Cross lap joints

**DaveVman** · 17th January 2018, 04:05 PM

Hi experienced joiners!
I'm making cross lap joints with the work pieces on their edges. This is using Karri. My first time.
I'm cutting them out with the bandsaw and then fine tuning the depth with a chisel. A bit at a time until I get as good a fit as my beginner skills allow.

1. It's going quite well for a beginner but I'm wondering if there are any tips for me. I'm v.slow but that doesn't matter.

2. The other thing that I'm not sure about, is that a have a fairly tight join. Not perfect but I can live with it as a beginner. However what happens once I add the glue? There isn't a vast amount of space in the joints for the glue obviously. Plus this Karri is extremely close grained. Should I worry about what will happen when I glue it, or is this a good thing?

3. I made one design/process error. I prepared the timber and then I rounded the edges. This looks good in general. However I forgot to consider that this then leaves a small gap at the ends of my cross lap joints. Hopefully you can see that in the picture. I'll probably just sand over the other cut edge a little bit but I was wondering if you guys had other advise. (Note it's only dry fitted at the moment and I have a 2nd one to do.)

20180117_130632.jpg

**DaveVman** · 18th January 2018, 08:29 AM

P.S. I realise now, that this belongs in the joinery forum but I don't know how to move it.

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**chambezio** · 18th January 2018, 09:01 AM

One way to get away from the gaps you have after edge treatment is to reduce the height of the pieces that go "under" the cross pieces. I wouldn't go much, just say a couple of mm under the cross pieces. It will look like a design feature rather than an "oops"

Call it designing on the fly

**Treecycle** · 18th January 2018, 09:44 AM

I assume you are doing the cuts on the bandsaw because you don't have a tablesaw. Is that right?
I would stand the piece on edge against a mitre gauge and run it over the blade to cut each side of the slot and then remove the block left between with a chisel and then clean up the end of the slot with it.
The rip fence could be used to set the blade at one side of the slot and then a stop block of the correct size clamped to the fence to push the workpiece over to line up the other side of the slot. The stop block only needs to be at the start of the cut for positioning.

**Blackforester** · 18th January 2018, 09:56 AM

You might find this link useful. If you haven't got a table saw you might adapt the principle to your bandsaw.
https://woodgears.ca/shop-tricks/dado_spacer.html

**DaveVman** · 21st January 2018, 05:49 PM

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I started on the 2nd one but I will have to put this project on hold for a few weeks and come back to it later.
I like the idea of 'design on the fly'.

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