Replies

1. 
   saschafer | Mar 21, 2008 12:51am | #1

   Elaborate on "biscuit-joined solid material." What are you starting with? I assume you're doing the glue-up, right?

   -Steve

    

1. 
   Montanaman | Mar 21, 2008 01:12am | #3

   1x6 oak

1. 
   saschafer | Mar 21, 2008 01:31am | #6

   When I said "elaborate," I meant "elaborate." ;-) Is the wood already surfaced? How flat is it?

   If the components are already sufficiently flat to begin with, then a planer is all you need. But it is very rarely the case that the wood you use will be perfectly flat. So, if you want to get by with just a planer, you're going to have to build a sled to support the unflat bottoms of your workpieces when you run them through the planer to flatten one side. Once you get one side close to flat, then you can use that as the reference and flatten the other side, then go back to the first side to finish up.

   There are various articles and videos on the site here concerning planer sleds.

   -Steve

    

2. 
   JohnWW | Mar 21, 2008 01:08am | #2

   No matter what method you might use to align and "reinforce" the joint between two boards, the job will be easier, the joint will be stronger, and the final product better looking if the pieces being joined are straight and square.

   There are a few different ways to get to straight and square, but to do the job efficiently with machines you'll need a a jointer, a planer, and a saw.

   John White

1. 
   Montanaman | Mar 21, 2008 01:13am | #4

   Thank you.  I was hoping to limit my machine costs.

1. 
   forestgirl | Mar 21, 2008 01:22am | #5

   It's pretty hard to get by without a planer, short of hand-planing everything.  But you can get by without a jointer by (a) using a sled with shims to plane the first face of a non-flat board and (b) using a router to joint the edges.  It's just more work, though.  Much more efficient to use a jointer.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

3. 
   MattInPA | Mar 21, 2008 08:54am | #7

   If your material is already the thickness you want you have no need for a planer. (owning a planer and buying rough sawn material will save you money and pay for the machine quickly, however.) If you're looking for strong joints on a glue-up of, say, a table top a jointer will add much more strength for long grain to long grain joints than biscuits (which are probably unnecessary for anything but alignment in such a joint in solid wood). A table saw, of course, is considered A#1 by many people entering the hobby.

4. 
   hammer1 | Mar 21, 2008 01:59pm | #8

   If you use a table saw, router table, shaper, miter saw, fit edges together or do anything that uses a fence, you need a straight edge if you want accuracy and safety. A jointer is an essential tool for me. Once you own one, you won't want to live without one. It's applications are far more than just milling rough stock and your work will take a giant leap forward.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match