Subject: Re: Joint edge on planer?

From: Colin Montoya-Lewis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 02:56:56 -0700

DMarlen wrote:
> 
> I wrote a question to this newsgroup about creating a straight edge along
> a side of a piece of wood that has two rough edges.  Suggestions focused
> on tacking the board to a straightedge and run the straightedge along the
> fence on the tablesaw, or run the router along it.
> 
> But, how about this....
> 
> What if you put the board into the planer on edge?  I know it might sound
> dangerous.  So you couldn't do it on every piece.  But if it was mostly
> straight; just rough, couldn't you put it on edge and have the rollers
> hold it steady and let the planer take off just a little bit.  Then do it
> again.  And again.  Then turn it over and do the other edge. Would this
> work?  I imagine the biggest problem would be if the wood were to fall
> over sideways.  But I don't think it would do that if the rollers were
> holding it down.
> 
> Just a thought.... but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
> 
> David.

Assuming the piece didn't simply fall over (or come shooting back out at
you at 100,000 miles per hour), you wouldn't end up with a straight edge
on either side because you need at least one straight edge to reference
off the bed of the planer.
-Colin

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From: "Dean & Marlene Price" <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Mar 1997 12:40:38 GMT

You can edge joint in a planer, I do it all the time!
But like Colin said, you need a straight edge first.
I do it to create boards that I want a certain width, it skips using
the table saw and then the jointer again only to find out that the
width is narrower then what I wanted or the sides are not parallel.
I've used up to 6'' in width.
Dean

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From: Andy Manvell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 11:24:00 -0500

> off the bed of the planer.
I agree with Colin - sounds like not such a good idea, but heres
something else to consider - a straight edge, two sawhorses, and a
skilsaw.  Not very elegant, but should work just fine!

Andy Manvell

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From: James Foster <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 11:56:25 -0600

DMarlen wrote:

> hold it steady and let the planer take off just a little bit.  

Others have said that this isn't a good idea and won't work. And
in its basic incarnation they're right. One of the FWW collections
had an article on building an auxiliary table for your portable
planer. Basically you made it temporarily un portable by adding
a through the planer extension table, torsion boxed on the infeed
and outfeed areas. A nice way to solid up your substrate and cut
down on snipe. But the author also presented some of the jigs he
used with this. One of them was an edge jointer. As I recall it
was a sled that ran along the table with a moderate height 
vertical fence and a couple of other attached blocks. Put your
rough board against the fence and use wedges (or you could build
in lever clamps) to hold it tight. Run the whole mess through the
planer taking light cuts. Note that you _will_ get a straight
edge. Might not be parallel with the grain, but it will be
straight. Flip the board over and do the other side. This _will_
be parallel to the first side. Don't recall what the kickback
considerations were, but note that if your board is way off 
there might be times when you're running the board through
the planer un-driven by the rollers, and that the cutter 
head will be pretty high giving you extra opportunity to
remove appendages by sticking them in there while running
the sled through. 

So it's doable, and in this context it's reasonably safe, IMHO.
But to just stand them on end and run them through? No way,
for all the reasons others have mentioned.