I’m stuck in a bizarre loop of a problem. I’m building a woodworker’s workbench. This is my second major project in woodworking, and I’ve run into a snag. I own a good jointer plane (Veritas) and a decent portable table saw. I can’t afford $600 – $1000 dollars for a power jointer, and I have no issue with good hard work. To straighten up my stock, I figured I’d use the jointer plane. Problem is– without the workbench I don’t have a way to secure the work for planing. Without truing up the stock, I can’t build the workbench. See the problem? I’m still amassing a woodworking arsenal, and basic shop input would be nice, too, if anyone wants to chime in– Keep in mind, I’m working in a garage, and space is limited– I have a Bosch portable table saw, which works quite well, a router table (both purchased for wainscoting in the dining room), a sliding Dewalt miter saw, I just bought a drill press for the workbench project (for mortices and dogs), assorted hand power tools (circular, jig, reciprocating saws, drills, biscuit jointer, etc) hand tools (chisels, lie-neilsen back saw and smoothing plane, waterstones and a honing guide for my planes — of which I own a cheap jack plane, Veritas jointer plane, shoulder plane, and a Lie-Neilsen smoothing plane on back-order. Advice on how to joint the wood in my current situation– need a Jawhorse type thing? Or should I put up $250 for a cheap Delta planer? How would you proceed?
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Replies
reeltime1 hi and welcome to knots. You do seem to have a predicament,can you use a factory edge on the fence of the saw to help true up the edges?. I see also that you mention saw horses, these could work provided you can keep them from moving. You can make up some L brackets, form scrap, 2 for each side and each end, clamp these to the board and screw them in to your horses, to provide a safe way to work the edges. This is of course based on thickness and length. There are some very knowledgeable folks here that may have a better idea, again welcome!. garyowen
reel ,
I'd buy the
reel ,
I'd buy the planer , check Craigs list used are plentiul and cheap lately .
If you feel in the future you will have the need for a thicknes planer , there is your answer .
Otherwise , saw horses or place a nice clean tarp on the dinning room floor under the table and clamp your wood to the table and make sure the wife is gone when you do this , I'm speaking from experience , lefty .
I don't know where you are
I don't know where you are located, but if it were possible I'd go to a local shop and pay a few dollars to get the stock milled straight and planed to thickness. After you've got a good bench you can do reasonable hand-planing, but it's almost masochistic to contemplate preparing all the stock for a workbench by hand.
Are you trying to edge join the boards for the top of the workbench? Just use your table saw as a joiner. Just make sure the blade is square to the suface and use a sharp smooth cutting blade. Either fasten a longer extension on the face of your fence or fasten a straight piece to the fence side of the piece you are working on
Even with the planer, you'd
Even with the planer, you'd still need to joint the boards. So to answer your chicken/egg question... look on Craigs list and find an old solid core door. Cobble up a leg/support system out of construction grade material and attach the door/top. There.. you've got yourself a workbench. Now build your project.
I don't think you mentioned a
I don't think you mentioned a router - but if you have one you can joint edges using the fence and a straight cutting bit -
you can also joint with a flush cut bit and a straight piece of ply wood - both would do an OK job
SA
Welcome to Knots!
I believe this is a Catch 22 situation, actually.
Improvisation is what you need. If you can clamp your stock on edge to something solid, then you should be able to straighten the edge. I've used a hand railing before. Perhaps even simpler, you could lay a sheet of plywood on the floor, a 1/4" thick spacer (or spacers) on top of that, and your stock on the spacers. With your weight on the stock, you could use the plane on edge to joint the edge straight and square.
I think a cheapie jointer isn't going to get you good straight edges if the bench you plan to build is fairly long. Plus, I'd rather see you save up and get something good. Before I got a jointer, I had the place where I bought my lumber joint it and occasionally plane. They did it for cheap if you bought the wood from them.
Reeltime:
I'm still trying to
Reeltime:
I'm still trying to figure out your question. Does your lumber have straight and flat sides, in which case you need to joint one edge straight and perpendicular to the faces and rip the other parallel, or does your lumber need first to have one side jointed straight and flat, the second side planed parallel, one edge jointed straight and perpendicular to the faces and the other edge ripped parallel.
My experience with lumber yards is that most of their surfaced boards have bowing and twist. Both of these can usually be forced with enough clamps, but the resulting glueup will have inherent stresses which might come back to haunt.
If all you need to do is edge joint the stock: Cut a strip off the edge of a piece of plywood with your tablesaw, that is about an inch wider than your stock. And, don't touch the fence once your done.
Use a couple of small screws, or nails, to attach your stock to the plywood with one edge hanging a bit past the edge of the plywood.
Run the wood through the table saw, with the plywood against the fence, you have just jointed one edge. Now you can cut the other edge on the table saw, and have two parallel edges.
If you really want to get four true sides from rough stock with a hand plane you will need some kind of bench. I'd recommend that you build either a good solid bench out of 2X4s and a solid core door,(I have a good set of plans for one if you want them). Or, if you have a yard, make a picnic table out of 2X dimension lumber. There are lots of plans for picnic tables out on the web for free, that are brute force solid, and will make a good first bench.
FWIW, I think David Ring's
FWIW, I think David Ring's suggestion of having the boards trued at a local shop is probably the most efficient and most accurate until you have a power jointer of your own.
Building a temporary bench using a solid-core door is obviously an alternative, and the temp bench can be used later as an assembly table. But, getting perfectly-square edges on long boards with a jointer plane requires some skill with the plane that may require time and experience to develop.
Chickens and eggs might be best left in the kitchen. Ingenuity is the big bird in the shop. ;-)
Work with what you have. Clamp the boards to something you do have. Take over the kitchen and work off the counter top. Clamp two boards together and clamp them resting on the floor to a post.
Woodworking is not always accomplished with a complete shop or at the exacting levels of a period cabinet shop. I may be alone, but there is a lot of room in what is an acceptable craftsmanship for a bench or a bookcase. It doesn't have to be perfect to be useful.
Peter
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