I was deeply disappointed to learn that a Jointer does not cut joints. I imagined a fast and simple device for cutting rabbets, dados, and finger joints. Alas, the machine does none of these well, and only potentially rabbets at all. Rather, it shaves the edge of a board to allow it to be joined (jointed?) to another board. The joint is up to the woodworker, not the machine.
The Planer is also a bit of an underachiever. It only takes off approximately 1/16 of an inch at a time.You don't just load a big ol' board into the machine and get a smooth, rectangular plank out the other side. There is locking and unlocking, quarter turns and full turns, even a sophisticated system of sorting your raw and finished lumber - perhaps some day you'll learn these formularies.
The whole sequence of joining and planing steps is one of those practices best learned and then subsequently understood. Its logic is intrinsic, and hard to explain. 'First, plane the "working face," bowed up. Then, join the "working edge," crooked up.' With concentration and patience - if only a few minutes' worth - the process can be analyzed. The learning elicits inevitable dumb questions, just because the brain - my brain anyway - is too eagerly trying to verbalize what it will soon - but does not yet - grasp.
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