I presently do all of my jointing by hand with a #7 plane. For production purposes I have considered a jointer but have a space limitation. I have been considering a router table which would be multi-use rather than tool with one function.
I would like some input in regards to the quality a router table can produce.
Thank you
Replies
Can be done, tho, has its limitations.
Even though I have a jointer, I bought a JointAbility to handle long/curved pieces. Also use it as a really big work holder/clamp.
Stick with the hand plane and use a tablesaw jig to get a bad curve close, then finish with the plane. Otherwise step up to a jointer.
Hal,
Go to the website Patwarner.com He has a router fence that will allow you to joint precisely on a router table. The plans for the fence are covered in an old finewoodworking article. I built it myself and it is a piece of art. As a matter of fact just about all Warners jigs and fixtures are among the most precise and well designed I have ever seen.
FYI his mortise and tenon jigs are really interesting and far superior in ease of set up and accuracy to anything else out there.
I have been edge-jointing on the router table for many years. When I first set up my shop, I used my thickness planer for all of my face-jointing (by using a sled) and the router table for all of my edges. Even now, when I have a piece of wood that is too small or delicate to use my 6" jointer, I use the router table. The quality you can produce is excellent, but depends on the bit and the precision of your infeed and outfeed fence setup.
My jointer fence for the router table consists of a nice quality piece of 3/4 inch ply (about 24" by 7") laminated across the entire surface with vertical-quality Wilson-Art formica material. This primary surface provides the infeed support. The outfeed table consists of a second piece of formica laminated on top of the first, and covering only the left half of the fence surface.
My own experience with this technique is good. The router table and fence must be set to exactly 90 degrees, of course, and your maximum board thickness will depend on the height of the longest straight bit in your collection. The greatest practical limitation, however, comes in the length of the pieces that can be jointed.
I would suggest that you make your fence as long as possible, even if it hangs over the edges of the table. The fence infeed and outfeed lengths will determine the size of the piece that your setup can handle. I would say that (for me, at least) having a 24" fence is the only significant limitation I have experienced.
Hal,
I'm with Tom - stick with the handplane but use a tablesaw to save time. A jointer really shines when flattening the faces of boards but I couldn't justify one just for edges.
Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
I really appreciate all of your comments and suggestions. All have confirmed my original thought and that is one does not really need a dedicated power jointer for edges if they are say under 2" and one is not doing "production" work.
I can see that a long fence definately is a must. Along with that a longer than average table top would be required.
I am pretty amazed that more people don't use the router table for jointing.
By the way, for all of you with a router table, what is the top made of? Has anyone considered a solid surface cabinet top material such as Corian?
My router table top is made of Richlite reinforced with aluminium angle. It's flat and works fine. I think corian would work but I would imagine that it would be more difficult to accurately fit the router plate into it. Recently I noted that someone is making a table saw with a granite top; now that could be made flat and stable!
davidah
How are you flattening the wide faces of your stock if you don't have a jointer and presumably a thickness planer? If you are doing all of that work by hand with planes, it wouldn't seem that productivity over all would be much improved by going to any power tool for straightening the edges.
The problem with using a router table for jointing is that the table often will not be set up for that job when you need it, and then time is lost by having to switch the bit, the fence, and then to get the alignment right which is a fussy job..
If you already have a table saw, it can also be used to create straight edges, there are several techniques for doing so.
John White
Hal,
I've used a Veritas router table to joint plank edges. False fences can be mounted on the Veritas fence-proper, via T-tracks. If the outfeed false fence is shimmed outwards from the line of the infeed fence, and a bearing-guided straight bit used with its cutting edge in line with the outfeed fence-face, you can get very precise edges. Start with a thickish shim to take volume from a wavy edge; finally use a thin shim for a very light cut and a very fine finish.
Veritas sell various thicknesses of shim for the purpose; but it's easy to make your own from veneer or similar thin stuff of an even thickness.
A long fence is a great help, as another poster mentioned. The Veritas T-tracked fence allows false fences of any length to be mounted, although very long ones must be thick to keep them stiff and straight in use. I used roller stand supports to handle long planks on and off the router table.
False fences also allow you to bury the bit into the fence so there is no gaps. With a sucker attached to the back of the fence, every chip sucks away and can't push your plank away from the fence. Also, they are quickly swapped out for other (unshimmed) false fences suited to other work.
I used a CMT straight edge bit with a top bearing of the same diameter as the cutter, 3/4". (align the bearing with the outfeed fence-face using a steel rule's edge). The cutting length of the CMT bit is 2" and the blades are angled so they are in contact with the work more of the time, giving less vibration and a shearing cut. The speed of a router cutter gives many more cuts/minute than a typical jointer, so the finish is usually glass-smooth. There is no need for any further work before gluing, for example.
Of course, these days I use the bandsaw and/or TS and/or planer/thickneser to make straight, square edges, followed by a fine cut with a jointer plane to prepare edges for gluing (with a smooth surface and a slight middle dip). But the router table method is just as good, if that's what you would like to do.
Lataxe
The Veritas router table has a coined steel top- I've had mine with a 3 hp router strapped under it for ~ 3 years, and it will not sag. For this reason I think it is better than any composite top. Haven't tried granite.Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
G,
Those granite tables are intriguing, I confess. Reports so far seem to say they are not only heavier and flatter than typical cast iron tops but also more resilient. There are no such machines that I know of sold over here in Britain yet - I'm sort of hoping for a planer-thicknesser to appear with a granite top. Of coure, it might be a beast to move.
The Veritas steel router table certainly is resilient, as you describe - no sag even though, like yours, mine has a heavy router permanently suspended under it. Sometimes I hanker after a similar table that is a good bit larger; but perhaps this would make it much harder to keep the whole thing flat. Also, it would weigh a ton - I can only just carry mine in its box, with the router, out the shed and onto the drive, for sunny-day play.
Do you extend yours by some innovtive and effective method? So far I have merely used rollers on stands, placed at either side, for longr work pieces. This works in 80% of cases but every now and then the work edge pushes the roller askew, which is not good in the middle of a routing operation.
Lataxe
Edited 3/8/2008 5:51 am ET by Lataxe
L,For routing, I think the steel top is hard to beat. It does have some shortcomings, as you have no doubt discovered. I've always wanted to build a table around it, but hinging or levering the trailing edge is a challenge. Were I to do so, I would likely make the table a bit higher than most, and consider folding infeed and outfeed tables to handle longer stock. I am not so keen on drawers for bits- I like mine to be in wall cabinets with glass doors near eye level for ease of selection (and also because things in drawers have an unfortunate habit of getting loose, rolling around and getting broke). I'd probably have some drawers for tools (wrenches), collets and the like. My present crude table has one feature that I would preserve: an electrical outlet with a switched connection. Whenever I am changing bits, I make certain to disconnect the power cord from the outlet to avoid the risk of assuming the nickname Lefty...I can then power the router on and off from the side of the table.Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Marc Sommerfeld sells a table top made of aluminum extrusions. It's pretty big (27" x 36"), and ought to be very stable, but for some reason you just don't hear much about it.
-Steve
This works in 80% of cases but every now and then the work edge pushes the roller askew, which is not good in the middle of a routing operation.Gee... I use two sandbags on the base! So simple even I can do it!
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