Thread: Butt joints dont fit: help please

need to get hold of someone in your area with a jointer the best way and easiest.if you were closer i could do it for you ,someone near you will.......bob

Hi Stan,

It can be difficult. If you can provide us with more info about what tools you have, the forum members will better be able to give you some guidance.

Do you have a router or circular saw?

You really need a good straight edge for a reference. A piece of melamine shelving will usually do. (290 x 16 1800 or 2400 long)

Use it to mark a straight line on the edge of your wood and plane down to it. Have the depth of cut on your electric plane small and plane the high points off until it is fairly even all the way along. Finall give the plane a bit more depth and take a good even cut in one movement all along the board. (Don't be tempted to put a number of boards together as any error in the edge will be doubled when you put them together)
You will also need to make sure the plane is held flat to the edge (right angles to the face of the board) too which is not easy to do.

I prefer a good hand plane!

Using the straight edge as a running guide for a router with a straight cutting bit is a better method.

The straight edge used as a running guide for your cicular saw can get it all setup straight ready for a final plane too.

Hope it works out,

Chipman

Originally Posted by Chipman

Hi Stan,

It can be difficult. If you can provide us with more info about what tools you have, the forum members will better be able to give you some guidance.

Do you have a router or circular saw?

You really need a good straight edge for a reference. A piece of melamine shelving will usually do. (290 x 16 1800 or 2400 long)

Use it to mark a straight line on the edge of your wood and plane down to it. Have the depth of cut on your electric plane small and plane the high points off until it is fairly even all the way along. Finall give the plane a bit more depth and take a good even cut in one movement all along the board. (Don't be tempted to put a number of boards together as any error in the edge will be doubled when you put them together)
You will also need to make sure the plane is held flat to the edge (right angles to the face of the board) too which is not easy to do.

I prefer a good hand plane!

Using the straight edge as a running guide for a router with a straight cutting bit is a better method.

The straight edge used as a running guide for your cicular saw can get it all setup straight ready for a final plane too.

Hope it works out,

Chipman

Thanks for that chipman,
I have a router and a circular saw

Stan if you have a nice sharp hand plane and a good try square, with some effort you will be able to create beutiful joints.

Lay the boards out on the bench side by side in the order you would like to join them.

Working with pairs of boards at a time, hold one of the boards tightly in your vice (edge up) and place the other board that you would like to join it to onto it.

Squat down and run your eye along the entire joint. You will see where the gaps are and where the boards touch. Wherever they touch is where you need to plane. If you need to, lightly mark the areas that touch with a pencil or chalk so you know where to plane. You will need to decide if the high points belong to the edge of the board in the vice or the edge of the board sitting on top.

After determining which board needs to be straightened, and securing it in the vice, take a few strokes off the high spots with your plane.

Squat down again and check along the entire length of the edge with your square to ensure that it is still square or otherwise. If it is square, place the adjacent board back on top to check how the joint looks.

Once you get down to a close fitting joint, the best way to see which board still need work is to look closely at any given gap. Slowly slide the top board along the length of the bottom board. If the gap follows along with the top board, then it is the top board that needs some more work. If the gap doesn't move, the bottom board probably needs more work.

If you have a gap at each end but touching in the middle, start with very short strokes near the centre and gradually increas the length of each stroke equally distant from each end.

Most important of all...

Enjoy it

It can be done with an electric hand plane, but the plane needs to have a long base plate. I take it yours doesn't.

How to "fix" your problem depends on the tools you have available and what you want to do.

one way is to use a power saw and straight edge to trim the "waves" off the edges of the boards. If you then butt the boards together and run the saw (again using the straight edge) down the joint you should get two edges where any wobble matches so you can then glue them together.

If your boards are less than 2.4m long, you could make a jig from 25mm MDF.
The long edges of MDF are straight and after clamping one of your table top boards to the MDF you can cut a "rebate" with your plane where the rebate's reference surface is the MDF and the bottom the edge of the board you're trying to get straight.

I'll try to sketch what I mean

ian

Thanks for your help everyone: just goes to show there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Why, does your cat not make good butt joints either?

you can also turn your tablesaw into a jointer if need be and even a router table it the boards are less than 1" wide. a hand held router will work uing a flush trim bit aswell. if you need more info pm me.

Use a combination square, set it at the width of the narrowest side of the board (don't forget tp tighten the screw) then, holding a sharp pencil at the edge of the ruler, draw a line the length of the board, clamp a straight edge along the pencil line, using a flush bit with a ball bearing, run the ball bearing along the straight edge and you will have a beautiful edge just as good as a jointer, just needs a little bit more effort.
If the board has an irregular edge, draw a straight line first and saw it close to the pencil line then use the router as above.
PM me if you need more detailed instructions.
Wolffie

I haven't got a jointer so I use this method to joint the boards. Depending on how long the boards are you will need to have 2 vices to hold the timber.
Put the timber, both pieces, back to back in the vices with the edges of the timber flush with each other. Plane both edges of the boards together at the same time with a hand plane. I use a Bailey #5.1/2. When you have got them flat, open the boards up so the edges you have just planed butt together and they should joint up perfectly.

what munruben says is right but any waving in the surface will be doubled when turnig it over not a problem it you can plane a streight edge.

Originally Posted by ian

one way is to use a power saw and straight edge to trim the "waves" off the edges of the boards. If you then butt the boards together and run the saw (again using the straight edge) down the joint you should get two edges where any wobble matches so you can then glue them together.

This technique works a treat. It may take two or three cycles if the boards have a substantial mis-match.

Another way, which somewhat preserves the irregular surface if desired, is "blueprinting." Mark the surface of one board with a crayon or paint (doesn't actually have to be blue). Rub it against its mate to transfer the colour to the mate. Plane off the coloured parts on the mate, then clean both. To make only one board flat, use a piece of plate glass as the master surface.

Joe