🔍
5 Ways to Joint Boards Without A Jointer | Woodworking Tip - YouTube
Channel: 731 Woodworks
[0]
- How you doing? I'm Matt.
Today I'm gonna show you
[1]
five different ways to joint
boards without a jointer.
[4]
Five methods include a piece of plywood,
[6]
building your own jig,
using a simple 4-foot level,
[10]
just using tape, and then
also using a circular saw.
[14]
Let's get started.
[15]
For a lot of wood workers,
this is a big challenge
[17]
to be able to find a way to joint lumber
[19]
without buying a jointer
because jointers are expensive.
[22]
So if you've watched this
channel any time at all,
[24]
you know that before I was
blessed with that Wahuda jointer
[28]
that I was jointing with my
table saw just using a level.
[32]
This is probably the easiest way
[34]
to get started jointing boards.
[37]
It's not the best way
but it will get you by.
[40]
So it will not make a perfectly
tight seam every time,
[44]
especially when you get into longer boards
[47]
over about four feet.
[48]
However, on shorter
boards it works very well.
[52]
Let me show you how to do it.
[53]
First and foremost, for
this method to work,
[57]
your blade has to be
90 degrees to your saw.
[59]
So if it's not then it's not gonna,
[62]
your seam isn't gonna come out right.
[67]
Gotta be 90 degrees.
[69]
If it's not 90 degrees,
you're wasting your time.
[71]
Now I'll drop a link in
the description below
[72]
for one of those little
digital angle finders
[75]
if you're interested.
[76]
So I'm gonna be jointing
the edge of this board
[79]
using a four foot level.
[81]
And all this is, is you
just take a four foot,
[83]
I like this I-beam aluminum style
[86]
because it's not gonna bend and
twist on you like a plastic.
[89]
The reason this works,
[91]
I get a lot of questions on why this works
[93]
versus just using the fence,
[95]
so the real reason this actually works
[96]
is using a level on the table saw,
[98]
I'm actually magic.
[99]
I've actually sprinkled
some magic dust on this,
[103]
some magic sawdust on this level,
[105]
and it now works because it's magic.
[107]
(chuckles)
[108]
The reason this method works
[110]
is because you're giving this edge
[113]
a flat surface reference
on the other side.
[116]
So whatever is going on over here
[119]
on the right side of the, of the blade,
[122]
when this goes through the blade,
[123]
then that's what's gonna
happen over here on the left.
[127]
If I just used the fence,
and I'm gonna exaggerate,
[130]
but if this board has a
big bow in it like this,
[133]
when I'm pushing it through,
[134]
it'll actually do that on the blade.
[139]
You wouldn't think it would,
but it does in a small way.
[143]
But that's just gonna leave
[144]
a non-flat, non-square cut on this side.
[149]
When you use something
like a four foot level,
[152]
and it must, it must go
through at the same time
[156]
or move with the board.
[157]
If it does not move with the board,
[159]
you might as well just use the fence.
[161]
If you're just doing
this and pushing it by,
[163]
it's no different than the fence.
[164]
All you've done is extend your fence.
[166]
Let's try it.
[167]
(saw buzzes)
[168]
I'm gonna do two boards
[169]
then I'll line them up beside
each other and show you.
[171]
(saw buzzes)
[172]
So now you can see it
is not exactly perfect,
[175]
but it's really, really close.
[178]
I could probably run it
through one more time
[180]
and get it much better.
[182]
(saw buzzes)
[183]
All right, I run it through again
[184]
and you can see, man, this
thing is really, really close.
[187]
I mean, you can tell the difference
[188]
in the grain patterns there, but,
[190]
and that's just jointing
with a level right there,
[191]
so not bad.
[193]
The second method on
jointing with a table saw,
[195]
is you're just gonna build
a simple jig for your saw
[197]
using 3/4 inch plywood.
[199]
Let me show you.
[200]
So I'm gonna rip this down to six inches.
[201]
(saw buzzes)
[205]
What I did was just marked
[206]
where the riving knife and the blade is,
[209]
and then I'm gonna clamp this here,
[212]
move it over out of the
way, I'm just gonna take
[214]
the riving knife off.
