Replies

1. 
   Seth_Frankel_ | Feb 17, 2002 05:11pm | #1

   *
   How great are the variations and are they continuous over the whole length of the joint? If it's less than the thickness of your thumb nail maybe try one of your sanding and scraping methods. Thicker than that I'd probably take a couple of careful swipes with the jack plane (very sharp and well tuned!) and then sand/scrape.

   If you don't already a plane, then I'd make sure to learn how to sharpen the blade and practice quite a bit before taking it to your final material. It's really a great basic skill to have. Brand . . . whatever at this point. It's the sharpening and tuning that make them all work properly.

   Also, a side grain to side grain joint like this doesn't need bisquit joints at all. If you're machine is leaving significant differences in each cut then the machine is either not working properly or you're making some errors in it's use. Were the joints not flush
   i before
   you glued them up? If not, then I would not use the bisquits at all and just use clamps for alignment purposes (with either wax paper under the blocks or waxed blocks). Personally, I've never used bisquits for edge joining of solid lumber. I use a bisquit jointer, but just for plywood construction. If the joint doesn't fit tight before glue up, then is certainly won't after the glue up.

   Good luck,
   Seth

1. 
   Rob_Millard | Feb 18, 2002 12:36am | #2

   *No matter how hard you try; you will never get the boards to come up perfectly flush with one another, straight from the clamps. I would look for an older Stanley number 4 plane. As long as it isn’t one of the sought after variants, these can be gotten quite cheaply, and they are usually better made than current productions. Another way is to make your own plane; this is an easy way to get a great plane. The Lie-Nielsens are excellent planes, and should be for the price (I own a block plane of theirs, but not any of the bench planes). You will find that only a plane will do acceptable job of flattening panels. A scraper will help clean up the surface on difficult woods, but the best surface will always come from a plane. There are some woods that are just plain hard to plane, so I do use a scraper, but never a belt sander. I at one time, after being influenced by Thomas Moser’s book, used a belt sander, but the results are very poor in comparison to the plane and scraper method. I always sand to some degree planed surfaces, but never with anything coarser than 220, and more often just a quick pass with 320.

1. 
   erik_andersen | Feb 20, 2002 05:44pm | #3

   *I just went through the same experience with some 13/16" cherry solid panels. My gaps were less thanmy fingernail in thickness, and they seemed to vary slightly along their length. I guess I agree with the concept that bisquits probably don't add much strength to solid-lumber edge-joints, and I acknowledge that there are some high-brow woodworkers who don't use bisquit joints for whatever their reason. However, when you're edge-joining big lengths of solid hardwood, they sure help with alignment during glue-up. Depending on the amount of time you are able to allocat to your woodworking hobby, you may decide that spending your days searching at flea-markets and/or doing things the old or long way is rewarding and fun. In my case, I only can spend about 8 hours a week woodworking, and I try to maximize my prgress using modern equipment and techniques. My panels were about 20" wide. I ended up going down to a nearby custom cabinet shop, and I had them run my panels through their wide-belt sander. It cost a few bucks, but it was fun to see a production cabinet shop, and drool over all their expensive power tools that I don't own. Also, I was able to get all three panels the to the exact same thickness (11/16"). And, it took about 20 minutes to get perfectly smooth panels!Good luck!Erik AndersenEdmonds, Washington