Many woodworkers start out with a 6" due to space, price and need.
When I built my new shop I sold my 13" planer and 6" jointer and upgraded to my 8" jointer and 20" planer.
You can skip plane the larger boards on the planer(light passes)

Shelf set-up is the builders choice, and based on what is available from your lumber supplier. If there is nice material wide enough they can be solid, a glued up panel has potential of being more dimensionally stable.

 

I have a 6" jointer and glue as many panels together as needed to get the finished size I need. If I had the time, money, room , and power I would have as big a jointer as possible, but I don't. so make do with what I have.

 

What do people with a 6" or 8" jointer do if they want to make simple shelves?

Two options:

1) Use veneered man made panels.
They stay flatter, and change less due moisture changes. They hold more weight. They cost less that solid wood.

2) Use frame and panel construction.
If you look are earliest designs for sold wood "banker's" or "lawyer's" cabinet shelves: they used frame and panel construction, not solid wood for shelves. This reduces the need for perfect wide panels.

BTW - It is relatively easy to run boards up to 2x the width of your jointer. Just flip it around. Jointing only cuts the high spots. Though it does take some patience to learn this skill. Surface finish may not be as nice jointing against the grain; but the planer and/or sand can fix that.

 

If you're pretty sure most projects would be accomplished w an 8" jointer, go with that one. For the rare occasions you need to joint wider, make a sled for your 13" thickness planer or rip the wide boards, then joint these smaller parts, then glue them up...those joints will be nearly invisible

 

That's exactly what I do.

 

I don’t think anyone needs a jointer for shelves. I started with a 6 inch jointer a crappy craftsman with a fixed outfeed table. Then a 8 inch and now a 12 inch each machine was better then the last.
A jointer is for creating a quick and accurate reference surface to build from.

 

I don’t think anyone needs a jointer for shelves. I started with a 6 inch jointer a crappy craftsman with a fixed outfeed table. Then a 8 inch and now a 12 inch each machine was better then the last.
A jointer is for creating a quick and accurate reference surface to build from.

That's fair. I'm starting with shelves because they are low effort and pretty high impact (especially for a pantry).

 

I decided to buy the 6 inch jointer, because of room available in my shop. I find the 54 inch bed on the Jet long bed works very well for my projects.

 

I have owned them all... in terms of width the 10" INCA was most practical in terms of width, but not length. Now I own a 16" monster and I have seldom used the full width at all with KD lumber of the type I can get where I live. If you do glue-ups you can almost eliminate face jointing using alignment dowels or a Plano clamp type system. If you do that all your face will need is a few strokes with a plane, and then it can go in the planer.

 

I have an 8" joiner and a 13" planer, they work really well together and handle most everything I make or would want to make. For anything larger I use these (No's 6, 7, and 8) to clean up the glue lines and bumps. For wide projects I buy 2S boards, dress the edges, and glue them up.

 

Bigger is better so if you have space for a 12, 16, 20 or 24" jointer get one. You won't be disappointed.

That said, I have a 16" jointer and wouldn't joint a shelf board. Actually I generally wouldn't use solid lumber for a shelf anyway for a variety of reasons.

 

Bigger is better so if you have space for a 12, 16, 20 or 24" jointer get one. You won't be disappointed.

That said, I have a 16" jointer and wouldn't joint a shelf board. Actually I generally wouldn't use solid lumber for a shelf anyway for a variety of reasons.

What would you use and why wouldn't you use solid lumber? Thanks.

 

Generally speaking, the 8" jointer seems to be the sweet spot for a lot of woodworkers. This means balancing price, space, and your ability to move the thing as well as overall utility. I've love to have a 16" jointer, but while I have the space for it just the weight of these machines keep me away. So I'm content with the 8" I have as much as I'd like another. Dealing with boards that are too wide can be handled a number of ways, most of them described above. I remember one guy insisted you could face joint 11" boards quite well on an 8" jointer...his method was to remove the guard and run the board though on one side, then turn it end for end and run the other side across the knives. I've not done that, and probably never will but it's something others might want to try.

 

If you have a planer, you can finish the face jointing a board wider than your jointer, on that. Here's a video explaining how.

 

I use this method shown in the video above. Works well. I've gotten by with an 8" jointer, but truthfully, if the tooth fairy dropped me the funds I would buy a 12" jointer in a heart beat. I am comfortable jointing a 10" wide 4/4 board or 12" wide 8/4 board this way.

But for the average person, it would make better sense to get a 15" or wider planer.

It really all depends on the type of work you do. Flattening panels is what gives most people trouble. The biggest mistake people make is final thicknessing all the boards, then trying to get perfectly flush joints in glue up. BTDT, I've used biscuits, Dominoes, splines, dowels and there is always a discrepancy somewhere. Maybe it can be sanded out, but maybe it can't like a top. If you really want a perfectly flat top on a wide panel, you really need to find someone with a wide belt sander.

Sorry, this is off the beaten path a bit, but dealing with wide boards and wide panels without a wide jointer inevitably requires a work around. The way I've learned to handle it is I glue all my panels up thick, wide and long. I start with the flattest boards I can and I use hand planes to flatten one side for what will fit through my 20" planer. If it's wider than that I use an open end drum sander and 36 grit sandpaper as my "wide planer".

 

I buy most of my wood kiln dried and rough sawn. I dress it myself. I have a 12" Hammer jointer planer combination machine and it takes care of almost all of my needs. It's nice to be able to flatten one surface of boards up two 12" in width and then run them through the planer to dress the other side perfectly parallel to the jointed side and dimension it to the precise thickness I need. No ripping and regluing required to get the width I need. I started out with a 6" Walker Turner jointer. It was a great little machine but limiting for what I needed. After that I had a little 10" Inca combo machine Loren mentioned and I loved it. Used to for over 20 years, but it was a lightweight tool. I had an opportunity to buy the 12" Hammer combo and I took it. It is a much more robust machine than the Inca, and the extra 2" is really nice. I'm spoiled, but I can't imagine going back to a 6" jointer.