Jig for jointing face of boards?

[Mike Package]

Brainstorming ideas for using the CNC to face joint boards roughly 4" wide and an inch thick...

Is anybody else doing this? Obviously, the fact that the board needs jointing indicates that it's not flat so I'm looking for ideas to mount the workpiece in such a way that doesn't require tedious shimming underneath the board each time.

I'm thinking maybe side rails with set screws that come in from the sides to grip the workpiece from the side (spikes?), up off the table, leaving the whole face exposed for jointing?

I'd love to hear ideas from anybody doing something similar.

I have a small jointer (JET benchtop) that is much faster than any CNC solution I could come up with, but tear out on figured wood is a problem.

-Mike

[Mick A Martin]

You could use "L" angles as you stated, I just did a job for a customer that had a 4 feet diameter red ceder tree stump 4" thick that needed to be machined flat both sides, I used "L" angles to hold it down.

[Jim Underwood]

Use a wedge jig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqOabfZf4Fk

[Mike Package]

Thanks guys. Glad to know it's feasible...

Probably not the most efficient thing in the world. But it kills me to have the jointer rip all the eyes out of a nice piece of birdseye maple. It's either this or start saving up for a spiral jointer.

[Jim Underwood]

A wide belt sander is worth it's weight in gold for highly figured wood.