Thread: squaring timber

You're hoping to get a single 22-25mm thick panel out of the 45mm stock? At 2.6m length that's a big ask. From memory you've got a pretty decent saw, so that'll help. If you're able to clamp a long and straight auxillary fence (a reasonably heavy piece of aluminium extrusion would do) to the table saw fence you may be able to create some glue ready edges. This is assuming that there are no significant twists in the 85mm face, if there is you're probably buggered. It depends on how bad 'rustic' is. Cutting any of the worst boards in to shorter lengths could help.

The auxillary fence would need to be at least 3.0m long. The stock would need to be consistently run with the same face to the table. Take small cuts off each side of the stock until you end up with a clean straight edge. I'd be forgetting the biscuits if I was you.

If all else fails you can always get the heavy duty clamps out and start cranking. Although in my experience this generally doesn't work out too well.

Originally Posted by Tonyz

as per a thread elsewhere my jointer/thicknesser has carcked it.
Ive jot some jarrah work bench tops to make (for myself) these will finish up 2.6m x 600 x 22-25mm (hopefully)
the jarrah I have is politely rustic and Iam OK with that all about 85 x 45.

Now Ive called a favour from a mate with a 750 wide thicknesser but I need to square the edges so I can do a glue up. will be using biscuits
Whats the best way with just a tavle saw?

Hi Tony, You want the best way to to square up the 22-25mm thickness on the tablesaw?. The way I put a straight 90 degree edge on my stock is with this jig I made:

unnamed.jpg

Originally Posted by aldav

You're hoping to get a single 22-25mm thick panel out of the 45mm stock? At 2.6m length that's a big ask. From memory you've got a pretty decent saw, so that'll help. If you're able to clamp a long and straight auxillary fence (a reasonably heavy piece of aluminium extrusion would do)

Hi Aldav,

You have probably understood the OP's question better than me. If he's going down the path of getting a 3m fence then I can recommend a company in Tullamarine Victoria called "RM Components".

Here's the 1.2m extrusion I got from there however they do up and over 3m from memory:

IMG_0066.jpg

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Hi Aldav,

You have probably understood the OP's question better than me. If he's going down the path of getting a 3m fence then I can recommend a company in Tullamarine Victoria called "RM Components".

Here's the 1.2m extrusion I got from there however they do up and over 3m from memory:

IMG_0066.jpg

thanks Eager Beaver but that for me is overkill. I do like your jig though.

I've been experimenting a little with a Freud Glue Line table saw blade. LM75R010 | Saw Blades | Ripping | Glue Line Ripping - Freud Tools

Results have been a bit inconsistent, but I think that's due to me not always keeping the timber perfectly hard against the fence through the whole cut.

The Freud blade is certainly capable of producing two surfaces ready for glue in some of my cuts, and where it doesn't a touch up with a pass or two of a plane fixes it. But as I'm useless keeping planes level on narrow edges, I use an attachment I made that screws to the side of the plane to keep the sole square to the side of the timber so that it does much the same job as a shooting board.

You can't borrow a jointer to get 'em truly flat on at least one of the 'benchtop surface' sides before running 'em through the thicky? It really is a big ask of a tablesaw to manage that!

However, once you have 'em thicknessed I'd just run 'em thru the tablesaw with pressure fingers holding the lengths against the fence to get the glue faces.

Odds are good that these'll spring back to be bowed to some degree, but so long as you take care to pair 'em (similar concavity facing similar concavity) when clamping up, they should pretty much cancel out in the final form. It'd definitely make things easier to pull straight if instead of going for, say, 75x25mm boards, you ripped 'em down to 35x25mm's.
But I guess it depends on what look you're after.

Of course, if you did do it this way then once you have the whole benchtop glued up there's a likelihood that the front & back slab edges will need to be trimmed straight. I'd rely on a circ saw and straight edge for this rather than trying to run it all through the TS.

To get timber perfectly flat and true using only a thicknesser I use shims on a long flat board. This method is quite well known and in my opinion much easier and better than a jointer. Here's a video demonstrating what I mean:

Milling Rough Lumber Without a Jointer Using a Few Simple Jigs - YouTube

You only need to get one side flat, once that's done you can pass it through again on the opposite side to get it completely flat aswell.

To joint boards on a tablesaw there is also this method:

Table Saw Jointer Jig - Easy to Make - YouTube

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

To get timber perfectly flat and true using only a thicknesser I use shims on a long flat board. This method is quite well known and in my opinion much easier and better than a jointer.

Oof, don't know about that. It works, but it's very slow. Good for flattening a couple of really gnarly boards. Not good for a heap of boards. I used to use the method shown in the first video you linked to straighten a wavy edge on a board. It works really well. Now I use a track saw.

Originally Posted by jack620

Oof, don't know about that. It works, but it's very slow. Good for flattening a couple of really gnarly boards. Not good for a heap of boards.

Hi Jack, I've done aprox 10m in about an hour by using blue masking tape to hold the shims in place, works really well. When I first discovered the idea I was very skeptical. Then after milling abit of timber using this method I checked how flat it was on the cast iron tablesaw surface and sure enough it was completely flat, so much so I had trouble lifting it from the tablesaw surface because of the suction!.

Originally Posted by aldav

You're hoping to get a single 22-25mm thick panel out of the 45mm stock? At 2.6m length that's a big ask. From memory you've got a pretty decent saw, so that'll help. If you're able to clamp a long and straight auxillary fence (a reasonably heavy piece of aluminium extrusion would do) to the table saw fence you may be able to create some glue ready edges. This is assuming that there are no significant twists in the 85mm face, if there is you're probably buggered. It depends on how bad 'rustic' is. Cutting any of the worst boards in to shorter lengths could help.

The auxillary fence would need to be at least 3.0m long. The stock would need to be consistently run with the same face to the table. Take small cuts off each side of the stock until you end up with a clean straight edge. I'd be forgetting the biscuits if I was you.

If all else fails you can always get the heavy duty clamps out and start cranking. Although in my experience this generally doesn't work out too well.

found a 40x40 square metal tube 4m long If forgotten about and that worked wonderfully thankyou.
the panels are now roughly 1850 x 310 x 32 I had to make them in 2 panels due to weight and the pices werent as long as I thought. very happy though.