edge jointing extra long lumber... best method?

[Matteo Lorenzo]

So I have some 14ft planks of 1x12 cypress that I need to prep for glue up for an outdoor table.

I may still split them into manageable >6" width planks and rejoin to deal with cupping - but my issue is this:

I have a relatively decent at-home shop, but its not exactly set up this length material.

disclaimer - this is supposed to be a "farmhouse" outdoor table, so, it really doesnt have to be perfect, i just dont want the top splitting open on me.

I have thought and thought and tried several ways without a 'great' result, although I have gotten a 'pretty much straight' many times... just nothing that would give you that seamless result we all strive for...


if you had to choose a tool to make a nice straight edge on these long planks, which would it be and how would you do it?

table saw (no straight cut jig set up, especially not one adapted for a 14ft board)
router with edge guide and straight cutting bit with bearing
circular saw (i have a straight edge, but its only 48" - also have some long strips of 1/2 mdf that were cut nice and straight... this could be an alternate for a straight edge perhaps?)
6 in jointer (craftsman 1959) that works well but i dont have sufficient infeed and outfeed
hand planes (longest i have is an 11" jack)
???other tools i havent considered?

any advice you got would be appreciated... im sort of stuck with this one.

thanks all!
matt

[mreza Salav]

I don't have answer to your questions but I am thinking your idea of making a 14' long table in one piece is questionable for various reasons. Even if you get your boards straight I think face joining and planing them will leave about 3/4" or a bit over. That's too thin for such a large table.
Aside from that have you considered how you will be moving that table?
I'd make it in smaller sections that are more manageable.

[Allan Speers]

If you're really going to do this, a tracksaw is the obvious answer. You probably have to buy extra track, then sell some after you're done. You could theoretically use only an 8-10' section of track, and shift it half-way through the cut, but I had to do that once in an emergency (on location, forgot one track section) and I don't recommend it.

With that length, I'd do it twice: Once to get close, then after a week, again to final width and straightness.

If you already have a circular saw, then I suggest the excellent Eurekazone track & base. Otherwise, you have many choices such as Festool, Triton, Dewalt, Grizzly, etc.

[Bradley Gray]

Maybe you have someone near you with a big jointer - I have one 9ft long - easy to run 14'

or arrange the boards with the crowns all on the same side and skip jointing. Cypress is soft and will flex some. I would leave a gap between the boards for drainage.

[Robert Engel]

I use roller stands on long boards.

To the design: IMO an outdoor tables will hold up best if you do not make one single top, but rather leave a small space between boards.
This facilitates drainage, eliminates the worries about gluing up a single large top, and most of all, takes the cupping issue off the table because each individual plank can be fastened. (I agree with you about ripping to 6" widths).
Horizontal wood surfaces, in an outdoor situation, and no matter what kind of wood or finish, are subject to more movement and deterioration.

[Bill Orbine]

You are better to have help when jointing long boards. Have at least one person to help. One person mans the jointer and is the one and only to feed and guide board across jointer. The help stand at the one end of board to help support the board .....AND ONLY SUPPORT! When the board reaches about half way across jointer, the help goes to the other end of the board to catch it and help support. It's nice to have two helpers, one at the infeed end and the other at the outfeed end but you can manage with one walking like a chicken with a head. You can use stands, but the stands does not compensate for variable height as well as people do. BTDT many times.

[Prashun Patel]

I had to do this on a 9 foot table and ended up using a shop made straight edge and a circular saw, then a jointer plane with an edge guide (to keep the edge square). This required some back and forth but was immensely satisfying...ON ONE JOINT!

If I had to do multiple joints I would look for an easier solution.

If you use a track saw, you have to take pains to insure your tracks stay straight across the bridging. I am not even sure if these tracks excel when having to put multiple tracks together. The EZ Smart track I used clamps only at the ends of the boards, so even if I did have 3 tracks in my possession, I wonder if they would have flexed in the center. Research this b4 committing to a track saw. My research didn't convince me that bridged tracks were good at jointing.

You might consider making your own straight edge guide for a circular saw or router. You could manually make your own precision straight edge, and then screw it to the bottom of each plank at various points to insure rigidity.

[Frank Drew]

Matteo,

Is the table going to be outdoors but under cover, as on a porch, or completely outdoors, in the yard exposed to the sun and rain, etc.? If the latter, it agree with the suggestions to leave gaps between the boards.

