jointer

thumb|280px|right|High end or professional grade jointer-planer discernible by the integral vacuum reservoir, metal blade guard, and the very long infeed and outfeed tables. The moderately wide (4-8 inches, 10-20 [[centimeters) tables make it suitable for single side power planing operations.]] thumb|280px|Bench top jointer. Has shorter feed tables, though the width of this model makes it a useful short work piece surface planer. thumb|330px|How a jointer works. Notice the Infeed and outfeed table heights relative to the high speed rotating cutting blades. A jointer or in some configurations, a jointer-planer (also known in the UK and Australia as a planer or surface planer, and sometimes also as a buzzer or flat top) is a woodworking machine used to produce a flat surface along a board's length. As a jointer, the machine operates on the narrow edge of boards, preparing them for use as butt joint or gluing into panels. A planer-jointer setup has the width that enables smoothing ''('surface planing')'' and leveling the faces (widths) of boards small enough to fit the tables.

== Name == The jointer derives its name from its primary function of producing flat edges on boards prior to joining them edge-to-edge to produce wider boards. The use of this term probably arises from the name of a type of hand plane, the jointer plane, which is also used primarily for this purpose.