Thread: New to Box Making

It's a good idea to cut your stock oversize and leave it to acclimatise for a few days in your workshop, then dress it to size. You can do this with a jointer/thicknesser if you have one, or with a hand plane.
Don't leave your wood face down on the bench. Stand it on its edge so that it gets circulation all round it. This helps prevent cupping. Also, it's a good idea to dress the timber to size befor cutting it to the lengths of the sides.

You can joint small pieces of timber on your TS but you will be limited by the depth of your saw blade as to how large the piece of timber you can work on. I can work on timber about 5 inches or so square. I screw the piece of timber to a sled and overlap it so when I slide the sled past the blade, the timber overlapping the sled gets cut square.
Once you have a flat surface you can dispose of the sled and use your fencee to run the flat edge of the timber against and in this way you can square up a piece of timber quite accurately. Length is not a problem but the width of the timber has to be smaller than half the diameter of your saw blade. (less than half the dia of the blade sticks through the TS top)
This is not an ideal way to joint your timber but it can be done, as I said, on small bits of timber. You can do any length but the diameter of the timber is restricted as explained above.
I don't use a jointer, simply because I don't own one. but I do have a thicknesser which helps too. Once I get the timber flat I can thickness it to the desired thickness.

I have seen timber jointed with a router which was set up on a frame arrangement where the router travelled along 2 guide rails and the workpiece was fixed sucurely below the frame and the router was moved back and forth over the timber with a straight half inch bit, taking shallow cuts across the top of the timber to get it level and flat. This method could be used for larger pieces of timber but you would need to make up some kind of an arrangement for the router to be attached to so it could make the shallow cuts as it travels over the workpiece.

I was going to purchase a jointer last year but finances didnt allow it. having said that, a lot of guys on the forum have jointers and hardly use them to joint their timber.

I am sure you will get some better advice from some of the other guys.

G'day elpezpr and welcome to our world.!!!

When you join pieces of timber to make a wider board make sure you alternate the direction of the end grain. Tis helps to prevent cupping an twisting.

A welcome to the forum from the northern hemi.

I think your problem might arise because of thickness. quarter inch thick in my book means the timber has got to be tip top.

If you want to work at that thickness and your wood is suspect I would work in strips around half to 5/8th" wide and glue back to a board, then mitre joints at corners using a sled on your table saw.

(You do then need a thicknesser to tidy up the thickness so start at 3/8thick.)

If your timber is not dead flat, and I mean dead flat, sides arenot parallel then you are wasting your time trying to make a box,mitres wont line up,corners wont line up etc etc You wont get that sort of timber at Bunnings!

Thanks for all the help.

Originally Posted by acmegridley

If your timber is not dead flat, and I mean dead flat, sides arenot parallel then you are wasting your time trying to make a box,mitres wont line up,corners wont line up etc etc You wont get that sort of timber at Bunnings!

Yes, as I found out the hard way, everything must be dead flat and parallel. So I am looking for a way to be able to make nice boxes, and other stuff as well.

I don't plan on joining a lot of boards side to side. My problem is getting the wood flat.

I am pretty sure I can get the wood parallel with the table saw. Getting it flat is another matter. Do I really need a planner? Is there another way?

I could use some more help. Thanks.

How are you fixed for hand tools? Lots of us don't have electric tools but squaring and flattening boards can easily be done with hand planes, so don't feel you have to have the power ones.

What Sheets said. A good hand plane is a lot cheaper than a cheap jointer/thicknesser, and you'll need one even if you get a machine, to take off the machine marks.