[lowell holmes]

I would rip on my table saw and glue the pieces together. Then I would rip the joint on the glue line and glue it back together again.

Actually, I would probably use a jointer handplane on it and resort to the method described above.

[Scott T Smith]

I would either use a long straight edge with a circular saw (made from a long piece of straight steel or aluminum), or a track saw if more precision was required.

[Warren Lake]

jointer for me but not the one you have.

jointer, rollers either side not a helper. Board edge crown side down and start the cut into the board part way through, carve away the crown with each pass, keep repeating running on that center flat section till youve done a full pass through

[Mel Fulks]

Good to see "crown side down " written by someone other than me. But I prefer a good helper to stands,some have excellent ability to feel table surface. Others can't learn it.

[Allan Speers]

If I had to do multiple joints I would look for an easier solution.

If you use a track saw, you have to take pains to insure your tracks stay straight across the bridging. I am not even sure if these tracks excel when having to put multiple tracks together. The EZ Smart track I used clamps only at the ends of the boards, so even if I did have 3 tracks in my possession, I wonder if they would have flexed in the center. Research this b4 committing to a track saw. My research didn't convince me that bridged tracks were good at jointing. .

I once did a ton of 12' long cuts (at least 50 cuts in 2" - 4" thick Oak) ) with 2 EZ tracks fastened together. It was a slight pain to initially get them straight, and once fastened, you have to be a little careful when moving them. - But it worked out just fine, and that was with a 10" circular saw.

You want to use THREE connectors for this: both sides AND the center.

[Warren Lake]

Mel,

Ive had a helper before on a few things with good feel and depending on what operation it was. I like to be free to move the speed I want and place things where I want since im dropping the board onto the table just ahead of the cutter. Ive done 14-16 foot 4./4 boards a number of times with a rack of rollers on infeed side. Their height is critical maybe a hair on the low side as well as being square the jointer or the boards walk. Stands with Melmine top work better on the outfeed side but probably it was easier for me to set that up at the time. that machine is a SCM Combo and tables probably 69" long but should check that, not really long anyway.

If i didnt have a machine id probably snap a chaulk line then use a power planer then finish with a hand plane. Or id go to someones shop with a bigger jointer and take a board and make it straight to use as a straight edge guide for some other tool

[jack forsberg]

For long wide boards that we make for flooring or tops 12 to 16 inches wide we set up a long table and off set fence on the spindle moulder . My helper then becomes a power feeder. Make the fence with a string 8 feet strips on either side of the cutter. I offset 1/8 of an inch and run until I'm good

[Bill McNiel]

Matteo-
I would suggest a "mirror" approach to your situation that can be accomplished with a minimal investment in tools and skillset. It can be performed with a circular saw and guide (rails or plywood guide).

First do a preliminary straight cut on each piece. No more than 1/8" deviation (the width of a carbide blade tooth). Clamp the boards down on any support surface with the jointing edges touching. Run your guided saw down the middle of the joint. Any deviation from dead on straight will be mirrored on both pieces resulting in a near perfect joint line.

I used this technique for years with favorable results.

[Michael Zerance]

You are better to have help when jointing long boards. Have at least one person to help. One person mans the jointer and is the one and only to feed and guide board across jointer. The help stand at the one end of board to help support the board .....AND ONLY SUPPORT! When the board reaches about half way across jointer, the help goes to the other end of the board to catch it and help support. It's nice to have two helpers, one at the infeed end and the other at the outfeed end but you can manage with one walking like a chicken with a head. You can use stands, but the stands does not compensate for variable height as well as people do. BTDT many times.

This is the method we used recently on a 15' long piece of maple; it took many attempts but we ended up getting a straight edge out of it.

[Bill Orbine]

This is the method we used recently on a 15' long piece of maple; it took many attempts but we ended up getting a straight edge out of it.

I should mention that if you are edge jointing boards that have severe crooks or kinks that you may want to try "pre-straighten" the board(s) before going to the jointer. One example is to chalk a line and then trim off the excess material with a hand circular saw, bandsaw, jigsaw or whatever you got handy and THEN take it to the jointer to clean up the edges. This is free-handing the cuts without using straightedges. This speeds up the jointing process. If these crooks or kinks are not all that severe, you can make short passes over "HIGH" spots on the long boards before running the full length of the board. You'll need to alert your help what you are going to do.

