Big in the sense of the boards (timbers?) involved.

I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each board is 80"
x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2" edges.

Here's what I've done.
- Got the faces flat and square by using long 4" wide strips of plywood
screwed to the sides to form a sled. Ran it through the planer to flatten a
face, then removed the strips, flipped the board and flattened the opposite
face.
- planed one rough edge down to mostly flat (so the bit wouldn't have to
take a big bite in the next step) then laid the board on its face, screwed
one of the straightedges to the face (actually the bottom face so the screw
holes will never show) then used a pattern cutting bit (bearing on the top)
to true half the thickness of the edge.
- Removed the strip, flipped the board and changed to a bearing on the tip
bit in the router and rode that bearing against the edge created in the
previous step.
- I did this to each of the two boards thinking that I would get a nice
mating surface. What resulted was not bad, but not the tightness that I was
expecting. Would like to get these tighter and some solutions (like adding
clamp pressure to draw the boards together during glue up) simply won't work
given the size of the boards.

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during glue
up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although most
spots are less or touch flush.

tia,

jc

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:59:56 GMT, noonenparticular wrote:
Big in the sense of the boards (timbers?) involved.

I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each board is 80"
x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2" edges.

Here's what I've done.
- Got the faces flat and square by using long 4" wide strips of plywood
screwed to the sides to form a sled. Ran it through the planer to flatten a
face, then removed the strips, flipped the board and flattened the opposite
face.
- planed one rough edge down to mostly flat (so the bit wouldn't have to
take a big bite in the next step) then laid the board on its face, screwed
one of the straightedges to the face (actually the bottom face so the screw
holes will never show) then used a pattern cutting bit (bearing on the top)
to true half the thickness of the edge.
- Removed the strip, flipped the board and changed to a bearing on the tip
bit in the router and rode that bearing against the edge created in the
previous step.
- I did this to each of the two boards thinking that I would get a nice
mating surface. What resulted was not bad, but not the tightness that I was
expecting. Would like to get these tighter and some solutions (like adding
clamp pressure to draw the boards together during glue up) simply won't work
given the size of the boards.

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during glue
up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although most
spots are less or touch flush.

So the plywood "straightedge" wasn't so straight.

You might do better using a tablesaw. Screw the plywood strip so it overhangs
the opposite edge, and bear against the TS fence with it. This way, the impact
of small variations in the plywood will be reduced by the long fence.

--
Art

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during glue
up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although most
spots are less or touch flush.


Could you mount the two boards with the 1/32 gap as is to a sacficicial
piece of plywood (use it as a sled) and rip it right down the joint on the
tablesaw? This would remove 3/32 (whatever your ts blade width is) and
should remove the gap.

So the plywood "straightedge" wasn't so straight.

So it would seem. I checked it with my straigt edge prior to tightening the
7 screws down, but there was obviously *some* error.... :-(


You might do better using a tablesaw. Screw the plywood strip so it
overhangs
the opposite edge, and bear against the TS fence with it. This way, the
impact
of small variations in the plywood will be reduced by the long fence.

--
Art

I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the problem I ran
into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to bear
against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right? Well yes, but
now you have the problem of the mass of the timber pressing sideways against
the top of the subfence which is fastened to a short TS fence. The leverage
of all that mass will make the subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess
substantially. Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which
has a max depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me from a
safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy fence.

jc

"Frank Ketchum" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during
glue up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although
most spots are less or touch flush.


Could you mount the two boards with the 1/32 gap as is to a sacficicial
piece of plywood (use it as a sled) and rip it right down the joint on the
tablesaw? This would remove 3/32 (whatever your ts blade width is) and
should remove the gap.


You're saying to run both boards through at the same time, fastened to the
same sacrificial piece, right?

hmmmm..... That may work. Any error on one board is mirrored on the
other.....

Thanks Frank. I may give this one a go.

jc

Frank Ketchum wrote:

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during glue
up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although most
spots are less or touch flush.