[219]
So I'm just gonna turn the blade on
[220]
or turn the saw on and raise the blade up,
[222]
and it's gonna make that cut.
[224]
Then I will turn the saw off,
[225]
un-clamp it and move this back.
[227]
This-a-way, until it gets
to the riving knife mark.
[229]
I was actually originally gonna
[231]
raise the blade up, leave
it spinning and then,
[233]
pull the plywood back, but the threat
[236]
of kick-back there is way too much
[238]
for me to actually want to do that.
[240]
So what I did was just turn the blade on,
[241]
raise it up, turn the saw off,
[243]
lower the blade, move the
jig, clamp it back down,
[246]
then raise that blade back up like that.
[248]
Once most of the material
was cut out of there,
[251]
then you saw me slide
it kinda back and forth.
[253]
And get any irregularities out of there.
[256]
That's a big word, irregularities.
[258]
(saw buzzes)
[262]
Right, took my just a minute
to figure that one out,
[264]
but it looks really good,
and I could actually
[268]
the more I do it, the
tighter that seam is getting.
[271]
You can see it's pretty tight as is
[273]
when I push it together
and then I can actually
[276]
you know, release it there.
[277]
So one way to make this even
better as a jointing jig
[280]
is if you could take
and put a piece of vinyl
[283]
and stick it here. Something this slick,
[285]
it won't actually hand the
board as it goes through,
[287]
but it makes this backside stick out
[290]
just a little bit,
about the same thickness
[293]
as what you're actually
taking off the lumber.
[295]
That'll give this a flat surface
[297]
to reference to after it's been cut
[299]
on this side and it'll just make jointing
[302]
a little easier using this method.
[304]
However, it does work even without that,
[306]
but adding a piece of vinyl or something
[308]
here on the backside will help you out.
[310]
So that method actually works fairly well
[312]
just for a quick jointing
jig for your table saw
[315]
it's just a piece of plywood,
run it up through there.
[316]
It took me several passes to figure out
[318]
what, how to do it properly.
[321]
Extremely light pressure and take
[324]
very, very little off of
the material at a time.
[327]
64th, if that, just,
just barely skimming it.
[331]
Once you do that, you wind up with the
[333]
good tight seam as equal
to, or about as equal to,
[337]
as the level jig.
[338]
Now I've got another one I wanna try
[340]
and see if we can get it even better.
[342]
Let's do it.
[343]
If this video's bringing you value,
[344]
click that share button,
share it with your
[346]
friends or family member who is also
[347]
into woodworking and
hopefully it can bring them
[349]
value as well.
[350]
(saw buzzes)
[352]
This is just an eight
inch strip of plywood,
[355]
three quarter inch. Now I'm going to
[358]
make a jig.
[359]
So I'm actually gonna make a jointing jig
[360]
or you could actually
use it as a tapering jig
[362]
as well for tapering
legs, that sort of thing.
[365]
What I want to use to do that is
[366]
a router, this quarter inch relief bit,
[369]
and a quarter inch or
half inch dovetail bit
[372]
from Micro Jig as well as some
[374]
Dovetail clamps that's
gonna go on this jig.
[377]
It's gonna make jointing on a table saw
[379]
that much easier for you if
you don't have this stuff,
[382]
there'll be a link in the
description below of this stuff.
[384]
It's not that expensive
to get started with this,
[386]
and they have several other
options you can pick up
[389]
if you want to get into that system.
[390]
All right, so this is what I've done,
[391]
I got my sheet of plywood cut out
[393]
and I've marked four inches
from the end on each end,
[398]
I wanna draw a line 'cause that's where
[400]
my dovetail groove will go.
[402]
(scoring wood)
[404]
And you just make this board however long
[406]
your fence is and then you're gonna
[408]
mark half way of that distance,
whatever that is for you,
[411]
make a line and then halfway between
[413]
these two lines we're
gonna make another line
[415]
so that we can have another groove here.
[418]
And then we've got two marks,
[421]
two inches from each end there,
[422]
we'll make a mark down through there
[423]
and then that'll be our
grooves that we're gonna cut.