Now, if you have large quantities of these boards to straight edge that just using the jointer may be time consuming....to speed up the process, one method I use is to get one board straight and use it as a straight line board on the table saw. This board is usually the widest and longest of all the boards in the pile. I attach crooked/kinked board to the straight board leaving the excess material to cut off overhanging and rip off the excess. I use either nails or screws (preferably screws) at each ends of the board fasten down to the straight piece. Feed the straight piece with the attached crooked/kinked board thru the table saw. Then you can clean up the edges on jointer if so desired.

I also must note that I do this on long boards because I NEED these boards to be long. If the boards are to be shorter, then I cut them shorter before going to the jointer. Waste factor savings. Time, too, in some cases.

[Joe Calhoon]

Good to see "crown side down " written by someone other than me. But I prefer a good helper to stands,some have excellent ability to feel table surface. Others can't learn it.

Hi Mel,
I think you suggested crown side down on the moulder some time ago. We tried that and it works well. And you are right on about a helper that can feel table surface.

We edge and bevel large doors on the the jointer and only possible with a helper that has "feel". Our jointer has a 10' bed but when putting a glue joint on 16 to 20' material we put a Aigner extension table on. It is surprisingly easy to set this quick with a straight edge and would work on a smaller jointer. We have tried this on the shaper but the jointer is better because of the long tables. Shaper works well for beveling doors but more setup.

When edging big and long material by myself I just started using a magnetic feather board and that helps.
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[Mel Fulks]

Thanks,Joe, a word from someone running a large shop carries persuasive weight and is a big help to amateurs looking for reliable info. Facing on crown side often does some straightening on both sides at same time and if it doesn't it,at least,does not make bow worse. In regard to good helpers the best one I ever had could not stay out of jail...it's always something.

[Ben Grunow]

Matteo-
I would suggest a "mirror" approach to your situation that can be accomplished with a minimal investment in tools and skillset. It can be performed with a circular saw and guide (rails or plywood guide).

First do a preliminary straight cut on each piece. No more than 1/8" deviation (the width of a carbide blade tooth). Clamp the boards down on any support surface with the jointing edges touching. Run your guided saw down the middle of the joint. Any deviation from dead on straight will be mirrored on both pieces resulting in a near perfect joint line.

I used this technique for years with favorable results.

I have done the same with a router. Set up the boards about 1/4" apart and chuck up a 1/2" straight bit in the router. Then tack a straight edge to one board that sets the bit in the groove so it removes about 1/8" from each board and route away.

The result is not straight (edges are not straight as if jointed) but it doesn't matter because the edges are fit to eachother.

[Jim Sevey]

I just did this with some 10' cherry. I took the boards to a local shop and they straight-line ripped them for me. Very cheap- I think I had 6 or 8 boards and it was 20$. I then used an edge plane (90 degree face) to clean up one edge- (took one swipe) and ran the boards through the table saw with roller stands front and back and one helper to guide and support. Some of the boards were 13" wide....most were around 9"-10". Hope this helps.

[Matteo Lorenzo]

Hey everyone!

Thank you all for the great insight. I learned a bunch of smart little workarounds in this thread.
Apologies for the late response.

I decided that I would go with my gut and do something a bit unorthodox today.

I managed to find, in all the stacks of lumber at the yard, one board that had a really great, straight edge.
This was an anomaly as all of them are flatsawn and in-the-rough. So i found the diamond.

I decided to use that as a straight-cut reference edge on my TS. I used short deck screws and fastened the board to be cut on top of the reference board and ran it through the TS. Did that about 4 times and then ripped each of them by themselves using the newly ripped, clean edge.

Obviously there are a few tradeoffs here - screw holes, for one. But it is a sort-of rough hewn farmhouse deal, so the holes only add to the 'mystique'.
And the other tradeoff being that the edges are not 100% perfect because the boards were being run by my lonesome over a short "starter saw" (craftsman 113x series) with a short fence.
The magnetic featherboard was probably the real champ today.

Anyways, I managed to get 7 panels nice and clean at 4.75" and I will begin the biscuiting and gluing tomorrow!

thanks again for all your input. really glad to have joined this forum!