Could you mount the two boards with the 1/32 gap as is to a sacficicial
piece of plywood (use it as a sled) and rip it right down the joint on the
tablesaw? This would remove 3/32 (whatever your ts blade width is) and
should remove the gap.



I don't know about your TS, buy mine won't cut through 3-1/2" much less
that PLUS a sled. g (Notice the OP is joining the 3-1/2" edges)

Dave

just thought of that too, Dave. Maybe if I put the sled on *top* of the
pieces...... Still wouldn't get through them both but I could probably
handplane the remaining 1/4" down. That way, even if I over planed it, it
would be the bottom of the workbench surface and I'd still have 3 1/4" of
flush contact glue surfaces on the two pieces.....

jc

"David" wrote in message
...
Frank Ketchum wrote:

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...

Any ideas?

By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling during
glue up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32, although
most spots are less or touch flush.



Could you mount the two boards with the 1/32 gap as is to a sacficicial
piece of plywood (use it as a sled) and rip it right down the joint on
the tablesaw? This would remove 3/32 (whatever your ts blade width is)
and should remove the gap.



I don't know about your TS, buy mine won't cut through 3-1/2" much less
that PLUS a sled. g (Notice the OP is joining the 3-1/2" edges)

Dave


just thought of that too, Dave. Maybe if I put the sled on *top* of the
pieces...... Still wouldn't get through them both but I could probably
handplane the remaining 1/4" down. That way, even if I over planed it, it
would be the bottom of the workbench surface and I'd still have 3 1/4" of
flush contact glue surfaces on the two pieces.....

jc

Pocket screws to pull them together. Only use lag screws
instead; it'll pull in very nicely.
Also saw the joints about a half degree off square in a
"valley" fashion so the top & bottom edge pulls together tighter
when you draw up the pockets. EAsyu to do that on a table saw
with that thickness wood. Glues better, too. Use a really good
glue; expensive but worth it.

Portable bench, eh? g

HTH,

Pop

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...
: Big in the sense of the boards (timbers?) involved.
:
: I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each
board is 80"
: x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2"
edges.
:
: Here's what I've done.
: - Got the faces flat and square by using long 4" wide strips of
plywood
: screwed to the sides to form a sled. Ran it through the planer
to flatten a
: face, then removed the strips, flipped the board and flattened
the opposite
: face.
: - planed one rough edge down to mostly flat (so the bit
wouldn't have to
: take a big bite in the next step) then laid the board on its
face, screwed
: one of the straightedges to the face (actually the bottom face
so the screw
: holes will never show) then used a pattern cutting bit (bearing
on the top)
: to true half the thickness of the edge.
: - Removed the strip, flipped the board and changed to a bearing
on the tip
: bit in the router and rode that bearing against the edge
created in the
: previous step.
: - I did this to each of the two boards thinking that I would
get a nice
: mating surface. What resulted was not bad, but not the
tightness that I was
: expecting. Would like to get these tighter and some solutions
(like adding
: clamp pressure to draw the boards together during glue up)
simply won't work
: given the size of the boards.
:
: Any ideas?
:
: By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling
during glue
: up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32,
although most
: spots are less or touch flush.
:
: tia,
:
: jc
:
:

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:59:56 GMT, "noonenparticular"
wrote:

Any ideas?

I use an aluminum straight edge screwed down (upside down actually)
and the tablesaw. Fine tuning with a hand plane if necessary.

Mark
(sixoneeight) = 618

Yeah, It'll be portable. I'm gonna move it from where it's being built in
the center of the room to against the wall where it's going to remain until
the next millenium.... LOL!

I don't think I'll use the pkt screws, but I kind of like your idea of the
1/2 degree off square. I'll let you know how it works.....

jc

"Pop" wrote in message
news:inwBf.3975$Jn1.319@trndny01...
Pocket screws to pull them together. Only use lag screws
instead; it'll pull in very nicely.
Also saw the joints about a half degree off square in a
"valley" fashion so the top & bottom edge pulls together tighter
when you draw up the pockets. EAsyu to do that on a table saw
with that thickness wood. Glues better, too. Use a really good
glue; expensive but worth it.

