jointing on the tablesaw

[Prashun Patel]

I know it's better to use a jointer or maybe even a router, but for those of you that have jointed on a tablesaw, which jig do you prefer?

1) A sled: the right edge of the sled is straight and rides along the fence. The crooked piece is clamped to the sled and passes through the blade straight by virtue of the sled's straight reference side.

2) An auxiliary fence that the blade gets buried in like this?
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/2005/01/28/wb/


Method 1 seems safer bkz you can leave the blade guard in tact and should joint a piece in 1 pass, but requires different support sizes depending on the width of yr stock.


Opinions? Which is more accurate?

[Lee Schierer]

I would say it depends.

I've used the sled method for truing up rough cut lumber to get one straight edge. The sled really doens't need any edge even close to being straight.

The jig method seems like it would work well on boards that are already pretty flat on one edge. It would seem that you would have to keep the stock tight to the outfeed portion of the jig at all times to end up with a truly straight board edge.

[Joe Scharle]

I use my taper jig to cut off 'crooked' edges. Works in either miter slot and can handle 4' easily.




However, I prefer to joint with a router and straight edge.

[george wilson]

The saw blade needs to be very sharp to use the buried fence method,as it will get pushed to one side as you cut.When the saw is coming out of the end of the cut,it will spring back to straight,rounding the end of the wood. Not drastically,but enough to not make a tight glue line.

[Rod Sheridan]

I've never used the TS as a jointer, however I do use it straight line a board using my taper jig.

Every time I do it, I keep thinking "I wish I had a slider instead of a cabinet saw".

Regards, Rod.

[Nissim Avrahami]

For jointing, I'm using....

In case of long boards - a straight edge and hand held router














For boards op to 49" long (my straight edge is 100" long), I use the router table...

[Ken Higginbotham]

I may be missing something here but if you can afford to go through all of that trouble why not just buy a jointer -

[Russ Sears]

Ken, I won't try to answer that for anyone else, but for me it comes down to space and money, mostly space. I'm strictly a hobbiest and my shop is my garage. Most of my tools are on wheels and even with that, I'm about out of space. Yeah, I could fit a little benchtop jointer somewhere and if I came across a deal on a bigger model at an auction, for example, it would probably follow me home. But, I get a little bit of a kick out of trying to do without, and it's interesting to me to see how others handle the situation. I like the looks of the straightedge method and have used a jig on a tablesaw with satisfactory results.

[Larry Edgerton]

Shawn

I have a 9' long Melamine sled with toggle clamps that I use if I get a bowed load. I save out the ones with 1" or morebow and do them all at the end. I just clamp it, measure to the narrowest point and run it through the saw at that number.

Its faster than ten trips across the jointer, and I can burn the off cut in my fireplace.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Ken, I won't try to answer that for anyone else, but for me it comes down to space and money, mostly space. I'm strictly a hobbiest and my shop is my garage. Most of my tools are on wheels and even with that, I'm about out of space. Yeah, I could fit a little benchtop jointer somewhere and if I came across a deal on a bigger model at an auction, for example, it would probably follow me home. But, I get a little bit of a kick out of trying to do without, and it's interesting to me to see how others handle the situation. I like the looks of the straightedge method and have used a jig on a tablesaw with satisfactory results.

I see - I'm still learning the tricks around here. It is a pretty creative solution... Hope he doesn't take my comments wrong -

[Prashun Patel]

I'll eventually get a jointer. It's just a question of money right now. By that I mean I'm very cheap!

[Ryan Griffey]

The only time I don't use the jointer is for long pieces that are too heavy for me to make an accurate pass through the jointer.

For rough jointing on slabs from my mill I place an 8' level between the board and the table saw fence and slice off the opposite edge of the board. This saves me a lot of time and labor at the jointer later on.

For trim work I clamp the 8' level to the board and run down it with my worm drive.

More often I use the table saw method to get the piece close to square, trim it down with the miter saw and then the jointer for the finish.

I find that a high quality 8' level gives me an excellent starting point.

[Darius Ferlas]

Edge jointing works very well also on thickness planers. Mine allows for boards up to 6 1/2" in width and I was pleased with some test runs of 5 foot long cherry.

[Jules Dominguez]

I use a sled which is a long board that runs on a guide strip in the miter slot. Dimension the board so that the edge of it will be trimmed off with the first pass on the tablesaw and will then be flush with the blade. You can use either miter slot. Make the board as long and as wide as you want - I think mine's about 9 inches wide by about 60 inches long. Glue some sander belt pieces to the top of the board with contact cement. Put a cleat across the leading end of the board and put in a wood screw whichcan be adjusted to stick through the cleat to help hold the workpiece in place while cutting. The screw point and the sander belt will hold the workpiece. The only critical parameter to this rig is that the sled slide along the miter slot without play.

I normally use a roller stand at the infeed side to support the sled during the first part of the cut. A guide runner sticking out of the bottom of the sled would cause problems with the infeed roller stand and with the outfeed table, so I use a "loose" guide. The guide is a separate strip of wood placed in the miter slot and the bottom of the sled is dadoed to fit it. That way the bottom of the sled is flat and is stable on the roller stand and on the outfeed table.

I put a post (large dowel) on the tail end and feed the jig with one hand on the dowel and the other on top of the workpiece.

I made mine out of 1" white oak, but a good grade of 3/4" plywood would probably work as well. The board isn't under any stress as it slides across the saw table, so the dado cut into the bottom for the guide strip isn't of consequence strengthwise.

As with planing, I cut my lumber to rough size before prepping it. Makes the prep work easier and wastes less wood. I wouldn't want to try to "joint" an 8' board this way, but it works well with anything under about 5 feet.

[Nissim Avrahami]

Hi Ken

As Russ said....

Here is my "shop"....

Car garage.jpg

Regards
niki