The reason i ask is i was looking for a bigger bandsaw locally and found a man selling a 6" rockwell jointer/planer for $125. Didn't seem like a bad deal. I just wanted to see if this was a tool alot of you used. I usually make bamboo backed bows, board bows and every now and then a fiberglass bow. I just wasn't real sure how much i would use this tool. Thanks
Adam
I had one and sold it because I didt use it. I square everything up now on my drum sander...and when I cut my limb pad agles, I square up the cut on a flat surface with a sheet of sand paper. They are nice to have for other projects (furniture) though..and that is a good price.
I make a lot of the Bingham straight longbow design. I have an old craftsman jointer I use along with my planer to crank out solid risers. Plane to 1 1/2 then jointer for side that goes against the lams. I agree it's not needed on a r/d riser.
Great price.
BTW, I went out and invested in a spare set of blades for both my jointer and planer. Keep a sharp set ready to go. Knowing the location of the local blade sharpening sevice is a must for owning a jointer or planer.
Mike W.
I use mine and it was worth the 150 I gave for it. I use it for more than building bows. It comes in handy for a bunch of projects around the house.
Shawn
I'm new here and I have yet to build a bow. I plan on doing my first soon. I have built a lot of furniture and if you start with rough sawn lumber a jointer is the best/easiest way to get straight and square boards. If you buy your lumber with 3-4 sides square there isn't near as much need for the jointer.
I bought mine at an auction and once set up correctly it's a great tool. I bought it because rough sawn lumber is a lot cheeper and if you use a lot of it you can save some money and I like making sawdust.
I have a Delta 6" bench model. I love it. Doesn't take up much space and use it for various part of building bows. When I rip and laminate riser wood it squares it up, pre-tapering bamboo for backing bows. When I build a take down I initially cut the angle on my table saw but like to square them up on the jointer. I think I paid $100 for it and have more than got my money and use out of it.
Brock
I use a jointer for the taper on the board bows, its fast and easy now that I've done a few. I just draw a line on the edge and watch it as I run the board over the jointer. It also comes in handy for squaring chunks of wood and reducing thickness of wood.
I take advantage of my fathers wood shop and use his Grizzly jointer quite a bit. A planer will get two sides parallel, but a jointer gets 4 sides square. It's always nice to start with perfectly square riser blocks.