Is there any method to jointing the edges of a piece of wood without a jointer?
I am a novice at woodworking, own a table saw, plunge router, 13 1/2 in. surface planer (recently purchased…still in box). small drill press , and misc. other smaller tools.
I am planning on making a twin bed with a trundle, there hopefully is a way to make the stock square with the tools that I have available.
I could really use some advice!
Replies
car,
one can joint on a tablesaw. it's a matter of fastening a board with a known straight edge to the top of the one you wish to joint. i used to do this with a few screws or nails. the good edge of the top board rides along the fence of your saw as the cut is made. another method that works well involves using your router. clamp a 3/4" straight edge to the board to be jointed and let the ball bearing of the 1/2 shank flush trim cutter be guided along the straight edge. only recently have i begun to use hand planes. many here can talk to you about using hand planes to joint with.
welcome.
eef
I think Eef stated it all.
Last year I made two canopy beds (twin sized) using just my so called junk Ridigid table saw. Yes, I made a long plywood jig to hold my 8, 96 inch long (laminated woods) tapered bed posts. I did use a new carbide tooth blade and feather boards and roller stands to support the infeed and outfeed.
I found that the tapers were a 'bit' off and had to hand fit all of the rails..The tall posts differences are not noticeable by eye. The 'fit' to the rails were not much more than 1/16 inch off and easy, but time envolved, was needed to correct the rail fit to the posts...
EDIT: All of my parts were laminated wood. Sapele and Panga-Panga. I think my making a good jig to hold the long wooden parts helped ALOT!
Hand plane or router table.. I use to use a router table with the outfeed fence shimmed out the same distance as the cut depth with a staight bit. But.. you have to have accomplised one straight line rip on the TS as Eef mentioned then sqaure the other side on the other side along the rip fence. This is assuming you are using rough lumber that is still tapered as it grew on the tree.
But.. I have a big question for you! You stated you have a "surface planer" which is a jointer sitting in a box. Why don't you simply take it out of the box... assemble it.. adjust the tables properly and go about your merry business as this is the easiest way once a straight line rip is achieved and the other side squared with the TS fence?
Good luck...
good morning sarge,
you made me remember something. i often rip all of my face frame parts 1/8" wider and plane them, on edge, in two passes to finished width. i guess this counts as "a jointer in a box" doing double duty i.e. planing and jointing to width. this method does not work so well with single pieces as they tend to slip along the bottom edge causing the "jointed" side to be out of square. it does work very well when running multiple parts face to face or width to width.
it's interesting to talk about alternate ways of doing things. most of my out of the ordinary ww techniques were developed as the direct result of some form of desparation or poverty.
eef
I've done that a few times, Sarge, usually to get the perfectly uniform width. Worth noting for the somewhat-new original poster: when planing stock "on edge" it will work best if the pieces of stock are ganged together firmly.
Ooops, just saw that Eef mentioned this too. (Echo? echo?)
jamie,
some things need repetition.
eef
eef,
"some things need
eef,
"some things need repetition."
You can say that again.
Mel
PS - let's do another thread on sharpening. That subject never gets dull. Or why don't we repeat our threads on drill bits. That topic is boring. OK OK I'll stop
Thanks to all of your advice I have located plans for several jigs for jointing on the tablesaw.
I haven't got the new surface planer out to set it up as it has been below zero in my neck of the woods. There seems to be many ways to arrive to the end result... I look forward to the journey ;) !
Thank you for your help.
One thing we didn't talk about in this thread is face-jointing. Although the S4S stock you get may be flat (with no cup or twist), then again it might not be. There's where you run into a challenge when you don't have a jointer.
You can overcome the difficulty by either making a sled for your planer, or by h hand-planing. Links can be provided for the sled idea if you find you need more info. Just LMk (or LUK -- let us know).
Ineresting statement Eef. I also rip 1/8" proud and then take them ot the jointer. I do glued panels the same way. But.. I keep my jointer set at dead 1/32" for doing so and make two passes on both sides. The reason I take two in lieu of one at 1/16" is if by chance I mis-read the grain which ain't often with the quarter sawn oak I use.. I simply turn it around on the second pass to clean the fuzz left by the first.
I rip maple and squirrel grain species 1/4" proud also. This works especially well on maple and squirrelly grain as it is very diffioult to read and you may have grain running two or more directions. But.. I want to hedge the bet if the direction is correct or suitble.. .. Take another pass opostite to see which was best.. then I take two more passes in whichever direction gave the best cut. Then do the other side to final dimension.
But.. I do my pieces one by one. I find if you rip precisely as I do there is no problem and have never experienced one. The problem I find with a gang cut is you have to clamp them. Clamp heads don't work well against a joiner fence. When I used to joint an edge with a # 7 hand plane.. I would gang them as both ends sat in clamps on my work-bench with the jointed edge up. Nothing to interfere threre..
Regards....
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