Thicknesser or jointer?

[THIRSTYGUMS]

I only have the budget to get one, A thicknesser surface planer OR a 6" jointer. Which is the more useful? Which is the better purchase for my guitar making workshop? Cheers!

[D. J. Baines]

JOINTER!

You can always plane by hand, but being able to simply run a surface over and have it perfectly flat is priceless.

Useful for: joining two piece body gluing surface, multi-piece neck gluing surface, fingerboard surface, headplate surface, etc.

[Rodent]

I'd start with a joiner - besides being able to get superbly smooth glue joints, you'll also be able to surface one side of a multi-piece neck before thickness sanding (or hand planing) the other side

after this makes it in the door, I'd start saving for a thickness sander next (or make one yourself as Hambone did.) the thickness sander is a critical part of reducing hours upon hours of hand sanding your tops flat without any tearout in the figuring, while also allowing you to properly fine tune to an exact tolerance for things like neck stringers and such

all the best,

R

[THIRSTYGUMS]

I thought so, thanks guuuuyyyyssssssss!!!

[Dirk Diggler]

I have to suggest save up for a drum sander if you can, I did and was very happy. My last bass was 4 layer body wings and a 5 piece neck through, no jointer at all.
I got the Grizzly Baby Drum at around $500 shipped, a great deal for this invaluable tool, especially when dealing with figured woods.
But do have a way to collect the dust.

Dirk

[Larry Davis]

Any one major tool is designed to work in conjunction with other tools in a process. You don't say if you have any other major power tools so I'm assuming not.

First, a 6" jointer will not do body halves or top blanks....It's 6 inches wide which means 5.75 usable...think about it. Save up for at least an 8" jointer. A knife planer will not make substrate flat, but merely make it thinner. Bandsaw or table saw to trim, jointer to flatten one side, planer to remove lots of wood (if needed) and drum sander to thickness.

Bare bones stuff suggested here and in my shop lives a 28" Laguna bandsaw, 18" Mini-Max bandsaw, 25" Woodmaster double drum planer/sander, 24" double drum Griz sander, 24" double drum General sander, 8" oscillating edge sander, 8" spiral head jointer, 12" long bead Delta jointer. This does not account for dust collection and smaller stuff and sliding compound saws..or...or....

For hobby work you can get by without much of anything except a saw and sander.

[THIRSTYGUMS]

I do have a 14" bandsaw, Router, router table, drill press and hand power tools im just getting set up now. I didnt know there was such a thing as an 8" jointer, ill look into that!

[THIRSTYGUMS]

Do you have any photos or a link to photos of your shop?

[Larry Davis]

Originally Posted by THIRSTYGUMS

Do you have any photos or a link to photos of your shop?

Not as a "tour" type spread, but been thinking about a web page of the shop. Actually, it's about .5 acre, three buildings, three portable tent structures all black topped around them. The "main" shop is 4,000 square feet.

[THIRSTYGUMS]

Oh! thats a little bigger than i guessed! Cool that would be interesting to see.

[ehque]

lol - youre talking to larry the wood man, man...

hey larry, wouldn't a router be absolutely necessary as well? or is your recommendation for a hobbist type shop, and not a luthier style one?