Joining wood without a jointer?

[Clydesauce]

Hey guys, I am on my second build right, but this time I don't have all the tools I was able to use last time and down to basically basic hand tools with some large machinery, but not all. I was wondering how I should go about joining some wood without a jointer. I have a small block planer so I was thinking of dropping the boards in some table clamps and planing down the sides but I didn't want to ruin the boards, since this would be my first time trying this. Any one have any advice on how I should do this and not ruin my top boards.

The thickness is 1/8 of an inch. I will post pictures if needed.

[crazygtr]

Build a shooting board, it's the oldest method for joining and truing edges.

[Jazzdogg]

A block plane isn't ideal for jointing edges; its sole is too short and the blade geometry isn't optimal. On a typical block plane the blade is ground at 25-degrees, and the frog at 12-degrees; the included 37-degree angle is too shallow to plane face and edge grain without risking tear-out.

You may be able to achieve satisfactory results using a shooting board if you also regrind the plane iron; you want the included angle (frog + blade) to be about 45-degrees when planing edge and face grain.

What other gear do you have access to? A router table can be set up for jointing quite easily by shimming the outfeed fence to match the depth of cut.

[CheshireCatFun]

Originally Posted by crazygtr

Build a shooting board, it's the oldest method for joining and truing edges.

Shooting board?

C.

[Landy67]

Originally Posted by CheshireCatFun

Shooting board?

C.

Google is your friend...

Shooting Board

[Clydesauce]

Right now all I have with me is sand paper, a block plane, and a plunge routers. I will have access to my friends full work shop tomorrow from Mondays to Fridays and he has every tool available other than a jointer,(he is in the process of buying a new one since the other one died) and it can a couple weeks till he gets one.

Was thinking, I could sand the joining sides down and have a line marked for when to make it a 90 degrees line and clean it up, making it ready for joining, anyone think that would work?

[rdrr]

With 1/8 in thickness you may get less than desirable results with a jointer anyway as tear out can become more pronounced with thin pieces like that. If your friend has a decent table saw and a good glue line rip blade you could probably get way with that and some simple clean up of the edges after the cut.

A few ways I have heard of doing this, not that I have tried them, are to use a router and some sort of straight edge like a piece of MDF. Clamp/tape the MDF to the board at the edge and use a flush cut bit to trim the edge flat. Come to think of it I have done that for making neck templates before but not for top jointing.

Another way is clamp the 2 pieces down with the edges facing each other and use a router and guides to trim both edges at the same time. Any variation in the edges is suppose to have the same but opposite effect on the other edge, I have not tried this myself though.

How far off are the edges now?

[CheshireCatFun]

Originally Posted by Landy67

Google is your friend...

Shooting Board

And a good friend indeed.

C.

[Clydesauce]

That is what it looks like now after a little sanding it down a little, but that took about an hour of hand sanding and careful measurements.

[Meatrus]

You wont get a good enough joint with sanding (I have tried!), as it will round the edges and create a joint that isnt square. You could buy a jointer hand plane (thats a big one) for fairly cheap, and practice with that on a shooting board, this will create one of the most invisible joints of all, if used correctly. Though the router method works well too!

Or you could just take it to a local carpenter and get him to joint it for you.

[Clydesauce]

I see what you mean but it rounded, I noticed that when I sanded it down closer to perfection but it has a tiny gap at the top due to the rounding. I decided to place the sand paper to the table and ran the board across, it looks better but it was still rounded slightly. I flipped it over and it was dead square, only problem is it shows where the blade but, some small abrasions in the wood. If I used that side, do you think those would sand out?

[P Town]

rdr suggested clamping the pieces facing each other and routing through the gap with a straight cutter. That would work.

A shooting board with a hand plane would work, but you'd have to make one.

Waiting for the new jointer is the best method.

[Beej]

I think this is getting overthought and too complicated. When I want to square the edges of a top to be joined in middle (a la bookmatch), I do it like Jazzdog was alluding on the router table with a raised outfeed fence, but if you just have a plunge router, try this:

1. lay the bookmatched boards faces together with the "centre" one one edge.
2. clamp the whole thing to a table with the edge you want jointed hanging off the table
2. clamp a straight board parallel to the jointing edge along the table. This board needs to be clamped about 3/32" from the edge of the router bit.
4. run a flush bit along that straightedge, in effect, routing/jointing the jointing edge on the bookmatched top underneath it.
5. unclamp the whole mess and check your jointed edge.

This whole process is so quick that if I have my router table already set up for something else, when I need to quickly join a bookmatched top, I'll throw together this setup in about 5 minutes and do it. I wish I had photos, picture show a thousand words - I'll sift through my crap and see if I can upload something, but hopefully this description makes sense. I get a perfect joint, first try every time with this...

[Clydesauce]

Sometimes, it seems thinking makes me thoughtless. I am going to do your way now and hopefully put this behind me.

Thanks