do the job fine.
A Powerful Motor
When choosing a jointer or planer make sure you choose one with the most powerful motor possible.
Why? Power means your machine will deliver more cuts and take on all the wood with ease. On the other hand, it would also have a higher price due to its amazing performance.
A motor that is medium in power (not too weak yet not too strong) would do just fine for small projects. But if you could splurge and add another 100 bucks for that more powerful machine, I’d say go for it!
Adjustable Fence
A jointer fence is an essential part of your jointer. It holds the wood at right angles to the cutter, providing a straight edge that you can use for joint cutting. A jointer will have 2 main kinds of a fence: 1. fixed and 2. Adjustable.
Adjustable fences help you make accurate and repeatable cuts.
Jointer Injuries and How to avoid them
Jointer injuries are a common risk when working with power tools and will cause you to stop what you are doing.
They can be hurtful and if the damage is not reversed, the victim could endure years of pain. Thankfully, there are things you can do to avoid jointer injuries.
Wear Safety Goggles
One of the most common mistakes when using a bench top jointer is failure to wear safety goggles.
If you don’t use your safety goggles, there is a chance that the shaving curls will hit your eyes and gouge out an injury. You know that accidents can be simple hurt or even cause death.
You can do something about it if you think about your safety first. Wear your goggles at all times. It takes only an instant for the shaving curls to inflict damage in your eyes, so don’t delay wearing them.
Wear Gloves
Dealing with woodworking injuries can be prevented with wear safety gear and following the safety practices of the woodworking.
One such measure is to always wear gloves. Now you could go for the big bulky gloves but that makes it harder to handle small pieces of wood happily. So we need a glove that lets us feel things out while also protecting us from being hurt by the blades of a jointer.
Different Types of Jointers
1. A Floor Standing Jointer
A floor standing jointer is a very useful addition to any woodworking shop, whether you’re a professional carpenter or a serious DIY enthusiast.
These are workhorses and designed to produce high output, so no matter your project, you won’t have to worry about its ability to do the job.
Can bear Heavy Cutting
If you do not need to cut hardwood, then a benchtop model will likely be more than sufficient for your needs.
However, if you plan to cut hardwood, then a floor standing unit is the best choice for you. However, many benchtop are designed with powerful motors also hence can bear heavy cutting of hardwood.
Takes Large Space in your Home Workshop
Floor standing models are typically much larger than their cabinet counterparts, which makes them ideally suited for heavy-duty woodworking. Benchtop jointers are designed to be compact and mobile, so they’re perfect for taking on your next project or job site.
2. Benchtop Jointer
A bench mounted Jointer is a smaller version of the larger floor standing jointer and can be transported from one location to another; can be referred as a portable jointer. However, they can still perform professional work and are capable of dealing with standard sized boards.
These tools are excellent choices for those building workspaces at home or in a workshop. A benchtop model will be less expensive than most other options.
3. A jointer planer combo
A jointer planer combo is a great machine for someone who wants to do a lot of different woodworking project. It will flatten wood surfaces that may be uneven due to incorrect squaring plus perform two dimensional surfaces smoothing on wood objects.
Saves you Money
If your woodworking budget is tight, but you still need to buy a combination machine for your workshop, it may be a good idea to get a jointer planer combo. It will save you money by combining 2 power tools into one machine.
How to use a jointer
You would need to make sure that your jointing machine is switched on and the fence is in the right position.
Start feeding the board into the machine. The piece of wood will be flattened.
One of the things in carpentry work is making your lumber flat. The machine used to achieve this is called a jointer. The edge of lumber that is to be joined by a jointer must be straight on both sides. In order to do that, timber must go through the cutterhead of the machine so that it can then be flattened.
