Need help jointing boards in Portland

It is a little too far for me to drive for a beer. Have any hand planes?

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

I do but not here :-( I am helping my son to make a countertop.
I think a decent table saw would work too0

Other than buying another section of track, the only other thing I can think of is to make or buy a simple fence style guide or straight edge. I have read that the composite trim is usually pretty darn straight and smooth so if you can find a straight piece long enough for your cut, you can glue it to a piece of 1/4” MDF or hardboard and make a quick and dirty saw guide.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Maybe there is some woodworking shop where kne can rent tools and space?

Sometimes wood suppliers have a milling service and the will joint the edges for a small fee.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Other than buying another section of track, the only other thing I can think of is to make or buy a simple fence style guide or straight edge. I have read that the composite trim is usually pretty darn straight and smooth so if you can find a straight piece long enough for your cut, you can glue it to a piece of 1/4” MDF or hardboard and make a quick and dirty saw guide.

- Lazyman

Track saws don’t need the track, it is convenient, but what Nathan described above will work fine, is cheap, and easy.

If you need a Jointer, TS, or other tool in Portland, I’d suggest changing your title to “Need help jointing boards in Portland” or something that steers the conversation automatically to Portland.

-- Think safe, be safe

Track saws don t need the track, it is convenient, but what Nathan described above will work fine, is cheap, and easy.
If you need a Jointer, TS, or other tool in Portland, I d suggest changing your title to “Need help jointing boards in Portland” or something that steers the conversation automatically to Portland.

- therealSteveN

Thanks for the suggestion to change the title.
There is another issue with Makita track saw, It has small teeth that are suitable more for cutting plywood. Jatoba burns like crazy. I actually found two seems to be brilliant method to joint boards. Clamp them to a surface and run a circular saw with rip blade along the seam using some edge, does not have to be perfect. After the cut move the boards together again eliminating the gap created by the saw and cut again, Repeat until they mirror each other exactly. Another method is with a router but approach is the same. Clamp two boards down with a gap between them a little smaller than the size of eh routing bit. Run the router between the bards. Any small errors do not matter as the will compensate on adjacent sides of the boards.
If I do not find a jointer soon I will try that.

I haven’t tried to make a panel since I sold my jointer so I will need to try one with a hand plane. So I am a +1 for hand plane but it would be a difficult first time learning experience. With a lot of practice I am just now getting proficient at making S4S boards. I am sure edge jointing will be a whole new challenge but like above suggested method making two boards have a mirror edge where each matches the other is the way to go if perfect is not within reach.

Have you worked with Creative Woodworking NW Inc before? Scrolling through their pics on Google Maps, it appears they have a nice jointer in shop. Believe they will work with you by the hour… Website isn’t very helpful, but give them a call on Monday.

I haven t tried to make a panel since I sold my jointer so I will need to try one with a hand plane. So I am a +1 for hand plane but it would be a difficult first time learning experience. With a lot of practice I am just now getting proficient at making S4S boards. I am sure edge jointing will be a whole new challenge but like above suggested method making two boards have a mirror edge where each matches the other is the way to go if perfect is not within reach.

- controlfreak

Seeing full width curls coming off the plane is a pretty good indication you are moving across a flat piece of edge, if the square shows it to be square you are done. The hardest part is going to be setting depth of the cut, and that ain’t so hard. It’s just tricky work if the edge starts as rough, a lot of passes until you get flat and full width. Mostly flat to start and no biggie.

-- Think safe, be safe

You can joint with a router table. It’s not that hard to build the fence for it out of something like MDF. Arguably the fence needs to be straight so you need a way to make it so without a jointer. I’m not trying to make it seem difficult. Most of us with a lot of tools here probably started off pushing the boundaries with just a few.

I live in Hillsboro and have a jet 6” jointer as well as Makita guide rails from 39” to 118”. I would be unable to support early in the week due to work obligations but may be able to work something out for later in the week. Feel free to message.

George

read all the comments in this thread:

https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/317909

Use the suriawase technique.

-- Sylvain, Brussels, Belgium, Europe - The more I learn, the more there is to learn (and that is nice)

I live in Hillsboro and have a jet 6” jointer as well as Makita guide rails from 39” to 118”. I would be unable to support early in the week due to work obligations but may be able to work something out for later in the week. Feel free to message.

George

- gtrgeo

Thank you George, Hillsboro is pretty far from where I am especially taking into account that the lumber I need to join is pretty long – over 10’ and I had difficulty bringing it home from a pretty close by lumberyard.
So… Makita did not cut in. The wood is Jatoba which the tracksaw only managed to burn with frequent stopping. So I ended up using a skillsaw. But it was later. I found some “straight enough” long board and used a router to get the first straight edge. This attempt failed miserably. The panel I glued up exploded when I took the clamps off.
After many tries and errors I finally found a solution that gave me a perfect straight edge, which I used to joint the rest of the board.
(remember I was far away from my shop and did not have access to my own tools)

I found a few laminate flooring planks that happen to perfectly straight but too short. I connected three of them together and aligned one to the other using one more plank. Then clamped it down to the board and used a hand held router to trim the edge. Once I had one straight edge I used it to process the rest of the boards. The results appeared to be pretty good. I managed to build somehow complicated set of kitchen long countertops using only a skillsaw and a router.

Have you contacted Woodcrafters. They got a store at 6th and Davis, 503-231-0226. They might be able to help or at least point you in the right direction.