# First joint



## hiswillus (Jan 24, 2013)

Looking to get some constructive feedback on my first joint. Haven't glued it up yet just have them sitting together and wondering if this joint looks good enough for glue up. Let me know what you think.


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

I never forget my first joint (lol.),seriously thou,yours looks alright but I would take a couple of more passes before gluing them.


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## hiswillus (Jan 24, 2013)

Is that due to the corners rounding in, or the length of the joint itself?


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

How did you make the joint, for one thing? Powered jointer, hand planes?


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## RGtools (Feb 18, 2011)

Try to put the two pieces together and push on the end of one of them, if the top board pivots anywhere besides the end, you probably have some more work to do. The pivot point is the hump. A slight hollow is ok, just make sure you can close it with hand pressure and your joints will be flawless.

How are you jointing?


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## hiswillus (Jan 24, 2013)

Hand tool woodworker


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

I can't tell how thick those pieces are, but if it's possible to clamp them both in a vise and run a jointer plane over both edges at the same time, they should match up.


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## Fettler (Dec 6, 2012)

Hard to see what's going on from the photo, but it looks like a butt joint that's flat except right at the very end? When working a hand plane there's a tendency for concave corners at the beginning and end of a cut. The trick is to lift off the rear or front hand in the beginning and end of the cut respectively.

If you're just going to cut off the ends, or If that seam will be hidden, your good to go. Otherwise a couple more passes should do the trick. I built an end table last year that had a seam like this but didn't really care because it was on the inside of the table. A couple times I've gotten a board perfectly flat then dropped it on the ground which rounded a corner.

I would advise against trying to fix this with clamping pressure. In my experience it will just open right up again.


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## marcuscraft (Nov 14, 2012)

As others have said, its a bit hard to tell from the pictures (due to the area of focus and bokeh blur down the length of the board), but it doesnt look too bad from what we can see.


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## RGtools (Feb 18, 2011)

One other thing to check.. and this looks good from the picture, but how flat is the face when you have the joint together? If it's cupped due to the joint you can correct that by taking selective (partial width) passes with your plane. On a piece this narrow it's not a big deal, but when you start building panels it's a skill worth knowing.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

It's really rather simple if you don't have gaps and you wood grain is pleasing to the eye and you clamp and glue properly you will have a good joint. The trick is to know how to determine all those things when your getting started .
Take a look at the pros works and see how it's done guys like Charles Neil,Darrell Peart,Chuck Bender and many many more top notch woodworkers.This will at least give you the foundation of what good joinery looks like.


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## Airspeed (Mar 11, 2013)

When I saw "first joint" I thought you wanted advice on how to roll it!


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## hiswillus (Jan 24, 2013)

Really good feedback guys!! Thanks!

Sorry the picture wasn't the best, but it's the best I could do. I'm sure the rounded ends is just me being lazy on the end and the beginning and taking to much off. I'll hit 'er with a few more passes.

Thanks,

Jeff


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