jet 708475 12" planer / jointer

[wood carver 2]

If all you want is parallel faces on your board, then a sander is fine, but if your board starts out bowed or twisted, you need to joint it. Otherwise you will have a twisted board with parallel faces. What happens here is a twisted board will contact the blades where the twist brings the opposite corners of the board down. As you do passes over the jointer, the board will be flattened. Once it is flat, you turn the board 90 degrees and joint one edge. Now you have a board with one flat side and a straight edge that is square to the flat side. Now you can plane the board parallel in the thickness planer and saw or plane to width.
Clear as mud?      
Dave.

[wood carver 2]

Sorry Roy. I didn't see your last post. I'm talking about more substantial pieces of wood. Thin stock explodes in these machines.
All the different machines have their places in a shop and some can do more than one job. Sometimes it's a matter of using the best tool for the job at hand and sometimes it's just for convenience. I have used my tablesaw to flatten smaller pieces when I was in a hurry. It works, but it's not really recommended. (It's not the safest way to do things and I never show anyone how to do it).
Dave.

[ChuckC]

Yes. . .  but, has anybody actually used that particular piece of equipment in the header ?  I am kinda interested in buying one, but it is pretty pricey and I really relish all the accumulated experience on this site.

Thanks guys !

ChuckC

[Roy from Pa]