Mother's Jointer Survey

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Since the adjustment of the knives on the cutterhead are of major importance, pay particular attention to the blades' accessibility and the ease with which they can be replaced or adjusted. Some manufacturers have had the foresight to come up with knife gauges or other implements to assure correct settings, so don't forget to ask.

Generally, the machine should be solid enough to take the day-to-day knocks that regular use will expose it to. Be sure, however, that you investigate the warranty and the availability of parts and service. In the end, the amount of time you put into researching your purchase will show up in the quality of work you get out of it.

THE TWO-IN-ONE TOOLS

The jointer and the thickness planer are subordinate only to the table saw in the hierarchy of woodshop stationary tools. That's because once a board has been rough-cut to size, it must be faced and edged to make it smooth and square in preparation for working.

Since the jointer has the ability to remove high spots, warp, and other inconsistencies which keep a board from being perfectly straight, that tool should be used first to dress one side of the rough stock. Then, with that face flat, the thickness planer can be put to use surfacing the board's opposite side to make both faces parallel.

In view of the fact that the jointer and planer work hand in hand, at least nine manufacturers have combined both tools into one compact machine that performs both functions. Domestic and European firms favor an over-and-under design in which the same cutterhead does both the jointing and planing. The Japanese are partial to a side-by-side setup in which two separate cutterheads share a long shaft.

Each version has its pros and cons, but the major points to remember are that [1] the overand-under models can joint and plane stock of equal width, but at the cost of resetting the machine for each function; [2] the side-bysides, though readily accessible for either operation, have jointer widths only half those of their planers; and [3] over-and-unders lack the extra-long jointer tables featured in their oriental counterparts.

The chart above will help you decide.

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