Side by side
| Question | Jointer | Thickness planer | Electric hand planer |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it makes | One flat face; one edge square to it | The second face parallel to the first; a set thickness | A hand-guided cut: trimming, fitting, rabbets, chamfers |
| How the board moves | Pushed by hand over the cutterhead, face down | Pulled through by rollers, under the cutterhead | Clamped still; the tool moves |
| What it references | The outfeed table, level with the knives | The table under the board — the bottom face | Its own shoes on the surface |
| Removes bow, cup or twist | Yes, from one face, by light passes | No: the rollers press the board flat and it springs back | Not reliably; no long reference surface |
| Sets thickness | No | Yes | No |
| Grain direction (Grizzly) | Down and toward you, seen from the edge | Away from you, in Grizzly's words | With the grain, as for any planing |
Built from the makers' manuals. A combination machine does the jointer's and planer's jobs one at a time on one cutterhead. Not a ranking.
Which comes first
The jointer. A planer copies the face the board rides on, so that face has to be flat first. DEWALT's planer manual says its machine works best on material run through a jointer to produce one flat surface, and that a bowed board is only pressed flat by the rollers and springs back afterwards — to remove a bow, it says, use a jointer. JET's jointer manual describes the same order from the other side: surface one face on the jointer, then mill the other to final dimensions on a thickness planer. An edge squared on the jointer then goes against the saw's fence for ripping. The steps are in how to use a jointer and how to use a thickness planer.
Which is better
Neither: they are not alternatives. A shop with only a planer can bring boards to thickness but not take out bow, cup or twist, and DEWALT's tips for planing warped stock without a jointer — ripping a cupped board, alternating faces on a slightly twisted one — are workarounds with limits. A shop with only a jointer gets flat, square stock but no control of thickness and no parallel faces. Bought surfaced lumber narrows the gap, which is covered in choosing lumber. A combination machine is the third choice, set out in a jointer-planer vs a planer.
Where a hand planer fits
An electric hand planer is neither. It takes a hand-guided cut about 3-1/4 in wide (82 mm on Makita's KP0800) and suits fitting doors, easing edges, rabbets and chamfers; with no long table and no rollers it cannot guarantee a flat or parallel face. See the electric hand planer guide. An unpowered hand plane, such as a long jointer plane, is another tool again: the hand plane guide.
Choosing by the work
| Task | Machine | Why, from the documents |
|---|---|---|
| Flatten a cupped or bowed face | Jointer | Light passes, concave side down, until the face is flat (JET, Powermatic) |
| Square an edge for glue-ups or ripping | Jointer | Flat face on the fence; edge jointing precedes ripping (JET) |
| Bring several boards to one thickness | Thickness planer | Rollers and a set table height; turret or depth stops repeat a setting (DEWALT) |
| Make two faces parallel | Thickness planer, after the jointer | The planer copies the jointed face |
| Trim a door or fit a part in place | Electric hand planer | Hand-guided, on clamped work |
Built from the makers' statements. Not a ranking.
Deciding which machine the work needs
- Is the stock rough or warped? A jointer first
- Must two faces be parallel and to size? A planer, after the jointer
- Is it fitting or trimming in place? An electric hand planer
- Is the lumber bought already surfaced? Perhaps only a planer
The machines are explained in the planer guide and the jointer guide; grain is covered in the wood grain guide.
Sources
Built from the makers' descriptions of what their machines do; no machine was tested and none is ranked. 'Thicknesser' is the British name for a thickness planer, and British usage calls a jointer a surface planer.
- 1.
Operating Instructions and Parts Manual, 6-inch Bench Top Jointer, Model JJ-6HHBT (M-718600, edition 3). JET, 2025.
Used for: Surfacing on a jointer to produce one flat surface, the other side milled to final dimensions on a thickness planer; edge jointing as the step before ripping.
- 2.
Operating Instructions and Parts Manual, 8-inch Jointer, Models 60C and 60HH (M-1610084, edition 8). Powermatic, 2025.
Used for: A jointer's infeed table set below the outfeed table by the depth of cut; dished stock springing back if forced down.
- 3.
Used for: A thickness planer working best on material run through a jointer for one flat surface; bowed stock pressed flat by the rollers and springing back, 'to properly remove the bow, use a jointer'; cupped and twisted stock; a thicknessing range of 1/8 to 6 in.
- 4.
Operating Instructions and Parts Manual, 15-inch Planer, Models 15S and 15HH (M-0460286, edition 8). Powermatic, 2024.
Used for: A planer's infeed roller, chipbreaker and outfeed roller pressing the board to the table.
- 5.
Model G0633/G0634 Jointer/Planer Combination Machine owner's manual (revised February 2018). Grizzly Industrial, 2018.
Used for: Grain direction for each machine: down and toward the operator on a jointer, away on a planer; a combination machine doing both after a changeover.
- 6.
Planer KP0800 instruction manual (multilingual European edition), as hosted by a retailer. Makita.
Used for: An electric hand planer: 82 mm wide, held in both hands on clamped work.
- 7.
M18 3-1/4" Planer, Cat. No. 2623-20, operator's manual (58-14-0026d3). Milwaukee Tool.
Used for: An electric hand planer: 3-1/4 in wide, with a guide fence for rabbets and bevels.
About this comparison
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