Thread: Edge jointing on a tablesaw

The fence extension is the cheapest and easiest way to go. I would
do the resaw first, I have seen cedar change directions as it goes
through the saw blade.

you could always make a sled and clamp material to said sled ( using mitre track and say incra hold downs ) using the sled as the true edge you should be able to make this a repeatable exercise no matter what the stock looks like

You can edge joint with a straight cutter in a router mounted in a router table. Ask if you want to know how (no point explaining if you don't have a router).

You can also edge joint on a tablesaw. You need to get a board that is the same length as your rip fence. Set the fence to the thickness of the board less the thickness of your blade. Feed it through the saw half way and stop the saw. Turn the board around end for end so that the widest part is at the back and position it so that the bit where you stopped the blade is close to but not touching the back of the blade. Make sure it's parallel (using the fence) and just touching the edges of the teeth on the blade. Clamp firmly to the table. If you have a splitter mounted blade guard, you can cut a slot for it so that you can use the guard while you're jointing.

You now have a vertical jointer. The narrow part of this board is your infeed and the wider part is your outfeed. Run the board you want to joint through lying flat on the table, concave side hard up against the new fence. A couple of passes and the edge should be flat.

Cheers guys, some sweet options there. The vertical jointer is genious.

If I want to continue down the long-fence route, I figure to make it work spot-on, I'd need a fence twice the length of the plank (eg, a 2m board needs 2m of infeed support and 2m of outfeed support). Is it possible to get away with shorter and eventually it will get true? The way I see it, a fence that is not twice the length will only ever take out warps smaller than a certain radius...

The longer the in feed/out feed the better for stability, but it's not necessary for it to be twice the length of the board you're jointing. My jointer has combined in feed/out feed length of 1100mm but I regularly joint 2.4m boards on it. If you're lying the board flat on the table saw or router table, you can get away with much shorter surfaces.

(if the blade is...there, that's parallel, twice the distance from the jigger, carry the two...)

Yeah, I see it now.

I'm confused. I've been trueing and dressing baords on my table saw for years. I've never used any of what your describing.

What are the rough sawn and finished dimensions your chasing, not length I mean width and height ?

I use a fence that's about 2 1/2' long. The requirement is to keep the board straight as it passes the blade. What the board is doing beyond the table is irrelevant. The other issues you have to address are feed rate and surface finish. The first is technique and the second comes down to blade, and i guess the quality of your saw and setup...

To control straightness during feed I use fingers, either featherboards or sprung fingers of some sort. Make them firm. Jointing cuts are usually "open" so fingers can be deployed after the blade. They deliver much more consistent results than manually holding the work, and of course enhance safety. Your job should only be to feed the work. I make a zero clearance sacrificial fence for cutting the work face adjacent to the fence in the same way you do jointing on a router table. That way you can make multiple passes without a setup change if you need to. Obviously your depth of cut has to be less than the kerf.

2c, YMMV.

OK, so you have a board that is sprung (has a bow along the edge). How do you straighten it on a table saw?

Silent,
I've used a straight edge clamped along the concave side of a 290 mm wide board to straighten a 2m length and it jointed up ok.
I would imagine hot glue might be alternative fixing method
Once you have one good edge it's easy enough to get the opposite side sorted out

Ian

i have the same issue - no jointer (yet). i'm a complete novice compared to the majority on this forum so take my comments with a grain of salt but this works for me.

my workaround involves using a length of steel square section 50x50mm (red in pic below). i clamp a stop block to one end (green) and sit that against the table saw fence. using a featherboard to keep the stock being "jointed" up against the length of steel and the whole thing against the table saw fence.

i then guide the stock aginst the steel and when it hits the stop block the stock and steel move together against the table saw fence.

the steel is cheap $20-30 for a 3m length which can be used for getting a true edge on boards up to 3m. aluminium would be better but i already had the steel.

if i had a decent jointer plane i'd probably give the new edge a once over to get rid of any saw blade marks but even without this step i can get a decent join.

also i use a roller support to hold both the steel and timber in starting position.

cheers,

Bill

Originally Posted by silentC

OK, so you have a board that is sprung (has a bow along the edge). How do you straighten it on a table saw?

Is this directed at me ?

If so as I said in my post I'd set up with a sacrificial fence, cut a recess into it the same shape as the blade, cut it in half and space out the outfeed side by your depth of cut, just like a router table edge jointer. Set up fingers, whatever you use/have available, Then make multiple passes until the edge comes straight, just like you would on a jointer. I used to do this all the time on my triton with old second hand timber, cheap blades, mdf fence. Run them through and if I missed some nails it's only an old cheap blade. The beams I ended up with were straight enough and smooth enough for what I needed, finishing with an 80 tooth better blade because I'd "found" all the nails and stuff by then.

The big issue is uneven flexing of the work as you run it through. The fingers reduce that.

I'm not suggesting the other methods don't work, I'm just suggesting what I have done and which worked ok for me.

It's not so different from the method I suggested. Identical concept, different execution. I didn't understand your first post obviously, so was after clarification. I usually don't bother quoting the person I'm replying to when my post appears immediately after theirs

That's all fine. I was only asking because it wasn't entirely clear if it was me you were asking. Maybe next time put my name in the post ? I get the not quoting thing. Sometimes people quote 300 lines and add one...

Re reading my first post it was _not_ well worded. I cut both sides, with the work between blade and fence if I want to make one deep cut or with the blade against the fence and the work outboard if I'm nibbling it down. Much like a thicknesser or planer operation. There were lots of things in the previous posts that I didn't properly understand. I reread your post and I see now. Yes functionally the same but my setup is a bit more elaborate.

I fix the mdf, lower the blade, set the fence over the blade, turn on and raise OR just mark around the blade and cut it with a jigsaw. next cut mdf in half, shim out the outfeed. This way you can set the depth of cut to anything you like. Probably unnesessary, but if you spend 10 weekends in a row "recycling" old timber it's worth making a fancier tool. I like a high fence too because I use the method to face timber up to double the height of my blade. With my TTD saw I can theoretically face 180 mm timber which is pretty good if you think about it.

Anyway..

Yes the method I posted (which isn't mine by the way, I stole it from Bob) is quick and dirty. If you're doing a lot of it, something like your idea would be great.

I'm lucky enough to own a jointer but before that I used a 100mm straight cutter in my router table with a split fence.