Tom Mobley Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 I saw your comment about the table saw over in updates and mods. I need to ask you about that joiner deal. I'm not sure what I should get for the stuff I'm about to take on. A couple guys told me to get a planer, others pointed to a joiner. My local HD has a floor model of that joiner, I might be able to get a good deal on it. What's the difference between planer and joiner? Besides width of wood it can take? Is there a separate thing known as a thickness planer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Hey man! Yes I do still hang out here... Daily, hourly, minutly... Just don't post AS much. A planer is used to reduce the thickness of stock. You won't need it really if you're going to be using MDF or Plywood. Well, I wouldn't htink you would need it with plywood. A jointer on the otherhand is used to make 1 surface perfectly smooth as well as make a perfectt 90 degree angle. Basically you take a peice of stock, run it over the blade several times until you have a perfectly flat surface, then you would take and rotate it 90 degrees and put the smooth serface on the fence and joint the edge. This gives you a perfect 90 degrees. VERY critical if your doing detailed work. Normaly, after you have jointed your surface and side, you would then run it though a planer to get the stock to the desired thickness you need. HOWEVER, for what your going to be working with, MDF or Ply, neither of these tools are going to be all that important to you. These two tools are more important when your working with rought stock, solid wood stuff. Not precut pre thicknessed (is that a word?) sheets of something. If you don't have one yet, get a nice router. Also... here is yet another forum to add to your list. http://forums.woodnet.net Hope this helped rather than confused. If you have any other questions ask... Also fini is very knowledgable in woodworking as well. Well, I don't even consider myself knowledgable. I have the some theories but not much practicle use. These speaker cabinet rebuilds will be my first major project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Oh... and to answer one of your concerns... my suggestion would be to get a jointer before a planer. Here's why..... Say you have a 2x6 board about 1 foot long and you want to make a nice block out of it thats say 1 x 5 but there is a slight bow in the board, or that it teaters on the corners when you sit it down... If you DID NOT have a jointer and just a planer you COULD send it through the planer until you had a block that was 1" thick. BUT, you would have a 1" thick block that still teatered on the corners. Why? Because a planer squeezes the board and what ever shape it had going in, is the shape it will have coming out. Now I've heard of a few people saying that they can use a planer as a jointer, but I've heard MANY more say NO WAY. SO.... You need that jointer to get 1 flat surface before you send it thorugh the planer. ALSO, there are jigs you can create for a router that will allow you to use your router as a planer. Again, hope this helps. I'd invest in a GOOOOOD and VERY accurate square some good router bits and a good router for what your doing. Something else you will want to think about is dust collection. I got an OK dust collection system at Harbor Freight. Not the best out there but works better than a shop vac. Actually, I bout the unit itself but have yet to get the piping to hook it all up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Shmoe Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Here ya are, I pasted this from Woodworking.com basically same as what mOOn was talking about. Thickness planers and jointers do different things. You really need a jointer. You need it to flatten and edge-joint boards. A thickness planer is in the really-nice-to-have category. The planing that a thickness planer does is different than the planing a jointer does. Most boards from the hardwood store are a little cupped, or a little bowed, or a little warped. Or they will be after they sit in your shop for a while. To get a board flat--so that it will go into a panel, or so that you can make rails or stiles for a door--you either have to hand plane it flat, or else make repeated passes over a jointer bed to get it flat. Same thing with edge jointing. Now, if you take a board that's a little cupped or bowed or warped and put it through a thickness planer, you will have a slightly thinner and very smooth cupped, bowed, or warped board. The thickness planer will not flatten it out. Now if you have 3/4" stock and you need 1/2" stock for drawer sides, it's easier to mill it down to 1/2" using the thickness planer, but you certainly can do the same thing on the jointer. I would strongly advise getting a jointer. I am really getting the itch myself to build some shelving units for my DVD's and another for our office, but man... it's cold working in the garage at this time of year. Some day I hope to have my own shop. I agree also with mOOn on the router issue... they are a really handy tool, bit's can get expensive too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Ha yes... He did a much better job of