Squaring stock without a jointer

[William Hamilton]

Hi all.. I'm a relative newbie to woodworking. I'm attempting to get some dimensional lumber out of some live edge stock I had. The pieces are about 6' x 2' x 2.5". I've managed to flatten both sides using a router jig and a belt sander. My question is: how would I go about making this stock square so I can get some dimensional lumber from it? I do not have a jointer. I do have access to a table saw. Thanks!

[Russell Smallwood]

Hey William,

Here's a link to a jig/sled for the tablesaw.

Using your table saw as a jointer. (http://www.newwoodworker.com/tsjointjig.html)

You can also use offset router fences, a quick google search should get you started.

[Brian Kent]

You can tack a straight piece of lumber on the live edge side, parallel to the side that is closest to straight.
Run that through the table saw with the tacked on straight piece against the fence.
Now you have one straight edge.
Take off the extra piece and run it through with the straight side against the fence.

[Russell Johnson]

Charles Neil's new Pie Safe series on YouTube does alot of this kind of work. I would use that as an additional reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPZdztEZET4&feature=channel

[Steve H Graham]

Some genius here gave me a method that takes about thirty seconds and costs almost nothing. You use a table saw with a good square fence and everything in tune. It really works. I'll attach a photo of the walnut guitar I'm working on. Six pieces of wood, and they all match perfectly.

Get a piece of MDF. Cut a piece out, including one long factory-made side, which will be your reference. Make sure this side is straight. Put it against the saw fence.

Drop your wood on the MDF with a quarter of an inch hanging out over the side facing the blade. Use double-sided tape to hold it in place.

Run the wood through the saw, taking off 1/8". If your saw is in tune, you'll get an edge ready for joining. If your saw is not in tune, you may get an edge that isn't perfectly square. You can cheat by jointing the other board on the same saw and then flipping it so the perpendicularity errors cancel.

I used a Wixey magnetic protractor to adjust the blade, and it was good enough for this job. No flipping; no cheating.

179185

[Joe Watson]

Right around the 8-min mark, this video shows most of what has been mentioned in this thread.
http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-6-the-jointers-jumpin/

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[Mike Barney Sr]

I square stock all the time on my table saw. Make sure your blade is absolutely square to the top. I usually make smaller items where the length is equal or less than half the length of my fence. I just place the concave side against my fence and rip the other side. Then rip the concave side. For narrower pieces (less than the height of your saw blade) place the concave side against the fence, rip the other side, flip it 90 degrees, and rip the next side. You now have 2 adjacent sides square and flat. Either rip the other 2 sides to dimension or run it through the planer.

Now for longer pieces (up to twice the length of my fence) I place the crown side against the fence and hold it steady as I run it through the blade, cutting off the ends of the concave side. Turn it around using the same face against the top and rip the crown side, cutting the middle section, making a longer flat edge; not quite as long as the board but long enough to have more of a reference against the fence. Keep doing this back and forth and you will wind up with 1 straight edge. Flip it 90 degrees and do the same to the other sides using the straight side against the top. You will then wind up with 2 flat and square adjacent sides. Again either rip the other 2 sides or run the board through the planer.

[Chuck Tringo]

If you have any hand planes...check out the Neanderthal haven, they squared lumber for hundreds of years before machinery was invented. A little time there will likely send you to Logan Cabinet shoppe website which has a video on doing this.

[Andrew W. Thomas]

I think I saw it on the Woodsmith Shop but can't currently find the link.

It explained making a jig that clamps against the saw fence with plastic laminate on the outfeed side for a slight offset (similar to a jointer.) You then bury your blade in the sacrificial wood fence so the outside is flush with the laminate outfeed. This allows slight removal of material just like a vertical jointer. With no funds or room currently for a jointer I plan to use this method. Also, picked up a glueline rip blade that will help in the process.

[Harvey Pascoe]

I square up stock on my table saw frequently because it is so much easier faster than the jointer which no longer gets a lot of use. Except for warped stock where the jointer is faster than a plane.

[William Hamilton]

thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to go ahead and use the table saw. Once I read the descriptions on how to do it I felt a bit dumb for not thinking of it myself. Thanks again!