Edge joining?

[Hong Le]

I'm in the process of going completely unplugged. In the past I've always used a biscuit joiner, and there seems to be a lack of literature for the neanderthal way. Can someone point me in the right direction?

[Jim Koepke]

Hello Hong,

Where are you located?

Not sure about the right direction as in a book on edge joinery, there are a lot of books on joinery, but mine are packed at the moment.

Some will use dowels for alignment and strength. Others will use tongue and groove. There is also the rabbet lap. Then there are those who will join boards without anything but glue.

I have used all the above. If there isn't going to be any shaping on the boards, then it doesn't matter a lot. If the sides are going to have profiles or wood removed across the joint then the tongue and groove might not look right. Just like biscuits, you will need to plan where the cuts will be so the dowels will not be exposed in the cut.

There are also variations on these. Tongue and groove becomes two grooves and a spline.

jim

[Richard Magbanua]

Try this link to Chris Schwarz's site (http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/Cheating+At+Jointing+Edges.aspx). It's a smorgasbord of neander knowledge and a good place to start.
There's also a lot of info from fellow 'creekers like Derek Cohen (http://www.woodcentral.com/articles/handtools/articles_731.shtml) and a few others. I'm sure they will chime in soon!

[David Gendron]

Never use anything other than glue. That said, like Jim as said, there is a lot of opptions, the fastes one being the dowel route!

[Hong Le]

thanks guys, that was what i was looking for. Most of web sites i read always talked about using a jointer with the two boards together, but never talked about what to do AFTER that.

[Mike Henderson]

You don't have to use anything like dowels to align boards when gluing up a panel. They don't really add any strength.

You can align the boards of a panel during gluing by using cauls, which you can make yourself fairly inexpensively. You can find instructions for making cauls here (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/Cauls.htm).

Mike

[Frank Drew]

Hong Le,

Once you get the fit you want (once the boards fit together evenly), find a flat place to do your glue up, get your clamps ready and adjusted, apply glue to the board edges, and clamp; before getting the clamps too tight adjust the fit as needed (so that one board isn't sticking up above the other, and check across the boards with a straightedge to make sure the work is staying flat -- some clamps tend to lift the work unless you're careful.)

None of that would really change if you're incorporating biscuits or dowels or splines, except that you probably wouldn't have to worry about evenness at the glueline.