How to use a jointer on long boards. If you cant cut your board to shorter lengths use this method to joint long bowed stock. A jointer can be used for cutting hardwoods and softwoods but you should avoid cutting plywood mdf or any other manufactured wood materials on your jointer as this can chip the knives in the cutter. 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. 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.
We do not recommend you try this procedure with work pieces longer than 6 if you have a 6 jointer or longer than 8 if you own an 8 jointer. For these pieces use the procedure described in step 4. 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. No fail routines for jointing and planing basic instruction on using a jointer and planer plus a video demonstration of the techniques.
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. I tried using rollers to help support the boards on the in and out but with only limited success what i really need is a longer bed.