Stronger Wood Structures with Jointers

(photo:gi rl riding )

For years, wood has been seen as a beautiful material, relatively easy to work with, ideal for turning into houses and furniture. As the years have gone, the disadvantages of dealing with wood have been “conquered” through various techniques and preparations. Wood isn’t as stable as metal or stone, as it contracts and expands, eventually warping, under different conditions.

The “starting point” of such issues with wood happens when it is cut out and dried, as wood continues to move throughout its lifespan, determined through humidity and temperature changes around its environment.

One “strengthening technique” which woodworkers have taken a hold of is jointing. Proper jointing keeps tables, chairs, joined boards and frames in good condition, as well as adds to the aesthetic elements of such woodworking workpieces.

Two of the popular joint types are the biscuit joining system and the use of mortises. The biscuit joining system makes use of a compressed wooden biscuit to be fitted in between the two to-be-joined pieces, filling out respective crescent shaped holes on each pieces of wood. Sheet goods like plywood and particle boards are ideal items for a biscuit joining setup. Mortises maintain the same principle as the biscuit joining setup does, only that instead of biscuit shaped compressed wood, more squared pegs are utilized, making it ideal for more block like types of woodpieces.

A jointer facilitates the fast, accurate and easy creation of joints. Most jointers are commonly mistaken to be simply biscuit jointers, incorrectly referred to as such, when most jointers are capable of dealing with mortise creation.

Also known as a planer, buzzer, flat top or surface planer, a jointer basically produces a flat surface on a woodpiece. The item gets its name from its primary function, which is to make flat edges on a piece of wood, prior to joining them.

A jointer is basically made up of two parallel tables, a movable fence normally perpendicular to the tables, and a cutter head, which is motorized. The jointer’s two tables are the infeed and the outfeed tables, and are adjustable, capable of being raised or lowered. Lowering the infeed table leads the outfeed table to determine the depth of cut measure. Jointers are usually measured to have a 4-6 inch depth of cut. Some jointer types built for industrial purposes cut 8-16 inches. These jointers are larger, and geared to do bigger jointing procedures.

Jointers are common to find in a professional woodworker’s woodshop, as professional woodworkers contend with the element they deal with and the demands coming from their clients.

When it comes to jointers, the fast, easy and accurate creation of joints is easy to attain. Be it a biscuit joint or a mortise, jointers have made working with wood clean, simple and attractive.