[429]
I don't have a router table,
so that's gonna make things
[431]
just a little bit more time consuming,
[433]
but it's not, I don't think it's gonna be
[434]
impossible to do. You
set this quarter inch
[437]
relief bit and we have to cut the
[438]
quarter inch grooves first,
that way the dovetail bit
[442]
doesn't actually have to
take out as much material.
[444]
It'll make last longer,
it'll make it a cleaner cut,
[446]
et cetera, et cetera.
So what I gotta do is
[449]
set up a line, route that, change bits,
[451]
route that, and over and over
until I get 'em all done.
[455]
So that's gonna take a little bit of time.
[456]
So all I did was lined up,
I put my router down there,
[459]
lined up the center of
the bit with the line,
[462]
and then I just measured
from there to the line
[464]
and squared everything up.
[465]
(saw buzzing)
[470]
Gonna be a whole lot of blade changing.
[472]
Man I need a router table.
[473]
(saw buzzing)
[476]
I don't know why I was
going the wrong way,
[478]
but I was, don't do that.
[479]
So that's the dovetail track and,
[481]
I bought these clamps that
fit the dovetail track
[484]
Just like that.
[487]
That's awesome.
[488]
This is gonna be an
awesome sled. Here we go.
[492]
I gotta finish up these grooves
[493]
and then I'll show you
what this thing can do.
[495]
(saw buzzing)
[508]
Lesson number one, don't pull the bit up
[510]
or it'll make a hole. I think
it'll be all right though,
[513]
but don't pick the router
up with the dovetail bit.
[517]
Bad idea.
[518]
So I've got all those
grooves cut in there,
[520]
those dovetails cut in there with that
[522]
palm router. Router table would have been
[525]
so much easier, but it wasn't too bad,
[527]
I just had to switch the bits out
[529]
and make sure they were the
correct depth every time
[531]
and then set up that straight edge.
[533]
It's pretty dang straight,
if I do say so myself.
[536]
I'm gonna put a 45 degree
chamfer on three sides only.
[540]
I'll show you why.
[540]
(saw buzzing)
[546]
So I'm just gonna measure over one inch
[548]
from the edge and make a mark,
[550]
same thing here, make a mark,
[552]
and then I'm just gonna line up my blade
[553]
and take off a one inch corner
[555]
at a 45 degree angle. I'm gonna
do that on the four corners.
[559]
I should've done this
before I put the chamfer on,
[561]
but, live and learn.
[566]
Boom! There it is! I
like it. I like it a lot.
[569]
I have high hopes for
this working better than
[571]
the other two methods.
That was so simple to do.
[573]
It just took a little bit of
time swapping those bits out.
[576]
If you've got a router table,
you'll be done with that
[579]
in no time. Put a little
paste wax on there,
[580]
I prefer Trewax because it doesn't stink.
[583]
Johnson's Paste Wax actually
has a real bad smell
[586]
that Trewax doesn't, helps it glide,
[590]
butter smooth on that table. I like it.
[593]
So, the way this works, I've got my board
[595]
that I want jointed, I've
got my dovetail clamps,
[597]
and we're just gonna slide
one in from the side.
[600]
I've run this fence -
[603]
(tool falls to floor)
[605]
I've run the fence to
where this sled is actually
[609]
just beside the blade.
[613]
Now you can actually
[614]
attach a miter groove or a miter,
[616]
what'd they call that,
you can actually attach
[619]
a miter slide, a piece of
board down through there,
[622]
three quarter inch piece of board,
[623]
and make it run in the groove if you want.
[625]
But for a jointing sled you don't need it.
[631]
Right. Because you're
gonna be holding pressure
[632]
against the fence. And so all you wanna do
[634]
is have that board overhang
the mit, the sled itself.
[638]
(clamp closes on wood)
[641]
And so it's overhanging
about an eighth inch, maybe.
[644]
Just a little bit wider than the blade.
[647]
It doesn't really matter as far as,
[649]
what the alignment is so long as the blade
[651]
cuts the entire board or
cuts a strip off the board.
[655]
Because it's just up in
the air and it's gonna
[657]
cut that edge off flush
and then you're gonna
[659]
flip it over, put it against the fence
[661]
and run it through without the sled
[663]
and that's gonna give
you two parallel sides
[665]
which is what you're after.
