Joint Boards without a Jointer

Step 6 Update: Idea in response to gfixler's comment

Below is a way of using a router for jointing so the router bit cannot vibrate or jump into the work and make a cupped indentation in the work's edge. The fence (yellow) clamps to the work (brown). The router bolts onto the attachment (yellow). The attachment rides on the fence.

Comments

[wilwrk4tls]

 A method I used was to make a fence for my router (used in a router table) that had a hole sized for a bit, where the very tip of the router blade was tangent to the router planing fence edge.  Then I used a table saw and cut down one side of the fence (based on the rotation of the router bit) so that it was slightly shallower than the other edge.

As you run your board against the planer board the router bit takes off however much material you took off of the one side.  Make sure not to take too much off so that your router can handle the removal, which means you may have to make several passes.

Hopefully the attached image helps.

[Phil B]

I apologize for responding so late to your router and fence arrangement for putting a straight edge on a piece of work.  You are essentially replicating a planer/joiner bed.  I tried this early in my serious woodworking days when I had a molding head cutter for my radial arm saw, but no router.  With that setup I found it was just a little too tricky to align the back half of the fence with the cutter.  What is so nice about running the work between a long fence and a sanding drum (or router bit) is that the straight edge of the fence is automatically reproduced on the edge to be straightened.  There is much less that can go wrong.

[icurays1]

Good instructable! I only see one real problem with the drum sanding method, being a long time woodworker. Many times when you need to joint a board, neither edge is straight. Using a fence to guide the piece through a tool will make the board parallel - not straight. So if one edge is pretty straight, you'll be fine, you can make the other edge parallel (and thus straight) The idea with a jointer is that you rely on the outfeed side (after the cutter) of the jointer to provide flatness, not the board itself. The router method you outlined works great if you go slowly, take a very thin pass, and have a straight guide piece. You can even buy aluminum clamp-on guides for just this. Another method (besides the 'ol hand plane) is to attach your to-be-jointed piece to a straight piece (with screws or cam clamps) and run it through a table saw. There's also a commercial product for this type of thing.

[Phil B]

I have worked with pieces on which neither edge was straight. The sanding drum and fence procedure worked fine and the end results were just as good as if one edge had been straight and true. I just took a little off of one side. Then I flipped the piece and took a little off of the other side. After flipping again, I took a little off of the first side. I kept doing this until each side became progressively more straight until both were true. The fence I was using is four feet long (end of a sheet of plywood). Most jointers do not have a fence nearly that long on either the inboard or outboard sides. I have generally avoided fastening a work piece down to a guide with screws because the screw holes would have interfered with the finished look I wanted. I might consider gluing it with a sheet of newsprint inside the glue joint, like when you chuck up something on a lathe faceplate so you can separate it later and sand off evidence of the glue. Anyway, thanks for the comment.

[handidad]

One method of using a router for jointing is to first fasten the 2 boards together with a gap that is just lightly narrower than the width of the router bit.. A router attachment that is fastened to a fence would be ideal for this application. The purpose of jointing the 2 boards at the same time is that any irregularities will be mirrored on the other board and then cancel out when they are glued together..

[Phil B]

I remember reading about this a few years ago in Fine Woodworking magazine. In theory it is supposed to work. In practice there could be some slight variation between the two pieces, if I remember correctly. There is also the problem of the bit hitting a tough area in one work piece that deflects the router a little toward the other work piece. But, I never actually tried it.

[handidad]

I also have not tried it. It would only be successful if the router was attached securely to a very strong guide or fence.