I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20" wide.
I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together, however,
I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
"Curtis" wrote in message
> I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20"
wide.
> I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together,
however,
> I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
> just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
> it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
Absolutely. As long as you take pains in selecting dimensioned stock that is
the _exact_ same thickness, 20" wide glue-ups should not pose a big problem
for handwork.
For your rips, make sure that your table saw/fence/blade is properly aligned
and take pains in setting the blade at 90 degrees. Make the tops oversize in
both length and width and rip/crosscut to final dimensions after the glue
up. Take care in getting your glue-up as flat as possible with cauls or
weights ... good cabinet clamps make this easy. Scrape the glue joints down
with one of those blade changeable scrapers, and use a hand scraper and/or
plane and sand to get your final level surface.
While it would be nice to find a cabinet shop with a large drum sander, it
is not unreasonable to do it all by hand if necessary ... it is amazing what
you can do with a little effort and a card type scraper that is properly
edged.
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/04/04
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:15:50 GMT, Curtis <[email protected]>
wrote:
> I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20" wide.
> I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together, however,
> I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
> just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
> it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
>
I've gotten away with it by selecting my stock carefully from the S4S
piles. I'd rather bug SWMBO's uncle for his jointer, but I don't wanna
abuse the priveledge, so I select more often than joint.
If you have a good quality saw blade and a good fence, you can get
glue-line rips.
Sanding works, but depending on your finish, you might want to be extra
careful with your squeezeout. I use 50-grit paper in my palm sander to
cover up my mistakes.
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:15:50 GMT, "Curtis" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20" wide.
>I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together, however,
>I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
>just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
>it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
>
Curtis,
edge quality is less of an issue than edge straightness. Quality can
be easily improved via sanding, hand planing, etc. The key thing you
want is parallelism with the edge you are gluing to. Both pieces
could be wavy as long as both are complementarily wavy.
If you have a hand plane then (even if it is only a block plane) you
can mate your edges, mark the high spots (where the edges touch) and
carefully remove the high spots taking very shallow cuts with the
plane. When you plane the edge, plane both edges at once (with the
two pieces clamped together and the 'top' of both pieces on the
inside). This way, any slight tilt you may have in your plane will be
compensated as both pieces will have a complementary tilt which will
cancel.
If you work carefully, taking a couple of passes to keep improving the
edge, you will have a nice glue edge fairly quickly without a jointer,
no noise, and a very satisfying feeling.
TWS
http://tomstudwell.com/allprojects.htm
Curtis - search this group for a similar question and responses during the
past week or two. My response, and I think consensus was that you can get a
good edge cut, suitable for gluing, with a well adjusted table saw and a
sharp blade. Again, see previous posts for detailed suggestions.
Also, if you can get your hands on a biscuit cutter, it can help reduce the
surface offset.
"Curtis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20" wide.
> I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together,
> however,
> I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
> just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
> it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
>
>
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:15:50 GMT, "Curtis" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I am planning to make a drop leaf table with three sections about 20" wide.
>I am figuring I'll make it from 4-6" stock that is glued together, however,
>I don't have either a joiner or a planner. Can I get acceptable results
>just touching up the edges with a table saw and then sanding the top after
>it is glued to compensate for the lack of a planer?
>
A planer is not really needed. But, you can get by with a good hand
plane. Be extra fussy when you butt the boards dry-fitted
together--it's too late after the glue is applied.