Pros and cons of a jointer vs. a planer.

For home projects.

I'm buying my lumber at big box stores.

I am not a professional.

I'd like to hear your opinions/analysis.

A jointer is for getting your lumber square and making flat edges/sides.

A planer is for thickness. Example: taking a 3/4" piece of wood to 1/2".

Yes.

You need both machines.

But, you can also straighten edges, as well as reduce thickness with just a jointer. But your board width is limited by the length of the knives on the jointer. i.e. 6" jointer.

I have no use for a jointer. But I can wear out a planer

I use a planer for thickness and use my tablesaw for edge joining. A good solid square saw setup and long fence will get you good edges. I keep a hand planer handy for any finish up on edges.

Yup

Two different tools with two different purposes I believe. Im not an expert woodworker by any means, but I would buy a planer first. Sander/hand plane/table saw can be used as a somewhat acceptable substitute for a joiner.

You want both machines. You’ll flatten faces and edges on the jointer. Then you use the planer for thickness, and it also flattens the other face of the board parallel to the first face.

Get a 6” jointer and a Dewalt 735 planer.

You can also do it all with a #4 handplane and a #7 Jointer plane, but that demands true skill and knowledge and a lot of time. For the basics of that, you need to take the 3 day hand woodworking course at Homestead Heritage, a bit north of Waco.

Properly dimensioned project parts are necessary.

Drive down to Groesbeck and I’ll show you how it all works and why you need both machines.

Planer. You can flatten and straighten on a table saw, you just need to build some jigs

I have both and use both. If I had to choose just one, it would be the planer. Anything done with a joiner can be done on a table saw.

If the board being dimensioned happens to be cupped, bowed, or twisted, neither a table saw nor a planer will fix that. If you are working with small boards you can have some success, but longer boards will be very tough to properly dimension if a fellow is limited to a table saw and a planer.

If you are good with an electric hand planer, that will work in some cases on boards that are not flat. I use mine from time to time.

Probably worth mention that you can buy boards in Walnut, Cherry, oak and whatever that are S4S (surfaced 4 sides) at places like Dakota Hardwoods. I usually buy there, but with the wood non-surfaced. That’s one way to skip doing your own dimensioning if you don’t have the equipment. You’ll get about what you want, but in my experience you can rarely get exactly what you want.

Another option is to go to Houston Hardwoods in NW Houston, pick the boards you want and have them dimensioned on 4 sides on site. And they have some pre-dimensioned wood on site in quite a few different woods. I used to love that place. They have a lot of exotic woods available.

If the OP can afford it, he needs the jointer and the planer. You can get by for less than $1000 total. Probably $350 or so for a used jointer and $500 for a used planer. But expect the knives to be dull, so add the cost of new knives, which won’t be much more than about $100 total.

You just don’t want to spend all your woodworking time and effort trying to dimension wood the hard way. Get the right tools and have a lot more fun and success.

What would a guy need to process reclaimed wood from pallets? I just want it smooth ish without killing myself sanding. I know nothing about wood work but been building more stuff out of pallets lately

If you don’t need it perfectly smooth and perfectly flat, I suggest a Ridgid 6” random orbit sander. Start with aggressive grit paper (60 or 80 grit) then to 150 grit, then 220 if you want it real smooth. I got by quite happily with a bunch of 5” ROS, but a daughter bought me a 6” Ridgid. Wow. That thing will remove some wood and is still controllable. You could do about the same with a belt sander, but it’s less controllable, meaning it can remove wood but cause digs and grooves in the wood, which you don’t want.