The End of an Era…Sorta

Well, today marks the end of an era in my workshop. I officially bid adieu to one of my major tools, the jointer. I previously mentioned in an earlier Instagram post that I was looking at selling it, and I’ve gone and done just that.

While the jointer isn’t a completely necessary tool for a garage workshop, it can make preparation of rough lumber much easier. The initial plans in my shop were to buy only rough lumber and do every step of the prep myself for each project. My first major project where I would heavily use the jointer would be the Hall Bench.

I planned on making nearly the entire piece from solid wood for my first foray into “real” hardwood furniture. My plans were quickly derailed by an accident using the jointer which left me missing the tip of my left middle finger.

Once I’d recovered from my injury, I grew extremely cautious around this very powerful and dangerous tool. I was EXTREMELY careful with the location of all of my fingers while running material through this machine. I wasn’t overly apprehensive at first, but as the months progressed, and I would think about what COULD have happened, I would cringe. I simply did not feel comfortable using this tool any longer.

I was growing ever more leery of using the jointer for fear I would have another lapse in attentiveness and cause another injury. With that in mind, I made the conscious decision to sell my jointer. In the end, given the amount and type of work I do in the workshop, a dedicated jointer simply wasn’t necessary. There are other means of getting a straight and square edges along a board with different types of sleds and jigs on the table saw. If needed, I can always have my friends at Hardwood Lumber & Millwork prep my stock to S3S for a small added cost.

I would say that I am sad to see the jointer leave me shop, but the fact of the matter is I really am not all that broken up about it. Aside from relieving myself of a tool that I didn’t use all that often and grown afraid to use, I also gained valuable floor space in the workshop. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to rearrange my shop again, however. I have future plans to use some of the funds from the jointer sale to purchase a small benchtop band saw that will be for detail work and curve cuts. My larger band saw will then be relegated to exclusive use for the resawing of thicker stock.

When I started my woodworking journey a few years ago, I never imagined that I would suffer an injury of this nature. One of the reasons I bought a SawStop table saw was to aid me in avoiding injuries to my hands in the shop, given my condition. Never in a million years did I think the jointer would be the tool to take a bite out of me. I’ve gained a lot of respect for this machine and the damage it can do to the human body. I’m more than happy to turn the page on this chapter of my journey. It’s time to move forward and onto bigger and better things.