Thread: joining two long boards

How deep is the timber? I can get a perfect joint with two 2 metre long x 50mm deep boards using a plunge saw and guide rail.

Regards,

Rob

Its 40mm thick, I did use a plunge saw but the edge was not as neat as I would like, I am thinking of using a router bit using a guide, hoping it will give a nice edge.

do you have a sharp #6 or #7 hand plane and a long straight edge -- by hand might be the easiest.

clamping both boards to a flat surface so that the joining edges are about 3/8" apart and then running down the joint line (freehand) with 1/2" shank 1/2" straight or spiral router should give you a perfectly matching edge that is sufficiently wavy that the joint is not obvious.

There are a couple of possible solutions I can think of.
Make an extra tall sub fence for your jointer to support the wide boards.
Altrenatively clamp the boards together in a vice book fashion and use a hand jointer plane.
You do not need to worry about not planing the edge perfectly square as once you put the boards together the angles cancel out giving a perfect joint.Provided of course you plane the boards Straight.

I has to join some 2m long boards, about 20mm thick. Also had problems on the jointer, because she is a short bed model, so I couldn't get a consistent reference, even with roller stands on indeed and outfeed.

What I ended up doing, quite successfully I might add, was running the boards across the jointer to get a pretty reasonable starting position, and then pulled out the freshly sharpened jointing plane to clean the edge up.

As someone else said, book matching the boards and planing both edges is important just in case you come off square. Also, plane for a spring joint so the outer ends are tight is another good tip.

Now, because I was a tad lazy, after the glue up was complete, I scraped the glue off, planed out any cupping caused by the glue up (or .. more precisely by my inability to keep everything flat), and then ran the whole lot through the thicknesser. Result was pretty nice for the purpose.

Originally Posted by mark david

Altrenatively clamp the boards together in a vice book fashion and use a hand jointer plane.

Hi Graham

As with the others i would suggest clamping the boards together face to face with the joining edge on one side (think of a book being closed, the adjoining pages are now face to face).....then run it over the planer again. Any lean to one side should cancel out from one board to the other since they are face to face. Maybe try it with some scraps first but i can't see why it wouldn't work on a machine vs hand planing. I've used this method recently on smaller pieces using a hand plane and it worked a treat. couldn't believe how much easier it was than trying to get a perfect flat edge on each side. Makes it much quicker to joint boards together. For long boards a bit of a spring join (convex joining edge) helps too but i would keep it minimal given the size of your timber.

Good Luck.
Mat

Originally Posted by ian

do you have a sharp #6 or #7 hand plane and a long straight edge -- by hand might be the easiest.

clamping both boards to a flat surface so that the joining edges are about 3/8" apart and then running down the joint line (freehand) with 1/2" shank 1/2" straight or spiral router should give you a perfectly matching edge that is sufficiently wavy that the joint is not obvious.

I Have used this method before and found it to be excellent. The only difference for me was that I used a straight edge to follow - the joint line was not obvious but I will try freehand next time as I like the idea of the slightly wavy joint line.

To make the actual join, I also ran a 4 tooth blade bit along the join (stopped short of each end) to fit a loose tongue.

Thanks for your advice guys,

I ended up having to get a neighbour, (which I hate doing) to assist in holding the boards straight on the jointer, I did this before reading the hint about putting both through at once, which I can see would have worked a lot better, but overall I am happy withe the end result.

Cheers
Graham

Originally Posted by gdf26562

.....
I ended up having to get a neighbour, (which I hate doing) to assist in holding the boards straight on the jointer, .....

At least you have a good neighbor.