Router Table Question

[Von Bickley]

Does anyone here use their router table for jointing wood???? Just curious....
If you do, let me know how that works for you.

[Jim Becker]

I haven't personally used a router table for edge jointing, but have seen articles in the past that showed how to accomplish it using a shimmed outfeed side fence.

[Nick Decker]

I used to do it occasionally before I got a jointer. In my experience, the set up time was a hassle. Then you usually end up having to adjust and readjust the fence for snipe. Your edge jointing is limited, of course, to the cutting length of whatever bit you're using, and you don't want it very long or it'll flex while cutting. A well-tuned table saw with a good blade was easier for me.

It's one of those things that yes, it can be done, and no, I wouldn't suggest it other than a last resort. Just my opinion.

[Mike Cutler]

It can be done, but you need a split fence.
I did it years ago for some material that was 16" wide, and 10' long, just too big for me to control by myself on a 6" jointer.
I scribed a line on the board , and used a spiral bit taking really light cuts. Probably less than a 64th, checking for square in between each pass. Final pass on the material was done two boards at a time, with the faces matched up to compensate for any small deviation from 90 degrees to the faces.
I won't lie to you, it took a couple of hours to do three boards, but at the time I didn't have another way to do it.
There used to be a video on the John Lucas website, showing Bob Marino and John jointing two edges simultaneously with a circular saw. Yes, it was a Festool saw, but the concept would work with any circular saw and a known straight edge.
They straight line ripped each board, butted them together on a bench, clamped them in place, and then aligned the straight edge and saw to the middle of the seam. One more rip cut down the center of the seam and both boards were jointed with mated edges. It was really slick and only took about 15 minutes.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Yes - I did use it.
The table saw works much better.
I made a variation of this jig (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21u4bou930w)

It worked real slick!
The thing I liked best about it was it could be used on both solid wood and ply wood.
It's very seldom you need to take a tiny bit off ply wood like that, but, when you do, it works extremely well.

[Ted Derryberry]

Another option is a handheld router and a straight edge. I use that for large slabs that I can't push across the machines. I use the same technique with a tilted router base to bevel doors.

[glenn bradley]

I ended up with a shim pack as a giveaway that came with something else I bought. I have used them for edge joining just to see how they worked, and they worked fine. A router bit is not a jointer head so there are reasonable limitations but, for 1 inch and understock it’s seem to do fine.