Edge jointing long boards, an experiment

[Jim Koepke]

Here is something Junior (Harry Strasil) posted 8 years ago:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...inting-that-is

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

It eliminates the need entirely, and I love shooting boards, but the chicken and egg problem comes when one has to joint something longer than 8 feet.

[Jim Koepke]

It eliminates the need entirely, and I love shooting boards, but the chicken and egg problem comes when one has to joint something longer than 8 feet.

When I have to joint something that long my tendency is to go the easy way and do a tongue and groove.

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

8 feet is a lot! I'm not sure if I could do that without some jigging help. But shorter boards aren't too difficult.

When I build my kitchen I wasn't very advanced yet on this handtool journey. I needed to joint about 40 boards. My powertools are especially crappy, so I couldn't trust these. So I made myself a long grain shooting board. The first thing I learned is that the build in fence of the shooting board wasn't very helpfull. The boards probably shifted too much under the clamps. But using the shooting board solely to help with keeping the cut perpendicular and then using the stopped shaving technique learned from Charlesworth's books, to keep the joint straight was indeed very usefull. A couple of not so nice issues, the vintage blade in my jointer needed to be sharpened often because all the wear was in one spot and the handling position of the plane was uncomfortable and painfull after a while.

After that project I never used this shooting board again. I think it's still somewhere in my woodpile. I could have used that project to learn myself a new technique. But I decided to play it safe and only learned it later. And then it proved not to be too bad at all. You shouldn't think and analyse too much, just get on and practice. In the end it is all pretty logical.

[Jim Matthews]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_scdtQoFE

[Reinis Kanders]

+1 on Kees response. I went through the same experience with the long grain shooting board.
Same can be said for sawing straight and true. I only got better once I comitted myself to ignore my sliding miter saw (which BTW is very precise).
It is pretty liberating to be able to do these things without machines and all the setup always involved and the mess they generate. One just has to visit power tools forum where lot of questions are asked because folks do not trust their hands to do the job.

8 feet is a lot! I'm not sure if I could do that without some jigging help. But shorter boards aren't too difficult.

When I build my kitchen I wasn't very advanced yet on this handtool journey. I needed to joint about 40 boards. My powertools are especially crappy, so I couldn't trust these. So I made myself a long grain shooting board. The first thing I learned is that the build in fence of the shooting board wasn't very helpfull. The boards probably shifted too much under the clamps. But using the shooting board solely to help with keeping the cut perpendicular and then using the stopped shaving technique learned from Charlesworth's books, to keep the joint straight was indeed very usefull. A couple of not so nice issues, the vintage blade in my jointer needed to be sharpened often because all the wear was in one spot and the handling position of the plane was uncomfortable and painfull after a while.

After that project I never used this shooting board again. I think it's still somewhere in my woodpile. I could have used that project to learn myself a new technique. But I decided to play it safe and only learned it later. And then it proved not to be too bad at all. You shouldn't think and analyse too much, just get on and practice. In the end it is all pretty logical.

[Winton Applegate]

I think realistically speaking :
If I were to rely on a "planing jig" this is the fast way to go.
Too expensive ? Ha, ha I spent more than that on my BU Veritas hand plane jointer and my BD Lee Nielsen jointer (that I don’t really need to joint long boards).

Using a hand plane, the straight edge and square is the most accurate.

The planing jig is some where in between.

I got great results with the straight edge, flat bench and small square first few tries from the early days. Yes it takes a while. We call all that “tedium” FUN remember ?

To make the wooden shooting board and firstly the work bench to make the shooting board . . .
. . . well
to make those accurately one needs the straight edge and square.
one needs to learn how to use those to do the job.
May as well then take those skills forward and keep using them.
other wise
ha, ha,
The work bench and the jigs are more accurately and more beautifully made than the cabinets they are use to make. That would be a shame. I think.

I hear you about the vision thing.

One thing you discover is (the masters don’t stoop and look so much as rock and feel) you can just rock the straight edge on the high spots or the board edge on the FLAT bench to find the high spots and then plane choosing your number of strokes according to how much it rocks. For the gaps, as was said before use the feeler gauge.
Can use a jeweler’s visor to sight the gaps between the two boards for final fit up once there are no high spots, except on the ends as in your wenge / gap photo.
One has to make trade offs ; time, physical limitations, money.

Don’t say the jig can be as good as the “master’s” tools and really it doesn’t take a master to learn to use them as David said.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND A MASTER IS THE MASTER DOES IT IN HALF THE TIME (or a quarter of the time) and does it with out thinking. I throw my all into it and eventually pull it off.

Vary satisfying.
Though I would starve if I had to do it for a living.

PS: as you can see in the next to last photo I have a similar edge planing jig. I don't use it much; mostly for quick rough around the house projects rather than glue up edge joints.
PPS: Speaking of satisfying how many of you have ever seen an eleven pound chocolate bar ? Nice Belgium chocolate, not the cheep stuff. The coin is a quarter (yes I washed it first).