chamfer angle for tabletop

[fred henkin]

I am building a table using pine boards. The edges don't quite fit together perfectly for a glue up even though I carefully jointed them. I am thinking of running a small chamfer groove on the edge of each board thinking it might hide the slight imperfection. If anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them. If not, what angle bit would you recommend for that chamfer.

[Mel Fulks]

Jointers are often adjusted in a way that leaves the wood ends slightly open. That's bad. If you decide to adjust the out
feed table ,the direction is up a couple of thousandths. If it is table for only interior use, some resort to a bit of filler or a thin sliver.

[andy bessette]

Don't chamfer--looks like hell.

Fix the problem.

[Simon MacGowen]

I am building a table using pine boards. The edges don't quite fit together perfectly for a glue up even though I carefully jointed them. I am thinking of running a small chamfer groove on the edge of each board thinking it might hide the slight imperfection. If anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them. If not, what angle bit would you recommend for that chamfer.

If I understand your problem coreectly, you have the ends slightly open. Here is where a spring joint excels. Know anyone with handplaing skills? If so, get her or him to plane the mating edges for you. With pine, a couple of passes should be enough.

Simon

[johnny means]

Are we talking about hand jointing? I say trim then on the table saw then glue up.

[Warren Lake]

Get some test pieces and drop your outfeed table so it snipes, raise the table slowly running the pieces till they are tight, then as Mel says go a hair higher you will have a slight hollow in the middle, that keeps pressure on the end of the boards. a bit of preload that works in your favour,

[Jamie Buxton]

Is this a dining table? If so, chamfers are a bad idea. For a dining table, you have to plan that food will get spilled on the table, and you want to wipe it up. If the top has chamfers, all you can do is to wipe the food into the chamfers, where it will stay.

[Prashun Patel]

"The edges don't quite fit together perfectly for a glue up even though I carefully jointed them."

Can you post a picture?

[Derek Cohen]

I am building a table using pine boards. The edges don't quite fit together perfectly for a glue up even though I carefully jointed them. I am thinking of running a small chamfer groove on the edge of each board thinking it might hide the slight imperfection. If anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them. If not, what angle bit would you recommend for that chamfer.

This could one of two issues:

Either the jointer fence is not square, and the edges then meet each other out-of-square - the answer is to check your jointer fence, and/or joint the edges in alternate directions so that the angles cancel out each other ...

Or you have not jointed enough, and left a crown on one or both boards. Others here have suggested that you use a hand plane to create a spring joint. This is one option, but jointing square should be sufficient.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Steve Schoene]

It's not a look I would like. If you are worried about boards not having the same thickness, with some care while gluing up, one side can be adjusted to be all of a level--the top of course.