explaining it than I did. Just get a small heater man. My shop is about 10x22. I have a small cadet inwall heater that will heat my shop up in 5 minutes or so. I mean it aint baking but it sure keeps the edge off. HOWEVER, that being said, i have sheetrock on all walls and ceiling. That really helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 m00n, I'm branching out some from speaker boxes. I wanted to put those nice wood shutters in the windows of my new-to-me house. I had an estimate written and WOW! They want real money. I've got some 8 x 6 windows and they want $1100 per, gonna be like $6K for the whole house. So, I'll build my own. I found a really good article on the net, shows how to figure the spacing and the widths of the stiles and crossbars. But, I'll need a jointer to make it all look good. A 6" will do what I need to do, which is clean up the surfaces so they'll look good with paint. The individual shutter panels on the big windows will be 2' wide and either 5 or 6' high. I'm looking at a nice biscuit joiner to put the stuff together with. The frames will be poplar and the shutters basswood, this is not heavy wood. See any problems with that? I can also sink in a 2.5" deck screw on each corner to help with supporting the weight. Got any bright ideas or warnings? Incidentally, we got an inch of rain here today and in the afternoon it was 42*. More like Oregon than Phoenix. Reminded me of the old days when I lived in Portland/Hillsboro/Lake Oswego. Miserable. There was so much hail on the ground the people who grew up around here thought it was snow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 man you guys are fast. you both posted while I was writing up that little novella above. Thanks for the feedback Joe. That was exactly what I needed to know, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 Oops, forgot: I have a decent home shop type router. I got it to route the horn openings in the LS's and Belle I built. Works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Tom, all sounds good to me. However, as I mentioned, I'm no pro at woodworking. I'm still learning myself. Hell, I've not yet even made anything substancial. All I've really done is some cheezy little shop helpers. I think my next purchase for my shop is going to be some forstner bits. I'm tired of making ovals rather than holes with the junky drill bits that I have. I already have the Ryobi drill press that home depot carries. It seems to suit my needs fine. My next big shop purchase will be a band saw.... Soooooo many projects that I see that I want to create utilize a band saw. OH and if you get a router, either build or buy a router table. I finally finished mine about a week ago. it's just a little benchtop router table but works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 ---------------- On 1/5/2005 12:59:39 AM Tom Mobley wrote: Oops, forgot: I have a decent home shop type router. I got it to route the horn openings in the LS's and Belle I built. Works great. ---------------- Oh? You finished your speakers? In that case.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 moon, pictures you want, pictures you got, check out this thread. Pics on the first page are big and may be slow, but the rest are OK. Cheap digicam was a PITA the whole time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I'll admint that I didn't read anything, I just sat in awe at your fine work... So, I have a question. Would you do it again? Is there anything you would do differently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 m00n, Yes, I would do it again. I've had several inquiries from guys who want a center Belle. I'm not sure I would be interested in selling one in a wood and finish that's currently available new from Klipsch. They might take exception to that. Cornwalls are do-able. They're not available from Klipsch and are much simpler to build. frankly, the Belle is sort of a PITA, lots of small pieces. I originally built mine in Birch, then half-way through changed to Mahogany to match my '60 Khorns. That meant I ended up veneering and finishing all the little pieces individually. I learned a lot in the process, the next one will be much easier. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Shmoe Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I have thought about putting a heater out in the garage but first I would have to drywall & insulate it. Otherwise I believe it would be just a waste of money trying to heat it. It isn't attatched to the house so it gets pretty cold in the winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Speaker Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Jointers were used a lot more in the past when saw blades were rough and cuts needed to be planed smooth. Now a days saw blades like hollow ground blades cut as smooth as a jointer so the planing step isnt always needed. Before buying a jointer buy a table saw. A table saw can plane smooth the edges of a board and the face up to about 3 inches just like a jointer but a jointer cant rip or cross cut a board like a table saw can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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