Advice on fixing a project. Jointing a large piece of wood that is too big

[Roger Marty]

Hello,

TL;DR (too long, don't read): if I try to take too small of a pass on a table saw to joint an edge, can the blade deflect instead of establishing a straight edge?

Longer story:

I undertook a project with my brother over the weekend. We're attempting a table as shown below. 2" thick out of maple/cherry/maple. We were perhaps in over our heads. We glued up three individual pieces (about 62x11x2" each) and ran them through my planer. Unfortunately the final glue-up of the three 62x11x2" pieces didn't go well. We started with gluing two of the 11" pieces. Unclamped after only an hour (yeah, that was a mistake) and a crack immediately appeared. So I ripped them apart on the table saw.

During the process I lost (or never had) a straight edge. So now I need to re-establish a straight edge on 2 of the 62x11x2 inch pieces. And it is simply too much to handle on my 6" jointer that has a relatively short bed. My little jointer had no problem with the individual pieces of wood, but not the glued up sections.

It seems the table saw is my best option for re-establishing straight edges. Well I tried that, it still didn't end up with a straight edge. Either that or the blade deflected (?). Thus I may have to use a table-saw jointing jig (?) since I'm not sure any of the edges are perfectly flat. Either that or the crappy fence on my Ridgid R4512 deflected (I have a Delta T3 replacement on order). Yes, I need to find a long 62" piece of flat wood to establish as a straight line reference and determine if I can just use the fence to rip a straight edge on the other side.

But since I'm trying to avoid removing too much material, I'm wondering if the blade will deflect rather than create a straight edge?

Thanks

p.s. Not only did I botch the glue-up, but I also botched the cost estimate of the project. The intended table size is 60x36x2, which is 30 board feet. We bought 52 board feet of wood thinking there would be plenty left over. We barely, and just barely, had enough wood which I find kind of shocking. That is after cutting/jointing/planing about 50 individual pieces. And...since I'm a newbie, I thought that a board-foot of wood was a square foot thing and not a volume thing. Hence I underestimated cost by...half! Sigh.

356692356693

[Jerry Miner]

Yes, a table saw blade can deflect-- especially if it gets hot, and especially if it is a thin-kerf blade.

A good "glue-line rip" blade with a consistent, straight feed should get you where you want to be. Hand-tool options are also available.

[Wayne Lomman]

Roger, you are asking a bit too much of your table saw to do the job so here are a few other ideas.

If you have a router with a straight cutter and a good piece of timber for a straight edge, use them to straighten the edges.

Use a sharp portable circular saw and straight edge in the same way as above.

Build temporary extension supports for your jointer. Your jointer can handle the cut. It just needs support for the length and weight. Build it out of any straight scrap. The design varies according to what materials you have handy.

All these methods work. I have used them all in my work from time to time when having to straighten timber on remote work sites. Cheers

[Roger Marty]

I like the idea of using a router. I just ordered myself a 2.5" long straight cutter bit. It sure would be nice to use some kind of aluminum cutting guide. Any ideas for where I could find a low-priced extruded aluminum cutting guide of some kind?

[John C Cox]

Yes - table saws generally don't cut perfect enough to joint straight off the saw.
Yes - you were probably taking too light of a cut - you need to have wood on both sides of the blade or it will deflect away from the cut and will wander all over the place.

This is a tricky job with pieces this large.

Any way you can build some infeed and outfeed tables for your jointer. The key here is that they have to be level to the jointer bed. Just knock up a couple of plywood and 2x4 tables. They need to be very level to your jointer bed, though. You can shim them to hit your target height.

Heres what I would do now...
Stop wih your good wood and go buy some construction lumber... Say a couple 2x12's.
Go sort out your jointing technique on that and THEN do your real wood once it's pretty much repeatable.

Don't forget that a hand plane is a super handy thing to have when touching up a high spot here and there.

[andy bessette]

You don't need to buy any more tools to do that job, if your saw blade is a good quality carbide. Just tack a strait-edged piece of plywood to the underside of the table top pieces and run it upside down against the fence. You can take as light a cut as you like without deflecting the blade.

[Prashun Patel]

I suspect you may have just released tension when making your thin strips. They do really require jointing. You can cheat by using a good feather board and making sure your fence is perfectly aligned. You may get a joint that can be clamped and glued into submission.

Keep them in the clamps overnight.

[Ole Anderson]

I agree with John. 62" isn't too long for a 6" jointer once you have the technique down. Start by keeping the piece flat to the infeed table until you get well past the cutter then concentrate on keeping the piece firm onto the outfeed table until it clears the cutters. Take off just a 1/32" at a time. And with an 11" tall piece, build a tall fence to keep the piece vertical. Practice with a cheap 2x10 62" long until either you get it down or determine your jointer needs tweaking. Dead flat extensions will of course help, but that is a project by itself. An adjustable roller stand can be a quick substitute.

[Roger Marty]

I agree with John. 62" isn't too long for a 6" jointer once you have the technique down. Start by keeping the piece flat to the infeed table until you get well past the cutter then concentrate on keeping the piece firm onto the outfeed table until it clears the cutters. Take off just a 1/32" at a time. And with an 11" tall piece, build a tall fence to keep the piece vertical. Practice with a cheap 2x10 62" long until either you get it down or determine your jointer needs tweaking. Dead flat extensions will of course help, but that is a project by itself. An adjustable roller stand can be a quick substitute.

Thanks for the advice. Seems easiest to do both-- joint a 62x2x1" long piece of wood to establish a straight edge (but without trying to finagle a 35-pound piece of lumber). And then use that straight edge as a router guide. I think this is what I'm going to try.

[Greg Parrish]

Lowes / Home Depot should both have a long aluminum rip guide thing made from aluminum that you clamp across your workpiece. That would probably work for a router just as well as a circular saw and its cheap.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Swanson-Tool-Company-Straight-Edge/1006469

[matt romanowski]

I would suggest looking on Craigslist to see if anyone in your area would be willing to joint this for you. I had a similar situation (though it was 6 pieces of walnut), but I found someone local willing to help me for $30. It was much better than I was going to be able to do on my own with out a large enough jointer.