Replies

1. 
   MikeHennessy | Jun 20, 2007 04:44pm | #1

   Yep. Overlapping rabbets. Let's try some ASCII art:

   ____________          _____________
   |___                |___ _|____                 |_______
         |_________________||_______________|

   The boards traditionally float in the rails/stiles, just like a regular raised panel frame. Depending on the style, I've seen the edge one of each pair of slats beaded.

   Mike Hennessy
   Pittsburgh, PA

1. 
   Hastings | Jun 21, 2007 12:06am | #7

   Mike:Thank you for the ASCII art! I am curious, how do you change fonts, styles and colors in your knots posts? I am using Safari and for the life of me cannot find anywhere to make style changes.Hastings

1. 
   MikeHennessy | Jun 21, 2007 02:50pm | #9

   "I am curious, how do you change fonts, styles and colors in your knots posts?"

   At the top of this box in which I am now typing, there is a menu bar with formatting options, including font, size, color, bold, etc. I use MS IE, so YMMV.

   BTW, I have an antique armoir that knocks down like a chinese puzzle that incorporates some pretty cool joinery. The back of this cab is made similar to the shiplap you asked about, and it all comes apart when the cab is dismantled. When moving the piece (which I've done many times over the years), what is a huge, heavy piece when assembled becomes several small pieces that one person can easily move.

   Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Jun 21, 2007 04:42pm | #11

   Mike,

   Those settings will work in here as you're using IE for the PC, not sure about MACs.  They're a function of IE and will/may not work in other browsers.

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

    

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   JohnWW | Jun 21, 2007 04:32pm | #10

   The fonts and style options don't appear on my wife's Mac.

   John W.

2. 
   Lataxe | Jun 20, 2007 04:46pm | #2

   H,

   Shiplap boards are not meant to attach to each other.  They should be set in the panel with a small gap between each shiplap board, so that when the wood expands and contracts, the shiplap boards do not buckle or crack.  The lap also prevents there being a crack or airgap between the boards when they shrink a bit.

   I like to use a temporary thin wood spacer of around 1 - 2mm (depending on the width of the shiplapped boards) to set the boards into the panel, as I pin them in place (see below).

   As to profiles: all varieties should overlap at the back of the boards, using matching rabbets of around 5mm or more (One rabbet on the front long edge of one bord and another on the back long edge of that board). 

   The front corners of the front edges are usually profiled in some way.  Personally I prefer a slight roundover (radius around 3mm) or a chamfer (so two overlapping boards form a V).  But there are many alternative profiles.

   You can glue the long edges of the outermost shiplap boards into the frame (assuming the grain runs the same way) and keep the rest of the boards evenly gapped by pinning or gluing just the very centre of their ends into the top and bottom of the frame. 

   Lataxe

1. 
   joinerswork | Jun 22, 2007 05:46pm | #12

   Lataxe,

   Shiplaps have been used for hundreds of years.  Surely there's a better way, by now?

   HAhahahaha,

   Ray

1. 
   Lataxe | Jun 23, 2007 06:45pm | #13

   Ray,

   On lazy days I put in a sheet of that vinyl-coated hardboard with a photograph of shiplap on it.  It's very easy to clean but smells a bit plasticky.  Many modern housepersons prefer it, however, as it is shiney and easy to clean.

   I learnt the technique from a Scandinavian - a Mr Kea.

   Anyway, I thought shiplap was only invented in the 1990s (or was that some other sort of lap thang)?

   I suppose you profile your board edges with an C18 design involving 23 molding planes and a Special Chisel.......?  Incidentally, I hope you are attaching them with cut nails made of stone as anything else might detract from the purity of the aesthetic.  :-)

   Lataxe

1. 
   boysie39 | Jun 23, 2007 10:16pm | #14

   Lataxe
   I think the other LAPTHING is Lapdancing, if it is I know all about it. I was in New York about ten years ago and did a one week intensive course,If you teach me woodwork I'll do me best to pass on a few moves that I can remember or maybe we might have to go for an update.
   Love to read all the posts, hope you dont mind a bit of frivolity now and then I'm afraid itsthe height of my contrebution at the moment but I hope to improve Regds Boysie Slan Leat,I'm never always right  but i'm always never wrong. Boysie

1. 
   creekwood | Jun 24, 2007 02:11am | #15

   Isn't lapdancing a Scandanavian sport?

2. 
   boysie39 | Jun 25, 2007 01:17am | #16

   creekwood, If it is they must win the world series every year. boysie39I'm never always right  but i'm always never wrong. Boysie

2. 
   joinerswork | Jun 25, 2007 01:21am | #17

   Lataxe,

   I believe you are onto something with that photo of a joint in lieu of the real thing.  For some time, it has seemed to me that successful painters make beaucoups of $$ from selling photos (prints) made from their paintings.  Make one, then sell it over and over.  Why not furniture, I asked.  But no-one seems to want to place a seven-foot tall photo of a chest on chest in their bed room!  Maybe photos of the joinery will suffice, and the savings on time in construction will be the key to my fortune...

   I think the slip shod was perfected in the 90's maybe that's what you were thinking of? A Domino was used I believe.

   I only need one plane (two if the shiplap has a bead), but more often use the shaper (gasp! heresy!!).  It works fine for shiplaps, if I wear the Right Kind of Hat--the kind that covers my periwig, and keeps it from wrapping up around the spinning shaft...

   Cheers,

   Ray

3. 
   oldusty | Jun 20, 2007 05:37pm | #3

          Hi Hastings ,

                       You can make the ship lap with a dado or a straight cutter , with TS , a router or a shaper . Ship lap joints often are used for sidings , flooring but not so much on fine furniture ,you could also use a T & G

            You could glue the panels up , then machine the desired grooves , allow the panel to move , but the gaps and reveals would stay the same .

                    regards            dusty

       

1. 
   Hastings | Jun 21, 2007 12:00am | #6

   Dusty:Thank you for your advice. It might save a lot of hassle just to machine the appropriate style into an edge-glued panel.Hastings

4. 
   Lataxe | Jun 20, 2007 09:28pm | #4

   H,

   I just noticed:

   The current issue of Fine Woodworking has an article by Steve Latta about cabinet backs. It cover shiplap and other boarded back styles pretty well.......

   Lataxe

1. 
   Hastings | Jun 20, 2007 11:55pm | #5

   Lataxe:Thank you for your detailed response and for drawing my attention to the article in the most recent edition of FWW.Only this morning, after I posted, I found my copy which had gone missing and it practically fell open at the article.Although shiplap seems to be used most on the backs of cabinets, the mission-style sideboard I found looked very nice with it on the sides and in the doors.Regards,Hastings

5. 
   creekwood | Jun 21, 2007 12:50am | #8

   This was a timely question. I'm just getting ready to make about 400 bf of shiplaped cherry wainscot, and was wondering the most efficient method of doing this. I didn't even notice the article in FWW.

   Thanks for posting, you  beat me to it.