questions about 6" jointer

[Bullant]

Hi there, brand new to the forum, about to start building my first guitar, just getting some tools together and had a quick question.

I'm wondering if there's any point to buying a 6" jointer? I don't have a LOT of money to spend, and there's a significant jump in price up to an 8", but if a 6" is going to be completely useless then I'd like to be armed with that knowledge before making a purchase.

I'm guessing 2 part body blanks are out of the question with a 6" jointer, on account of body width generally exceeding 12" total?

I'm new to woodworking, and not sure I have the requisite skills required to use hand tools to square off and prepare body blanks...

Cheers!

[guitar2005]

If you have the money and room for an 8" jointer, go for it.
I know I would. 6" can be somewhat limiting but rarely have I needed to joint 8" wide.
I use my jointer mostly to prepare neck blanks and glue ups for bodies.

[Jack Wells]

How are you going to use the jointer? I've never used mine for anything thicker than 2 inches. I don't think a jointer is intended to be used as a thickness planer.

[Commodore 64]

My shop has an 6-inch jointer and a 12.5-inch planer.

IMHO, the 6-inch jointer is fine. If I had a do-over, I'd go with the 6-inch jointer and a 13-inch planer (tele body won't fit in 12.5 inch planer.)

[mgdesigns]

I agree with what Jack Wells stated. You're talking about using a jointer as a planer, and the two are similar but have different uses. If you're thinking of planing the top or back surfaces, that would be a planer's job, or thickness sander. Jointers are uses to get perfectly flat JOINTS for glue-ups. I've got a 4" Shopsmith (yet to be used) and that should be all I need to prep neck surfaces, or body joints. A year or two ago, HD had a close out of the Ridgid 8" Jointer/Planer and people were scarfing them up for about $175. But they were large and heavy hosses; excellent machines, though. I ran a piece of sapele through one and it came out smooth as a baby's bottom, and flat as glass.

[fretman_2]

Jack is right...a jointer is to be used to flatten one face, then you go to the thickness planer to flatten and parallel the other face.

Originally Posted by Jack Wells

How are you going to use the jointer? I've never used mine for anything thicker than 2 inches. I don't think a jointer is intended to be used as a thickness planer.

[Ripthorn]

When prepping rough stock, typically one face is flattened on the jointer and then one edge jointed square. Then the other rough face is planed parallel to the first, and then the second edge is ripped on the table saw. For doing just guitars, one might want an 8" jointer to do the first face, but I find that I typically only use the jointer for edge jointing boards and let the planer smooth both faces (though admittedly they might not be perfectly parallel). So as far as traditional woodworking is concerned, they would tell you to get an 8", but for what it is typically used for especially by guitar hobbiests, a 6" is just fine.

[midget bar]

Not that I have a lot of tools or experience but if the OP is short on $$ a jointer may not be the best use of his limite funds. The OP does not say what other tools they have already, but there are lots of ways to prep the body blank joint that work fine that free up the funds for other power tools (OSS, drill press, router table, bandsaw, table saw, planer) or guitar specific tools (fret saw, nut files, radius blocks).

[guitar2005]

Originally Posted by Jack Wells

How are you going to use the jointer? I've never used mine for anything thicker than 2 inches. I don't think a jointer is intended to be used as a thickness planer.

The OP never said anything about using the jointer as a thickness planer.

Sometimes, wood can be warped and needs to be jointed whether it be for a body, neck or whatever. This has nothing to do with planing

[Bullant]

Hi guys, thanks for the great answers.

Current tools I own:
Mitre Saw
Circular Saw
Handheld jigsaw
Drills (power and cordless)
Dremel + Assorted Bits
Router

Looking to get a drill press, thicknesser, and a jointer.

The reason I was concerned with jointer width is as Guitar2005 says, I'm not sure if I'm going to need it to create a perfectly flat surface on wood that isn't exactly straight yet, before getting the parallel surface in the thicknesser.

I'm sure I'll be able to get by with the 6" jointer now, reading these comments, I'll just have to be careful with my selection of wood, and make sure I don't get any wood for the body that is too out of shape initially.
(EDIT: And I could always make a jig with the router to do what I need to do anyway, if it comes to that.)

Since I'm really new at this, I'll be using "scrap" woods to begin with, probably making a pallet-caster to start. If I need an 8" in the future, I'll upgrade then, we'll see how far I get first.


Next question!

Would a 12 1/2 " thicknesser be too small? I'll probably want at least 13" for tele bodies to go through in one piece, right?

[Full Metal]

I hope I'm not going off topic by offering an alternative here. I thought about the 2 piece blanks, and the money it would take to make them, with getting a planer and joiner. I just decided to use 1 piece blanks instead. Especially if you're doing teles, 13" wide is not hard to find, depending on what wood you want. I've found mahogany, limba, Spanish cedar, goncalo alves, bloodwood; and I've seen many other kinds. Just a thought.