[666]
(saw buzzing)
[669]
That makes me happy. That
looks good, I like that.
[676]
(saw buzzes)
[679]
Boom! That's the best joint yet.
[681]
Jointing sled, man I
shoulda built one of those
[683]
a long time ago. The level works okay,
[686]
but the jointing sleds
wins this challenge by far.
[689]
It's easy, it's quick, I
think if I put a miter sled
[694]
under there, a board that
actually runs in the miter sled,
[697]
or Micro Jig actually makes a 360 sled kit
[700]
that'll actually attach
to the bottom of this
[702]
and you can use it that way.
[704]
Now this can actually
be a tapering jig also,
[707]
so it's a multi-function
jig, just as a bonus for you.
[710]
If you want to use this as a tapering jig
[712]
all you need to do, if
you've got a board that
[714]
you wanna taper from
say, four and a quarter,
[717]
to three and three quarters,
all you do is line it up,
[720]
your mark here, that's
gonna be the cut line
[723]
of your blade at four
inches and then back here
[726]
you're gonna make that mark
at three and three quarter
[727]
and clamp everything down.
[730]
Really quick, the reason
you keep this side square
[732]
versus chamfering all four sides
[734]
is you wanna leave one
square side to reference
[737]
for tapering. So if you're gonna have a
[738]
board down here that's one inch
[740]
and then up here it's four inches,
[741]
you're gonna need something
to reference that by.
[745]
So this square edge
will help you with that.
[747]
If you're gonna be using
this as a tapering jig,
[749]
I would highly recommend either putting a
[750]
zero play miter bar underneath so that it
[753]
runs in this track, or,
just cutting a strip
[755]
that fits in there like you
would a table slaw sled.
[758]
Let's try it and see what happens.
[759]
(saw buzzing)
[761]
Look at that. So simple, so simple.
[766]
So if you're tapering legs,
whatever you need to taper,
[769]
tapering jig slash jointing jig slash,
[774]
now you've got a high
fence if you need that
[777]
for whatever reason you got a board that's
[779]
taller and you're cutting a dado in it,
[782]
or cutting a rabbet in or whatever,
[784]
you need a high fence,
this just turned into
[787]
a high fence. So, this
is a multi-purpose jig
[790]
and you get that as a bonus
for watching this video.
[792]
I'm very happy with this
sled, I, man it just
[795]
works so well, it's actually kind of an
[798]
ingenious design, that
Micro Jig come up with.
[801]
I bought all this stuff.
What really tipped me off
[803]
to this stuff was, I have,
one of you viewers actually
[805]
sent me the 360 Sled Kit,
so just this piece here.
[809]
When I got this, I started
looking into it and
[812]
saw that they had all of this other stuff
[814]
which was the dovetail
bits, the relief bit,
[817]
and then these clamps and
then I saw some videos,
[820]
they've actually got a
video on how to make this
[822]
exact sled. I'll drop a link
to that in the description
[825]
below and you can go check that out.
[826]
Has free plans, everything
and so you could actually
[828]
make one of these for
yourself using their guide.
[831]
But this works really
well, it works flawlessly.
[835]
To actually edge joint a
board and for tapering,
[837]
things like that it's gonna
be a big game changer for you.
[840]
If you've got a table saw.
[841]
So I actually didn't
come up with this idea,
[843]
I saw it on a video by
3x3Custom-Tamar over there.
[846]
If you wanna see how she does it,
[848]
you can go check it out because she's
[850]
working without a jointer as well.
[851]
Double-sided tape, I don't have any so,
[853]
I'm going to, for the
video, improvise with
[857]
good old-fashioned duct tape.
[860]
I would actually not
recommend using duct tape
[862]
for this because when you
double it over like that
[864]
it's gonna be really thick.
That's why you should use
[867]
double-sided tape, it'll
all be really thin.
[869]
But, just for demonstration purposes,
[871]
you're just gonna take
the tape on your sled
[874]
or a piece of plywood
is all this is gonna be.
[876]
You're gonna take your
board that you want jointed,
[878]
and just barely hang it over
the edge of your plywood
[882]
so that the blade's
actually gonna make the cut.
[884]
And same thing down here.