Portable bench, eh? g

HTH,

Pop

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
et...
: Big in the sense of the boards (timbers?) involved.
:
: I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each
board is 80"
: x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2"
edges.
:
: Here's what I've done.
: - Got the faces flat and square by using long 4" wide strips of
plywood
: screwed to the sides to form a sled. Ran it through the planer
to flatten a
: face, then removed the strips, flipped the board and flattened
the opposite
: face.
: - planed one rough edge down to mostly flat (so the bit
wouldn't have to
: take a big bite in the next step) then laid the board on its
face, screwed
: one of the straightedges to the face (actually the bottom face
so the screw
: holes will never show) then used a pattern cutting bit (bearing
on the top)
: to true half the thickness of the edge.
: - Removed the strip, flipped the board and changed to a bearing
on the tip
: bit in the router and rode that bearing against the edge
created in the
: previous step.
: - I did this to each of the two boards thinking that I would
get a nice
: mating surface. What resulted was not bad, but not the
tightness that I was
: expecting. Would like to get these tighter and some solutions
(like adding
: clamp pressure to draw the boards together during glue up)
simply won't work
: given the size of the boards.
:
: Any ideas?
:
: By the way, I'm going to use a full length 3/4" plywood spling
during glue
: up. Also, the gap on the edge at it's max is about 1/32,
although most
: spots are less or touch flush.
:
: tia,
:
: jc
:
:

noonenparticular (in )
said:

snip
| - I did this to each of the two boards thinking that I would get a
| nice mating surface. What resulted was not bad, but not the
| tightness that I was expecting. Would like to get these tighter
| and some solutions (like adding clamp pressure to draw the boards
| together during glue up) simply won't work given the size of the
| boards.
|
| Any ideas?

For my first workbench I planed 4x4s and also used splines; and
drilled 1/4" holes through all boards except the first and last. The
first and last were drilled _almost_ through and I cut an slot from
the center botom to intersect the 1/4" blind hole. At assembly time I
used threaded rod, washers and nuts (and every clamp I could get my
hands on) to draw the whole thing together. For the first year, once
every month I used an open-ended wrench to tighten the nuts.

I was happy with the result. When I sold the house, the buyer agreed
to my price - but only on the condition that the bench stay with the
house. I guess he liked it, too.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
. com...

Could you mount the two boards with the 1/32 gap as is to a sacficicial
piece of plywood (use it as a sled) and rip it right down the joint on
the tablesaw? This would remove 3/32 (whatever your ts blade width is)
and should remove the gap.


You're saying to run both boards through at the same time, fastened to the
same sacrificial piece, right?

hmmmm..... That may work. Any error on one board is mirrored on the
other.....


That's what I was thinking of.

"David" wrote in message
...
I don't know about your TS, buy mine won't cut through 3-1/2" much less
that PLUS a sled. g (Notice the OP is joining the 3-1/2" edges)

Dave

True, but he could cut the majority of the way through and clean up the rest
on each board using his router technique he describes in the original post.

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:34:08 GMT, noonenparticular wrote:
I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the problem I ran
into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to bear
against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right? Well yes, but
now you have the problem of the mass of the timber pressing sideways against
the top of the subfence which is fastened to a short TS fence. The leverage
of all that mass will make the subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess
substantially. Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which
has a max depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me from a
safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy fence.

jc


Well, a tall TS fence comes in handy for other things. You could make one that
is stiff enough for this job. Perhaps in this case its a bolt-on, rather than
something that just slips over the existing fence. And if you make the plywood
guide wide enough, there will be room at the front and rear of the fence to
get a clamp on there, to hold the tall fence in place really well.

As for the blade not making the full thickness, right, I didn't consider that.
But you could use your router with a flush trim bit to clean up the last bit.

