How do I joint the edge of a wide board
I have a coffee table top that’s made from two (2.5″ x 15″ x 60″) boards that are glued together. The table has developed a crack along the joint. it looks like it wasn’t a great fit from the start because I can see wood filler in the crack. Assuming I can separate the top from the base. what’s the best way to re-split the boards and mill a square edge on each.
The coffee table has natural edges, so I don’t have a square edge to work from when I split it. Should I clamp a straight edge parallel to the joint, then use my circular saw to resaw?
Once I have it in two pieces, how do I ensure that I’m jointing an edge that’s square to the face when the board(s) stick 11 inches above the jointer fence. I expect it will be difficult to hold it square.
Thanks.
Richard
Replies
I believe this is a great reason to go out and buy a L-N #7 and joint it by hand.
I wish I had the confidence to hand-plane an edge square. :-(
It has nothing to do with confidence and everything to do with a bit of practice, no different than anything else one does that requires various motor skills, (golf, softball, skeet shooting for example).
But I'm still a bad golfer. ;-)
Do you have a table saw? Assuming you do, make a sled (piece of plywood or mdf) and use screws from underneath to hold the thick board to the sled. Now the sled's edge runs agains the fence. Use a high quality blade and makes sure your saw is set up well, and you should be left with edges suitable for edge jointing. The cuts might benefit from some slight careful smoothing with a plane, not to change the cut, but to elminate saw marks, if any.
Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Edited 6/2/2009 3:24 pm by Timberwerks
Edited 6/2/2009 4:31 pm ET by knuts
Hi Richard,
Could you maybe post some photos? You say it has natural edges...I'm picturing something rustic.
All these suggestions are good*, and will work...just depends on what tools you have and/or how elaborate you want to get.
Have you thought of maybe leaving it as is, and fitting say, a dovetail key at the split? Might look kinda cool...
Anyway, good luck with whatever route you choose.
- Richard
* except Napie's...he has no idea what he's talking about...you definitely need a L-N #8, not a #7 ;)
Yes, it is rustic. I took some pics (attached) last night, but only of the crack, not the complete table. The top view shows the crack from above. The end view shows how the the two pieces of wood have deflected. The deflection is a bit of a concern.
A slight modification of Mike's suggestion above. Screw a piece of plywood to the bottom of the table top with the plywood's factory edge as close as possible to parallel to the joint. Use the plywood edge as the guide & rip thru the joint on your table saw. Reglue & repeat as many times as necessary.
I had a similar issue on a heirloom dining table. I just cut the cracked boards with a circular saw as straight as I could. Then after they were cut I jointed both edges at the same time using a 3/4" router bit. With the boards clamped to a jig approximately 5/8" apart and using a straight edge guide I took off approximately 1/16" from each board at the same time. The result is a perfectly fitted joint which can be connected with biscuits, dowels or similar methods.
I think you have not noticed that his top is TWO AND A HALF inches thick.....Philip Marcou
2/12" thick? Yikes! That could be your problem right there. Maybe you should router it with an 1/8" bit 1/2" deep and put a piece of brass in there. I think it's Todd Herli who says if you make a mistake, fill it with ebony and call it a design improvement.
2-1/2" is pushing it for a precision hand plane operation. You can't match plane 5" The LN 7 may not be wide enough for that. The 8 will be bearly wide enough.
Brass or ebony are your friends. Hey, some clever PA germans used to do a faux inlay with some kind of sulfur. It was supposed to look like satin wood or tulip or boxwood or the like. They would carv in the shapes, then fill the grooves with some kind of decorative putty.