[885]
(wood slaps)
[886]
Set on top of that tape.
That's just keep everything
[888]
from slipping and moving, similar to what
[890]
the clamps do on the sled.
[892]
Once it's stuck, you should be able to
[894]
just to run it through no problem.
[895]
(saw buzzes)
[898]
That easy. That is easy.
Then all you'd have to do
[900]
is just peel it up, take
the double-sided tape off of
[903]
your board. You've got a jointed edge.
[905]
Now that I've built the
sled, it got me thinking.
[908]
I know that's dangerous. Can I joint
[910]
with the sled without a table saw?
[911]
Just using a circular saw? Let's find out.
[915]
So I'm just gonna clamp this
tubasix, tubasix on here.
[920]
Flip this over. This is gonna work y'all.
[923]
Who believes? Gotta believe in me.
[925]
I believe, I believe!
[928]
That's gonna work.
[930]
♪It's gonna work, I believe I can fly. ♪
[933]
It's gotta work, right? I
been trying to think about
[935]
how to do this for years.
[936]
Kabam. Check this out. Who
thinks this is gonna work?
[939]
(saw buzzes)
[945]
Boom! Aha! That works.
I'm a genius. I know.
[949]
You can tell me, I don't mind.
[951]
That works, that works
well and it's gonna be
[953]
a good flat edge on this side,
[956]
and now obviously you would
need a table saw or something
[959]
or even a, maybe the kreg
ripcut could flip it over
[962]
and use this side as a flat reference too.
[965]
Yeah, I think that would work actually.
[967]
And then you would have two parallel edges
[969]
and, with a circular saw.
[971]
Now it would be hard
to do with a tubafour,
[974]
or anything smaller than a tubasix.
[975]
You could probably still do it,
[978]
but it would just, it
would be much harder to do.
[983]
(laughing)
[985]
It's flat. That's about
as close you gonna get
[987]
a rough cut board flat
with a circular saw.
[990]
And in case you don't know a kreg rip cut
[993]
is just a circular saw
guide. Any circular saw
[996]
fits in there, and you can actually
[998]
put it to, say, you know, couple inches.
[1002]
It'll go down to well like, one inch.
[1004]
And the circular saw will
actually ride in here like this.
[1008]
And then you could actually reference
[1012]
this edge to cut this
edge, and you would have
[1014]
two parallel sides. Jointing
with a circular saw.
[1018]
Those are the methods you can use
[1019]
if you don't have jointer.
If you do have a jointer
[1021]
I want to throw this in the challenge,
[1023]
just to see how it stacks up against,
[1025]
especially that sled because that sled was
[1027]
(light bulb dings)
[1029]
(saw buzzing)
[1032]
For speed and convenience, obviously,
[1034]
the jointers gonna win. It, once you clamp
[1037]
these together, the gap goes nonexistent.
[1040]
As you can see there, mash 'em together
[1043]
and then, course I can slide them apart.
[1045]
That's really cool, I
really liked this sled
[1048]
makes perfect, flat edges. Perfect.
[1052]
They come together
perfectly. Long as your blade
[1055]
is 90 degrees to your table,
[1056]
and as long as your board's not wompyjawed
[1058]
sleds the way to go.
[1059]
Now the taping method, alto, alto?
[1062]
The taping method also works really well,
[1065]
you're just gonna have to
stick and unstick every time.
[1068]
But that's an option for
you if you don't wanna do
[1070]
T tracks or the Micro
Jig match fit system.
[1073]
Match fit? Yeah.
[1076]
But now that I have this
sled I can use it for
[1078]
multiple uses, tapering, high fence,
[1081]
and then also jointing jig if need be.
[1084]
Multi-use sled, so it's really, I think,
[1087]
the winner because you
can actually do more
[1089]
than just joint with it.
[1090]
Hey, if you liked this
video click that box
[1092]
right there, it's gonna take you to
[1093]
the next set of videos. Click on that box,
[1095]
get you that big ol' virtual fist bump.
[1096]
Also if you haven't subscribed already,
[1098]
go ahead and click that subscribe button,
[1099]
it really helps the channel out.
[1100]
Especially if you just share
this with somebody you know
[1103]
who may get value out of it. Thank you.
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