An 8-inch jointer is a practical size for a furniture-making shop. Its cutterhead can flatten boards roughly 6 to 8 inches wide in one pass, while the long beds provide enough support for cabinet parts, table components, and most solid-wood stock. It is also substantially less demanding of space and electrical capacity than a 12-inch…
Start with the board, not the saw A table saw can rip narrow hardwood, but it is not a jointer and it cannot make a twisted board safe by itself. Before shopping, decide what “narrow” means in your work. Ripping a 2-inch strip from a flat, straight board is a routine table-saw cut. Ripping a…
Resawing figured lumber is where a band saw earns its floor space. The job is not simply cutting a board in half. Curly maple, quilted maple, birdseye maple, walnut crotch, and similar stock can change grain direction every few inches. A saw that is adequate for straight-grained boards may wander, scorch, or turn an expensive…
What a 6-inch jointer can do A 6-inch jointer is useful for flattening one face and straightening one edge of narrow boards before they go to a planer or table saw. Its cutterhead is only 6 inches wide, so it suits furniture parts, shelf stock, trim, and many hardwood boards sold in common widths. It…
Choosing a 15-inch planer A 15-inch planer is a useful step up from a benchtop machine when you regularly mill cabinet parts, tabletops, and furniture stock. Its wider capacity handles most solid-wood boards used in furniture, while a stationary stand and heavier cutterhead generally help it feed stock more steadily. The trade-off is size, cost,…
Choosing a 12-inch planer for a small shop A 12-inch benchtop planer can handle most stock a one- or two-person professional shop needs to thickness: cabinet parts, door rails, table components and glue-up stock. Its width is the first limit, but capacity and feed rate are only part of the decision. Noise, chip collection, knife…
Short answer: cut first, flatten second A band saw and a jointer solve different problems when stock has curves, crooks, or uneven edges. Use the band saw to remove material along a curved or irregular line. Use the jointer afterward only if you need to create a flat face or a straight, square edge—and only…
Repetitive woodworking holes expose the limits of a handheld drill quickly. One or two holes in a board are easy. Twenty holes that must line up, match in depth, and stay square are a different job. A drill press controls the bit with a column, table, and quill. A handheld drill depends on your wrists,…
A jointer and a table saw solve different parts of the problem. A jointer makes one edge of a crooked board straight; a table saw then uses that reference edge to rip the opposite edge parallel. A jointer alone does not produce a reliably parallel finished board, and a table saw fence cannot safely guide…
A helical cutterhead and a spiral cutterhead both replace a planer’s long straight knives with rows of small carbide inserts. The names are not used consistently by every manufacturer: some call any staggered insert head “helical.” Check the cutter layout and insert shape, not just the label. For most buyers, the practical choice is between…