Machine perfect edges without a jointer?
jfsksa
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
I’m making a buffet out of walnut. I’ve decided to do shop sawn veneers for the sliding doors. I’m having good luck resawing my boards and planing them down to 1/8″. The problem comes in with my edge. I can’t get a perfect joint between two pieces. I don’t have a jointer. I’ve tried getting a good edge with a #6 plane with poor results. I tried running the 7/8″ thick boards on edge through my lunchbox power planer. This provides better results than the hand plane, but still not perfect. My next thought is to sandwich my walnut between two longer boards that are the same width. My hope is to eliminate the snipe on the leading and trailing edges.
Any suggestions on another plan? Thanks!
Replies
I've been using a 4 and 1/2 Stanley and a 4 and 1/2 Miller Falls. I start using a birds beak on top of the bench and use a ruler and pencil marks until I see no daylight between the ruler and the edge I'm jointing. I only plane the pencil marks. I fine tune with a shooting board if needed. If there is difficult grain or a knot, I might use a card scraper. Most of the time it works but takes a little time and patience (or maybe persistence is a better word).
Plane the mating boards with the #6 at the same time with them sandwiched tightly together... The theory is that the slight variations due to operator error will be on both boards and cancel each other out. I have done this successfully on small projects. Adding a 1×3 fence to the bottom of the plane with c clamps can help you hold level.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but if you sandwich 2 boards together and joint the edge, and let’s say your “operator error” leaves a little crown in your 2 boards. When you put them side by side for glue up won’t the boards touch in the middle at the crown and both ends have gaps? And if the operator error creates a negative crown, or concave line, won’t there be a gap in the middle of the boards when put together?
A very slight gap in the middle of the two boards, at least with 4/4 stock, is desirable. You end up creating a spring joint. See Bob Van Dyke's excellent FW video on the spring joint. Gaps at the ends are never good.
For the planer, use a board in front of the project piece & one behind to help control snipe.
@_MJ gives the classic solution.
Stumpy Nubs gives another which is a pretty-much guaranteed success - glue sand paper to a straight edge and use that as a jointer. Almost certain to work but takes a bit longer than using a plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezf9MV1Tktg
There is no reason why your sandwich idea would not work too.
I use the sandwich method on the jointer most times, it ensures that if the fence is not perfectly 90 degrees to the table, it will yield a perfectly level joint. Over the length however this method will accentuate the curve so you need perfectly adjusted tables, same goes with a hand plane.
Got a router? Router table? You can build a serviceable jointer with a straight bit a piece of Masonite and a board. The board becomes the fence. You need enough Masonite in front of the fence so that the board you want to join can sit on it and enough behind the fence so you can clamp it to the table. In the center of the board that becomes the fence and at an appropriate spot in the Masonite drill a maybe 1" hole ( depends on the diameter of your router bit). Rip the fence board through the center of the hole flip the board over and rerip what will be the right side of the fence board taking of no more than 1/32" even less is better up to the circle. fasten your fence to the Masonite so that half round of the fence is aligned to the center of the Masonite hole making sure the fence board is nice and straight when you do it. Or ....try this with a nice sharp plane... clamp the two boards you want to join together but flip one board so that the are face to face and end to end. Plane both boards at the same time. The boards don't care if the edges are square..this way if they are out of square they're out of square together.
The Freud Glue Joint rip blade works really well for that.
I have a really good jointer but that blade on the table saw
is all I usually need.
You can improve on the "glue joint rip blade" one step further by alternating the work pieces, top surface up, top surface down, as you pass them through the saw. This will compensate for any slight "out of vertical" of the blade. Also, be sure to use a feather board or other method to keep the work pieces against the saw fence.
another option- use a hand held router and a long straight edge, a bit longer than your stock. clamp the two pieces down with the gap slightly less than the dimeter of your router bit. clamp the straightedge so that it places the router bit in between both boards, so that as you move the router along the straightedge it removes a bit of material from each. The beauty of this method is that even if your straightedge isn't perfect, the deviation will be complimentary on the two boards. see Bob Hylton's Router Handbook for more info.
I use a router table to skim the edges and make all my cabinet stock
exactly the same parallel width and perfectly straight smooth edges.
This set up makes the board straighter than even my long bed
Powermatic jointer can.
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