--
Art

Art Greenberg wrote:

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:34:08 GMT, noonenparticular wrote:

I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the problem I ran
into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to bear
against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right? Well yes, but
now you have the problem of the mass of the timber pressing sideways against
the top of the subfence which is fastened to a short TS fence. The leverage
of all that mass will make the subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess
substantially. Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which
has a max depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me from a
safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy fence.

jc



Well, a tall TS fence comes in handy for other things. You could make one that
is stiff enough for this job. Perhaps in this case its a bolt-on, rather than
something that just slips over the existing fence. And if you make the plywood
guide wide enough, there will be room at the front and rear of the fence to
get a clamp on there, to hold the tall fence in place really well.

As for the blade not making the full thickness, right, I didn't consider that.
But you could use your router with a flush trim bit to clean up the last bit.


Not if he uses my CMT flush trim bit that I just discovered is .003
smaller than the 1/2" bearing. I was making table inserts yesterday
from a master and found they didn't fit into the recess. I mic'd the
bearing at .500 and the bit at .497. That was the tall bottom bearing
bit that came with the door making set. Since that one wasn't machined
accurately I checked my top bearing bit--perfect. I guess one out of
two is better than 0 for 0.

Dave

David wrote:

Art Greenberg wrote:

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:34:08 GMT, noonenparticular wrote:

I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the
problem I ran into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to
bear against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right?
Well yes, but now you have the problem of the mass of the timber
pressing sideways against the top of the subfence which is fastened
to a short TS fence. The leverage of all that mass will make the
subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess substantially.
Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which has a max
depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me
from a safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy
fence.

jc



Well, a tall TS fence comes in handy for other things. You could make
one that
is stiff enough for this job. Perhaps in this case its a bolt-on,
rather than
something that just slips over the existing fence. And if you make the
plywood
guide wide enough, there will be room at the front and rear of the
fence to
get a clamp on there, to hold the tall fence in place really well.

As for the blade not making the full thickness, right, I didn't
consider that.
But you could use your router with a flush trim bit to clean up the
last bit.


Not if he uses my CMT flush trim bit that I just discovered is .003
smaller than the 1/2" bearing. I was making table inserts yesterday
from a master and found they didn't fit into the recess. I mic'd the
bearing at .500 and the bit at .497. That was the tall bottom bearing
bit that came with the door making set. Since that one wasn't machined
accurately I checked my top bearing bit--perfect. I guess one out of
two is better than 0 for 0.

Dave
I just found that Amana sells a .492 bearing, useful after getting a
1/2" trim bit sharpened.

noonenparticular wrote:
You might do better using a tablesaw. Screw the plywood strip so it
overhangs
the opposite edge, and bear against the TS fence with it. This way, the
impact
of small variations in the plywood will be reduced by the long fence.

I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the problem I ran
into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to bear
against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right? Well yes, but
now you have the problem of the mass of the timber pressing sideways against
the top of the subfence which is fastened to a short TS fence. The leverage
of all that mass will make the subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess
substantially. Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which
has a max depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me from a
safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy fence.

I think you should be able to use the outside edge of the board against
the fence, if it's reasonably straight. It only needs to be straight
enough to keep the saw blade from binding -- since you're cutting both
boards at once, they'll match up.

Similarly, if you make half-through cuts on both sides, it doesn't
matter if they don't match each other perfectly, because the two halves
will still match.

Nonetheless, it still seems like a lot of weight and a pretty deep saw
cut, and I'd be a little concerned that holding up that much weight and
keeping it straight against the fence would be like trying to walk and
chew gum at the same time, and I'd end up not holding it quite straight
and cause the saw to bind. One could avoid that by using a handheld
circular saw (or possibly a router and making lots of passes) against a
plywood straightedge instead, I suppose.

....

