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Forum topic by mIps | posted 10-10-2012 09:47 PM | 1959 views | 1 time favorited | 21 replies | ![]() |
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10-10-2012 09:47 PM |
Greetings all from a fairly new worker. I was hoping some o you out there would be able to give me some ideas on a way to square stock. Here are my limitations: by far my best and most accurate tool is my table saw. I do not have nor can I afford a jointer or a planer. What I have been doing so far: 1) get the straightest, most even wood I can. So far been working with cast-off pieces of 2×4 with little to no warp, bend, twist or cup. 2) Pick the flattest face, put that down onto the table saw and just trim 1 edge. Then rotate the piece 180 and just trim the other edge. 3) Rotate 90 putting the chosen face against the saw fence and just trim the opposite face. Finally rotate 180 again and just trim the first face. This gets me a piece about 3” wide and 1” thick to work with. Is this the best method or is there another process that would work better? Thanks in advance for any and all replies. -- Be honest, honorable, kind, work hard, and generally be awesome. |
21 replies so far
#1 posted 10-10-2012 09:57 PM |
What I would do is build a router planing jig to take care of the faces and use a flush trim bit on the edges, referencing off of a known flat edge. Otherwise, buy your stock pre-milled, either from a lumberyard or a home center. Watch out for the home center lumber though, it is often pretty warped and you may have to dig a bit to find decent boards. Good luck. -- Tristin King -- When in doubt, sand it. |
#2 posted 10-10-2012 10:13 PM |
Sounds like you are getting by as best you can. I think woodworking gets safer and much more enjoyable with a jointer and planer. Even with milled stock, the boards are never straight. You can joint an edge with a router or router table, but it is slow and cumbersome. -- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush |
#3 posted 10-10-2012 10:15 PM |
given your tools, assuming you have a good TS with a trusted fence and a good blade, your method works for me!!! I find that the jointer is one of the least used tools in the shop anymore. but you are only squaring the edges. once done with that, a good miter saw will finish the job if you have a flat board to ride against the fence.. |
#4 posted 10-10-2012 10:17 PM |
I think your cheapest solution would be to buy a used #6-8 Stanley or equivalent plane from ebay and a #5. You can pick up a decent number 5 for 15-20 bucks and they do not have to be “tuned-up” they just need a sharp blade. They are mainly used to remove material to get it ready for making the wood flat. That being said having a perfect body on it is pointless it does not do precision work. The #6-8 needs to be fairly flat with a sharp blade. After bringing the board in to shape with the #5 you use the longer plane to make it straight. There are various techniques out there, but I like to use winding sticks. Anyway long story short you could buy a lot of equipment or you can join two edges of the board with a hand plane and then use your saw to make them perfect. Plus there is a deeper satisfaction when you use hand tools. I think you will be surprised. |
#5 posted 10-10-2012 11:58 PM |
Build a table saw sled. You can square corners and cut angles like a champ, easily: -- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..." |
#6 posted 10-11-2012 12:26 AM |
I doubt you will get a very straight piece running it through the TS that way. The variations on the backside of the board, (against the fence), will work against you. I use a straight piece of aluminum square tube extrusion 8’ long with a stop block at the end. Now….. I am going to weld a chunk of 2X2 angle to my tube for the whole length. That will give me a bottom and side reference so the whole process should take much less time. Good Luck and welcome to the sawdust madness! -- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome! |
#7 posted 10-11-2012 01:36 AM |
Thanks for the replies and input, I really do appreciate it all. -- Be honest, honorable, kind, work hard, and generally be awesome. |
#8 posted 10-11-2012 01:55 AM |
And I have had my frustrations with the aluminum extrusion that comes with those Incra miters, as they flex way too much, though they are very pretty anodized colors. Anything over about 18in and the flex results in unacceptable errors, IMO. I would venture to bet that my FULL 2in X 5in (NOT dimensional but TRUE 2inX 5in) hardwood fence WITH TWO 1in aluminum T-thread bars at 90 degrees to each other, embedded into the hardwood fence, is better than your claimed “aluminum extrusion.” I would, at the very least, NOT expect to be bad mouthed by those that have such, as it is obvious that you have your personal agenda without the experience thus noted above. BTW, this has NOT flexed AT ALL in the past year, that it has been built. And have you looked at the temperature related expansion rates of aluminum only solutions? Linear Temperature Expansion Coefficient – α- Personally, I would worry about the aluminum, particularly where it intersect with other metals/woods/etc. as it will cause bending due to uneven temperature induced shrinking/swelling. But then again, what do I know about such things… -- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..." |
#9 posted 10-11-2012 02:00 AM |
MIps, And thanks about the “motorcycle love” stuff… me too. And I thought you wanted to talk about the stars and such (my OTHER hobby). Funny me… ;-) -- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..." |
#10 posted 10-11-2012 02:47 AM |
Whoa Mike, don’t get your testes in a torque. Your starting to sound like PK. My basic point was that unless you hold the back side of the wood stationary the thickness will change as you go. Whether you use a sled, hard wood, aluminum, steel or carborundum…. it doesn’t matter, as long as the piece going through the saws stays stationary to the blade it will have a square cut. -- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome! |
#11 posted 10-11-2012 04:07 PM |
- horizontalMike: you said “my FULL 2in X 5in (NOT dimensional but TRUE 2inX 5in) hardwood fence WITH TWO 1in aluminum T-thread bars at 90 degrees to each other, embedded into the hardwood fence, is better than your claimed ‘aluminum extrusion.’” I am not going to disagree because it sounds like you have more knowledge than I on this, but I will ask for a clarification on your fence because it doesn’t really make sense to me. Are you saying you have run 1” threaded rod through your hardwood fence? If so, I could definitely see how this would made a solid fence. -- Be honest, honorable, kind, work hard, and generally be awesome. |
#12 posted 10-11-2012 05:57 PM |
What I would do is read the other hundreds of posts on this site addressing the same question. -- This is a Troll Free zone. |
#13 posted 10-11-2012 10:07 PM |
- DKV: This may come off sounding crappy and for that I apologize. Your post came off sounding like “this has been asked before, why are you asking it again?” I don’t know if it was intended that way or not. Rather than say “This has been asked before, go find the posts”, it would be more helpful to newbies to say ”this person discussed their method for doing this in this post, it may be helpful for you.” Again, sorry if I am now sounding snarkish or sarcastic. This was not my intent. -- Be honest, honorable, kind, work hard, and generally be awesome. |
#14 posted 10-11-2012 10:41 PM |
mIps: +1 Like. -- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome! |
#15 posted 10-11-2012 11:04 PM |
Mlps, this may come off sounding crappy but how else are you going to learn to search the wealth of information on this site unless you search for the wealth of information on this site? If you still have questions after doing your research then ask the question. On the other hand if all you want is company and conversation then I suppose you can ask the question without doing the research. -- This is a Troll Free zone. |
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