Or how about this? Get a subscription to another woodworking magazine! With all those magazines on the coffee table, you won't notice that crack quite so much! :)
Adam
Years ago, I met a luthier/furniture maker who made huge tables from heavy, live edge stock. He'd just get the seams as good as he could with a saw, glue 'em up, then resaw the joint on a bandsaw. Repeat 2 or 3 times until the joint was tight. The sequential sawing gradually drew the joint tighter and tighter until it was a perfect fit, albeit not a perfectly straight line. I always thought this was more in keeping with the natural look of the wood anyway.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
Richard, I got this from FWW Methods of Work book "router" page 131. He needed to joint 12' long boards. On the underside pencil marks across the joint. Cut along your joint to sperate the board. Put good face sides down. Gap the boards slightly less than your router bit diameter. Screw cleats across the boards to hold the gap. flip the top, good side up. Clamp a straight edge so the router can cut down the center of the gap taking material off both edges. 2.5" thick (I think thats what you said) you might try a shaprening shop to see if they have any regrind endmills or go as deep as you can then finish with a flush trim bit. Good luck.
Dan
I'm assuming that you don't have a table saw, but if you have a friend with one that has a decent fence and a high tooth count carbide blade, here's what I've done in the past.
1. Use a square to set the blade perpendicular to the table. (Don't get all obsessed with being EXACTLY 90*. Close will be just fine)
2. With the good side of the table top UP, rip it lengthwise at the crack (or very slightly to one side of the crack and set that piece aside.
3. Now, flip the top so the good side is DOWN and run that piece down the saw with the fence adjusted so you just rip away the crack.
4. Glue and clamp the top back together using cauls to keep the pieces aligned. Let it dry and touch up the finish as necessary.
This works because the top gets flipped over for the second cut. Even if the blade is slightly "off" (say 89.5*), flipping the top for second cut will give you a cut at 90.5*, and when the pieces are butted together, the errors cancel each other.
Before you blow this off as the rantings of a complete moron, try it on a piece of scrap wood. Set the blade at something like 85*, do the "rip, flip, and rip" and see for yourself. - lol
Do you have a bandsaw and a router? The bandsaw would be a safe way to rip the two boards in half where the wood putty is now, and the edges could be cleaned up by using a straight edge clamped to the ends and a flush trimming bit on a router (just like jointing but the bit moves and the board stays fixed).
Richard,
"Assuming I can separate the top from the base. what's the best way to re-split the boards and mill a square edge on each."
----There should be no problem in separating top from base. If you have a bandsaw just saw the top in two along the "joint", free hand. No bandsaw or table saw? Hand saw with a rip saw- 60 inches @21/2 inches with a sharp well set up saw is good for one.
"Once I have it in two pieces, how do I ensure that I'm jointing an edge that's square to the face when the board(s) stick 11 inches above the jointer fence. I expect it will be difficult to hold it square."
---As long as the fence is not one of those short flexible things again this should be no problem, even for a small jointer-it is not as if those are long boards, and the thickness works in your favour. Go ahead and joint the boards with your machine, which should get it close if not spot on, and then use a hand plane such as a #7 , or #6 or #51/2 or anything longish to get it spot on.I am assuming that your jointer is reasonably sharp and set up, and you can make it easier if you use candle wax on the machine tables and fence.
I hope that helps.
The repair looks to be easy enough with just a circular saw, router, straight bit with guide bearing and straight edge. Where are you located? If you are in WI or even the Chicago area I could give you a hand.
Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Thanks for all the replies and advice. I'll try to respond to a number of posts here.
I do have a (old) bandsaw, but it don't think it's wide enough to allow me to cut the 30" top in half.
I do have a tablesaw, but ripping a 60" long slab in half would require that I build a substantial infeed and outfeed table - not that either of those aren't worthy projects.
I'm inclined to use the circular saw/router approach. I'd be more confident in getting it to work out right. Any recommendations on a source/manufacturer for the flush trim bit? I'm thinking it should be 1/2" shaft with a 2" cut. Spiral bit? Three flutes?
The concern I had with separating the top from the base is this - The base is a stump with an 8" circumference top. A piece of plywood (~20" x 45") is attached to the stump. The top is attached to the plywood by four fasteners (from underneath of course). I'm just concerned that the mating surfaces between the plywood and top might also have some sort of adhesive, which would just make the job of separating the two a lot more work.