One possible variant of this idea (specifically, to cut both sides with
the same guide at the same time, so that they match regardless of
whether the guide is perfectly straight) would be to mount the plywood
guide so that your router will just shave a tiny bit off one board, and
then clamp the other board a little less than the diameter of the router
bit away, so that the router also just shaves a tiny bit off it as well.

If you don't want to cut both at once (which would mean that one's
getting cut the "wrong" direction), and you have two router bits of
different diameters that would both work for cutting the faces, you can
mount the plywood fence on the first board such that the router with the
larger cutter will just shave it, and then position the second board so
that the router with the smaller cutter will just shave it. Then, take
a pass with the smaller cutter to surface the second board, remove the
second board, and take a pass with the larger cutter to surface the
first board. Or something like that -- if you're following the plywood
guide with a roller bearing rather than the router base, then you could
use different sizes of rollers for the two passes.

- Brooks


--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

Brooks Moses wrote:
noonenparticular wrote:
I thought about this and it should work in theory. Here's the problem I ran
into in practice.
First, the fence would have to be over 3 1/2" high for the plywood to bear
against it. No problem, fasten a tall subfence to it, right? Well yes, but
now you have the problem of the mass of the timber pressing sideways against
the top of the subfence which is fastened to a short TS fence. The leverage
of all that mass will make the subfence flex away from the blade, I'm guess
substantially. Secondly, I only have a 10" blade for the table saw which
has a max depth of cut of 3 1/4" while the boards are a *strong* 3 1/2. So
the blade wouldn't even make a through cut, which would concern me from a
safety issue with all that mass against a comparatively flimsy fence.

I think you should be able to use the outside edge of the board against
the fence, if it's reasonably straight. It only needs to be straight
enough to keep the saw blade from binding -- since you're cutting both
boards at once, they'll match up.

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong place -- I got noone and
Frank's replies mixed up, and thought this was you replying to the idea
about cutting both boards at once, which I just realized was Frank's
post....

Hope that's not too confusing!

- Brooks


--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

Brooks Moses wrote:
Brooks Moses wrote:
I think you should be able to use the outside edge of the board against
the fence, if it's reasonably straight. It only needs to be straight
enough to keep the saw blade from binding -- since you're cutting both
boards at once, they'll match up.

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong place -- I got noone and
Frank's replies mixed up, and thought this was you replying to the idea
about cutting both boards at once, which I just realized was Frank's
post....

And now I see that I got noone and Art mixed up when I was writing that.

Sigh. Some days, it just doesn't pay to log in.

- Brooks


--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:59:56 GMT, "noonenparticular"
wrote:

Big in the sense of the boards (timbers?) involved.

I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each board is 80"
x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2" edges.

Something like this might work?
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9968

I don't have one. If I want to do work like that one time only, I
take it to someone who already has the tools, and there are two
sources around here. Look around and you'll find some one in the wood
retail business reasonably close.

No problem Moses, I'm reading them all

jc
aka
noonenparticular
aka
the OP


"Brooks Moses" wrote in message
...
Brooks Moses wrote:
Brooks Moses wrote:
I think you should be able to use the outside edge of the board against
the fence, if it's reasonably straight. It only needs to be straight
enough to keep the saw blade from binding -- since you're cutting both
boards at once, they'll match up.

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong place -- I got noone and
Frank's replies mixed up, and thought this was you replying to the idea
about cutting both boards at once, which I just realized was Frank's
post....

And now I see that I got noone and Art mixed up when I was writing that.

Sigh. Some days, it just doesn't pay to log in.

- Brooks


--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

Perhaps the OP can find someone with a 12" TS, or the Ryobi BT3K
series--they'll cut to nearly 4"

H

Guess who wrote:
On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:59:56 GMT, "noonenparticular" wrote:

I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each board is 80"
x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2" edges.

Something like this might work?
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9968

I don't have one. If I want to do work like that one time only, I
take it to someone who already has the tools, and there are two
sources around here.

If you're going to suggest expensive tools....why not just use a
jointer? The following 16" jointer costs about as much as what you
suggested and has about twice the length (since the shaper fence is only
half the length of the table).

