Festool 850 planer for long jointing?

[impecunious]

Hi guys,

I'm in need of a jointer for my small shop, and a small footprint & flexibility are pretty high priorities for me with any tool.  I've read different comments here on FOG and other places where people seem generally satisfied mounting the 850 planer upside-down in the accessory bench unit to joint smallish pieces under a few feet long.  However, given that this bench unit doesn't have long infeed or outfeed support, I can see why it'd be a little awkward to joint longer pieces.

Having said that, my question is this:  instead of running a long workpiece over the 850 planer this way for jointing, can the 850 planer just be used with the included parallel stop to run the unit over the long workpiece instead to successfully joint it?  Or is there too much potential room for wobble and error?

I don't actually have a planer OR a jointer, and so I generally plan to buy surfaced wood (at least S2S) for the foreseeable future as a result (again, because of my small space).  But in those situations where I want to plane or joint something, I'm just trying to get a feel for whether the 850 would joint long edges or flatten glued-up panels reasonably well or not.  Thanks!

 

[Discap]

I own a Powermatic Jointer, LN Jointer plane and a 850.  The last several major jointing jobs were accomplished using the TS55 and/or the CMS with a 1/2" bit.  The finish with the TS55 is amazing and glue-up ready. For end grain Jointing I used the Kapex.  The end grain is actually shiny after the cut.  Attached is a picture of a table I made for my daughter using the TS55 and Kapex only for jointing.

FYI the Powermatic is sitting in my hanger unused, the 850 gets used for flattening rough, warped lumber and the LN jointer gets used for quick jobs.

Bill

 

[Birdhunter]

I own both the 850 planer and a really big jointer. I think jointing long boards with the 850 would be highly problematic.

Think of the 850 as being a medium length hand plane with a powered cutter and you get the idea of its limitations. Even with the bench mount, I don't see the 850 as a precision tool.

 

[windmill man]

Simple answer to your question is No . The 850 used on its own or inverted is not the tool for the job. You would have better results using the TS55, a long rail and mirror cutting the boards
[smile]

 

[ear3]

As has already been said, optimal results can be achieved with the Tracksaw.  If you are edge joining the boards, then it's hard to beat the results you can get using the split kerf method, as outlined here by member [member=1619]SRSemenza[/member] :
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-how-to/edge-jointing-a-countertop-with-the-ts75-(or-ts55)/

Theoretically, one could use the HL850 for edge jointing like one uses the jointer plane, whereby one does both edges simultaneously and so any inconsistencies in the cut get mirrored on the boards to create a perfect edge.

 

[impecunious]

The finish with the TS55 is amazing and glue-up ready. For end grain Jointing I used the Kapex.

Thanks Bill.  As it turns out, I have the TS 55 and Kapex as well, and I never really considered using the Kapex for end jointing until you suggested this.  I suppose it's possible, right?  I mean, the edge it gives may not be perfectly 90.000 degrees like a jointer, but maybe this doesn't make a real-world difference?  Interesting.

I'll have to check out the other reference Edward mentions on the split kerf method with the TS 55.  I'm not familiar with that one.  Thanks!

 

[JesseC]

If you have a router table many fences have the ability to move the out feed side fence so that it could be used as a jointer.

 

[RKA]

With the Kapex, if you flip the two pieces and stacked them, then cut them together, you would cancel out any inaccuracy in the bevel angle. The miter angle not so much but presumably this would be narrow pieces otherwise you could use the track saw as described above.

 

[Discap]

I have found that with the Kapex setup properly that you can achieve a 90 deg cut. That table had no gaps on edges or ends. The Kapex can however get out of adjustment get a good ( Woodpeckers 1218) square and check often.

I recently had a problem with my TS 55 not cutting perpendicular on the edges. This is new the first several hundred linear feet were perfect.

Bill