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Adam Spiral Jointer vs rabbet cuts
September 23rd, 2005 12:06 AM
September 22, 2005 Spiral jointer vs rabbet cuts


I've noticed that only the floor model jointers tend to have the ability to do rabbet cuts.

And, I have not seen many people actually use their jointers for this purpose, when there are table saws or radial arm saws with dado blades and routers to do the job.

There are also a rather large group of specialty hand planes that can create or trim up rabbet cuts.

The rabbet creators I've used include the standard black Stanley 78, with its single post guide fence and level depth of cut adjustment mechanism, the grey Craftsman (very similar - with a different cross-grain cutting system) plane and I even have one of Stanley's #39 1/4 inch dado planes.

The Record version (English company) of Rabbet plane uses a more balanced two post, guide fence system and a more precise depth of cut adjustment.

The trimming planes include all of the various shoulder planes, a rabbet plane that looks very similar to either a 9 inch smooth or 14 inch jack plane (with T-shaped blades that extend all the way to the edge of the plane) and there are a variety of old-fashioned (single bent chisel) router planes (complete with adjustable guide fence).

The spiral cut ability, however is a very desirable feature. A shearing action (similar to angling your woodworking plane) produces a finer surface, with much less tear-out.

What I especially like is the individual cutters on the new jointer head that sequentially make the "spiral".

Should a cutter become nicked, the individual cutters are indexable. And, failing that, they are all individually replaceable.

Now that adds up to finer finish (no waves), with increased productivity (decreased down-time).

I don't own a large enough jointer to make use of a spiral retro-fit head.

But, starting at $200, they're definitely worth looking into.
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