
How to use a jointer on long boards. Working on my bench i have to joint long boards for the bench top. Because they work in a similar fashion to remove stock from the face or edge of a board the roles of the jointer and planer often cause confusion. The boards are long and quite heavy and its incredibly difficult to try and run them through jointer without the in and out feed tipping some of the passes even leave me with gouges. Build 2 8 foot extensions to your jointer to straighten and flatten long boards.
For safety reasons you need to set a lower limit on the size of board you will run through the jointer. Check your jointers manual for specifics but in most cases the smallest recommended piece will be in the range of 12 thick x 2 wide x 12 long. If you cant cut your board to shorter lengths use this method to joint long bowed stock. Your jointers capacity boundaries will be limited by the length and width of its beds.
No fail routines for jointing and planing basic instruction on using a jointer and planer plus a video demonstration of the techniques. It is a good idea to keep an additional set of cutting knives for your jointer on hand in the event that you do chip a knife.