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9953

Chris

That's on my birthday list, Chris.....

jc

"Chris Friesen" wrote in message
...
Guess who wrote:
On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:59:56 GMT, "noonenparticular" wrote:

I'm trying to edge join the two boards for my bench top. Each board is
80" x 3 1/2" x 7". They're big and I need to join the 3 1/2" edges.

Something like this might work?
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9968

I don't have one. If I want to do work like that one time only, I
take it to someone who already has the tools, and there are two
sources around here.

If you're going to suggest expensive tools....why not just use a jointer?
The following 16" jointer costs about as much as what you suggested and
has about twice the length (since the shaper fence is only half the length
of the table).

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9953

Chris

While we're tossing out ideas, here's a couple untested concepts - both
would require some effort...

1. How about not trying to move the big lumber, but the tool instead?
I might have missed this suggestion with all of the others so far... You
used a similar technique with the planer.
- Clamp your boards solidly together, 'joint' side up
- Create a 'runners' out of smaller boards that you can mill accurately and
locate them on each side of your lumber
- Create a carriage for your router that slides along the rails, but moves
back and forth as you go down the length trimming both boards flush -
Accuracy here is very dependent upon your sled setup

Wood magazine suggested a similar setup for those who had a router, but not
a planer, but it might work here

2. Another option would be to not try to cut through the entire piece, but
leverage off of the dado that you plan to use for the spline, a couple
different flush trim bits, and sacrificial splines.
Note: the flush trim bits must be the same size OR the one with the bearing
on the router side must be larger
- Cut a dado in both of the long boards
- Cut a (hardwood) spline and joint or plane it to a slightly thickness LESS
than the depth of your dado
- Use your router and a flush trim bit (bearing on the end of the bit) to
make a clean edge on both sides of the FIRST board
- Cut another spline that is just a little larger than the depth of your
combined dados PLUS the width of your second flush trim bit (with the
bearing on the router side)
- Place the sacrificial spline in the FIRST board
-With the second flush trim bit (with the bearing riding on your lumber) cut
a groove in the spline deep enough to use as a reference for the first bit
- Either move the sacrifical spline to the SECOND board or attach them
together (depending upon the size of your bit)
- Use the groove in the sacrifical spline as a reference to cut a matching
face to the original
- You may need to repeat this process for the second part of the SECOND
board.

My $.002

Wouldn't someone with a 12" table saw also be likely to have a
6" jointer, and wouldn't the jointer be a better solution?

hylourgos wrote:
Perhaps the OP can find someone with a 12" TS, or the Ryobi BT3K
series--they'll cut to nearly 4"

H

"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
Wouldn't someone with a 12" table saw also be likely to have a
6" jointer, and wouldn't the jointer be a better solution?

hylourgos wrote:
Perhaps the OP can find someone with a 12" TS, or the Ryobi BT3K
series--they'll cut to nearly 4"

H
H,

I've a 6" jointer, but it's the standard JET 6" and when you take into
account the short (for this application) length of the table, the amount of
effort it took to keep the timber pushed down on the top and up against the
fence was prohibitive. Couldn't get an accurate cut.

Joe

Isn't is amazing how you can run a board over a device that has a cutterhead
flanked by two flat tables and get a board with a crown on the edge?

"noonenparticular" wrote in message
. com...

"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
Wouldn't someone with a 12" table saw also be likely to have a
6" jointer, and wouldn't the jointer be a better solution?

hylourgos wrote:
Perhaps the OP can find someone with a 12" TS, or the Ryobi BT3K
series--they'll cut to nearly 4"

H
H,

I've a 6" jointer, but it's the standard JET 6" and when you take into
account the short (for this application) length of the table, the amount
of
effort it took to keep the timber pushed down on the top and up against
the
fence was prohibitive. Couldn't get an accurate cut.

Joe

I guess that leaves the Ryobi.

Always looking for a worse solution,
H