Sanding/Planing and the ultimate n00b question.

Handplane and a shooting board.... Very effective for squaring the end of stock and removing materials in a very controlled manner..

You might also want to consider a handsaw and a bench hook for your cross cuts….

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Oh and for dressing the edges and face, people would normally use handplanes or a combination of powered jointer and planer.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Mike:

Don’t cut your boards to final dimension before joining. I would rip to 9.5” and crosscut to 19”. Then, joint one edge on each board using a method of your choice (jointer, shooting board, offset fence router, table saw with jig, etc.). Glue them up (you don’t need dowels, unless you just want them) and plane your oversized board flat.

THEN cut to final dimension…joint a reference edge, create a parallel edge on the table saw, and then use a crosscut sled to create the squared cuts. You could use a circular saw with guide…if done that way, then I would cut one edge only and then cut the opposing side using the table saw fence. If you cut that side slightly oversized, then you can flip the board over and use the fence to clean up that circular saw cut.

Wayne’s shooting board is a great solution as well…gets a nice square edge…or two clean adjacent edges, at which point you create a parallel edge(s) on the table saw.

Hope this makes sense.

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

For simplicity’s sake, I’m pretty much in line with Jay.

Crosscut your boards to around 19” in length, then rip them to 9 1/2 wide. IF your boards were reasonably flat to begin with, you should now be able to edge glue the two freshly-ripped edges. If you are using a decent saw blade, no further edge preparation should be needed.

Now you have a single piece roughly 19×19, which you can trim to size as mentioned above.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Yes dont glue exact sizes for work like this always leave a bit over to be trimmed down to perfect size after glue hardens.I also think maybe using dowels on such short boards was a tad unecessary.Have fun Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

1. Cut and glue up an oversized panel (biscuits or dowels probably not necessary)
2. Plane to desired thickness (tool of choice)
3. Cut to final size.
4. Next!! – lol

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

Interesting. I’m still surprised how much wood glue will really handle. This project is a pair of boxes: 18” square tops, 12” tall sides, open on one side. Is gluing sufficient for those dimensions? (I’m talking simplest of all butt joints here.) There’s no meaningful load. It’s “the simplest of all end tables.”

Power joiners and planers are out. Just too far out for my budget right now. I’m tooling up from scratch.

Took me a few seconds of looking at the shooting board with my head twisted sideways to see what was going on. But yeah, it was a V8 moment.

Ok. Overcut to do the fine work afterwards. Makes sense. I do the same thing in machining.

I’m going to have to make a circular saw guide for cross-cuts over a foot as the table saw cross-cut sled is just not up to the task (sounds like a machining project really.)

Thanks very much everyone. The goal will hopefully to be able to contribute something useful back here instead of just brain syphoning ;)

Off to make a shooting board for my plane.

o/

Here is a video of one in use here….

Some plans here
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/pdf/Shooting_Board_And_Fixtures.pdf

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Hey thanks o/

I’ve got a pair of bench hooks and a shooting board clamped together downstairs. Nice to see this in action.

I would have done more but I ran out of clamps :p.

(Why do I get the distinct notion that “I would have done more but I ran out of clamps” is going to be coming out of my mouth repeatedly for the next 45 years?)

(Why do I get the distinct notion that “I would have done more but I ran out of clamps” is going to be coming out of my mouth repeatedly for the next 45 years?)

ROFLMAO! You’re already displaying a great talent for understanding woodworking.

Welcome to LJs.

-- Karen - a little bit of stupid goes a long way

Mike, You catch on quick. You will never have enough clamps.

Look like you got some good answers here, (Wayne thanks for the video, contemplating making one for myself for small stuff.

CtL

-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."- PortablePastimes.com (Purveyors of Portable Fun and Fidgets)

Seems to me that the basic functionality is all the same but the length of the rod accounts for a greater than reasonable price difference. I’m going to look in to making them.