[Bullant]

Originally Posted by Full Metal

I hope I'm not going off topic by offering an alternative here. I thought about the 2 piece blanks, and the money it would take to make them, with getting a planer and joiner. I just decided to use 1 piece blanks instead. Especially if you're doing teles, 13" wide is not hard to find, depending on what wood you want. I've found mahogany, limba, Spanish cedar, goncalo alves, bloodwood; and I've seen many other kinds. Just a thought.

This is certainly a great idea as far as keeping initial costs down, but for me the initial outlay of buying tools is fairly small compared to a potential lifetime of buying wood. I'm really down with the idea of taking "scrap" wood and turning it into a beautiful instrument (hopefully), so I'd rather have the tools to prepare and turn raw/unloved (cheap/free) timber into something usable.

The idea of buying a one piece pre-planed blank, or even a pre-jointed 2 piece blank, just kinda seems unsportsmanlike to me for some reason.

[guitar2005]

Originally Posted by Full Metal

I hope I'm not going off topic by offering an alternative here. I thought about the 2 piece blanks, and the money it would take to make them, with getting a planer and joiner. I just decided to use 1 piece blanks instead. Especially if you're doing teles, 13" wide is not hard to find, depending on what wood you want. I've found mahogany, limba, Spanish cedar, goncalo alves, bloodwood; and I've seen many other kinds. Just a thought.

You don't NEED a planer and jointer to make a 2-piece blank. Start with good wood and all you need is a good glue line, which you can achieve with a good table saw and blade.
Once glued up, you can flatten the body with some sandpaper and a good homemade wide sandpaper block.

[camatillo]

Here is the way we jointed very large slabs of corian, which you could never hold up on edge on a jointer anyway. First you get a very straight edge, you clamp it down to one of the edges of the piece you are going to put a straight edge to. The straight edge should be back from the edge of the piece as calculated by the base of the router and the bit you will be using in it.
The idea is to have the router bit shave off just enough to clean up the edge.
At the same time you position the other piece right next to the first piece a distance away that will cause the router bit to shave off just enough of the second piece to straighten it's edge.
It's important that you understand that you will be cutting both edges at the same time.
When you run the router down the straight edge you will be shaving off both edges of both pieces. It doesn't even matter if the straight edge is perfect. Why? Because what ever you cut off from the one piece, you are cutting off the mirror of it on the other piece.
If you want to be extra creative you can use any shape straight edge or curvy edge reference edge and make wavy faces that are mirrors of each other.
If you choose to make wavy edges that are a perfect match/mirror of each other, be sure to pre-cut the faces to the shape of your reference edge so that you are only shaving off a minuscule amount of material. This is the same as cutting close to the edge of a template and finishing up with a router to the templates shape.
When you do this as described you will have a perfect jointed edge that mirrors the other side. Even if you slip up holding the router close to your reference edge, the mirror of it will be cut on the other piece, so it will mate up with no gaps.
We would do this on 12 foot pieces of Corian and get perfect joints.

[czook]

I thought I needed a thickness planer or sander. Then I saw all the makeshift ones here on the forum by building a box, mounting your router to a board and making a home made thickness planer.

I use a hand planer for glued edges. It says dewalt on the side and plugs in. Take a square and a few passes sometimes to get it right, but between it and the router sled I am set.

[Jack Wells]

Originally Posted by guitar2005

The OP never said anything about using the jointer as a thickness planer.

If you read the original post it sounds like he may have been thinking about it.

I'm guessing 2 part body blanks are out of the question with a 6" jointer, on account of body width generally exceeding 12" total?

[guitar2005]

Originally Posted by Jack Wells

If you read the original post it sounds like he may have been thinking about it.

He was talking about jointing the surface of the guitar to ensure a flat surface, not thichknessing the body.

[Tom Pettingill]

For the average hobby builder, an 8" jointer is one of those nice to have tools, but definitely not a "must have" in the arsenal. I find that a few strokes with a good hand plane will flatten out most stock good enough to send through the thickness planer. I'd put the extra coin into a good thickness planer and an overhead drum / thickness sander.

[guitar2005]

Originally Posted by Tom Pettingill

For the average hobby builder, an 8" jointer is one of those nice to have tools, but definitely not a "must have" in the arsenal. I find that a few strokes with a good hand plane will flatten out most stock good enough to send through the thickness planer. I'd put the extra coin into a good thickness planer and an overhead drum / thickness sander.

Yeah, that's what I did.

[RogerC]

Glad you made it over, Ross. See? I told you these guys would be a lot more helpful

I just got rid of my 6" jointer because it was one of those cheap Delta Shopmaster variable speed jobs. I was getting better results using a piece of plate glass with sandpaper stuck to it. As others have said, I'd spend my money on a more useful tool (drill press, band saw) and take care of the jointing with other methods.

If you do decide to buy a jointer, do some research on jointers and what makes a good one. Stay away from the Delta shopmaster series. There are much better options out there. Keep an eye on CL to find older, better-built tools.