Thanks for the offer of help. I don't live close enough to WI to make it cost effective, but very nice of you to offer. :-)
I have a friend at work who's a very good woodworker, and he has a friend that's a professionally trained woodworker. Between the two of us, and his friends guidance, we should be able to get this done satisfactorily.
Thanks again.
Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Edited 6/4/2009 2:03 pm by Timberwerks
I was expecting to have to do the routing in two passes, but that would require the bearing between the shank and the cutters, wouldn't it? The first cut the bearing runs along my straight edge, then the second pass runs on the surface from the first pass.
Yes, I'm not sure if your collet would hit the table top when you lower for the 2nd pass with a top bearing bit. The longest bottom bearing bit I have seen so far is 2" and top bearing 1.25" A top bearing may work if it has enough shank coming out from the collet while still being far enough in the collet as well.
Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Edited 6/4/2009 3:08 pm by Timberwerks
Turn the board over and rout from the other side on the second pass (assuming the two sides of the board are parallel).
-Steve
That's what I thought as well, but parallel may be in issue.Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Many jointer fences have a pair of holes on each end of the fence.Add a 12" plywood or mdf extension. If the 2- 1/2 " cut is nice and square the boards will tend to stay parallel on the fence.See if you can get a rip blade for your saw. If you have a sidewinder then make two passes or the saw blade may heat up if the motor slows down. If you have a worm drive, then make the cut in one pass.
mike
I measured the thickness of the top - it's 2 5/8"
How about the '3023' bit from this page.
http://www.routerbits.com/cgi-routerbits/sr.cgi?1244223376_3969+47
It has a 2" cut, with a 3 5/8 overall length. If I allow 3/8" for the bearing, that leaves 5/4 " of shaft. If I took the full 2" with the first pass, leaving 5/8", then for the second pass I'd have 5/8" of shaft in the collet. Would that still be considered safe operation? I hope my maths correct. ;-)
I could make the second from the bottom, but I can't be sure the surfaces are parallel. Maybe 'close-to-parallel' is good enough since the top cut would be 2" and the bottom cut 5/8".
You replied to the wrong post, I suggested adding a higher fence to your joiner. Even so I'll add my two cents.I would be wary of trying to straighten a very thick slab with a routerbit. If you choose not to use the joiner and do not want to handplane, then a 1/2 tooth cut with the table saw should work. Screw a wide straight edge under the slab that will contact the fence. Take a light (1/2 tooth) cut as many times as needed to get a clean joint.Repeat with the otherside. Naturally the initial cuts would be done with a handheld circularsaw.Use a sharp rip blade. Freud makes a very good one, don't recall the number. If you have to buy one,get a full kerf blade for thick wood.
mike
Since the top is so thick I think the better option would be to take your first pass on top with the straight edge and then flip the top and rout the rest from the bottom surface. So you would need a top bearing and bottom bearing bit. I've done this without problems but my top was parallel to the bottom. It has worked very well even on slabs 3"+ thick. Also we may be over thinking this. It could be that a good blade in a good circular saw, a straight edge and a steady hand along with a good eye is all you'll need. That rip cut even with a circular should be good to go. You would still need to cut from top & bottom unless you know someone with an 8.25" saw. Most 7.25" saws will cut up to 2.5"
Timberwerks Studio Blog
Timberwerks On Twitter
Edited 6/5/2009 8:52 pm by Timberwerks
Faced with a similar problem, laminating 14' long boards to form a desk top, I could not envision any degree of accuracy using the basic power tools I had, so i went "neanderthal" and put a jointer fence on a #7 plane.
checked my squareness with a (proved) machinists square.
100 bucks for the jointer fence, 20 bucks for the tiawanese machinists square, and I already had the #7.
Worked for me.
With a 2.5" thickenss, you might still have to add some kind of face to a jointer fence to ensure that the board is centred on yer blade, otherwise any asymettrical pressure will cause the blade to cant. AYou might start out planing square, but after 14', the cut might not be square.
hope that provides an alternative solution.
Eric in Cowtown
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled