How to edge joint veneers

[Leigh Betsch]

I resawed some 5’ long bookmatched veneers from a cheery board that I had straight lined on my slider saw. So they are very close to perfect but I’d like to clean up the edge a bit more. I know I could clamp them between thicker boards and hand plane the edges. But is there a better way to do this with a jointer plane?

[Kevin Jenness]

What is wrong with the sawn edges? Not straight, tearout, gaps? I usually use either a sliding table saw or a router with the veneers sandwiched between cauls to hold them flat and tight together. Whatever tool you use those conditions apply. If I were using a hand plane it would be a jointer plane with a closely adjusted chipbreaker. A flat hard sanding block could also work.

[Leigh Betsch]

The edges are actually straight and square but I sanded the thickness on my Woodmater drum sander and the edges got slightly rounded over because of the sander. So I’d like to sharpen the up again.
I think I’ll just straight line some mdf and make a 5 ft shooting guide for my LN 51 shooting plane.

[Charles Guest]

I resawed some 5’ long bookmatched veneers from a cheery board that I had straight lined on my slider saw. So they are very close to perfect but I’d like to clean up the edge a bit more. I know I could clamp them between thicker boards and hand plane the edges. But is there a better way to do this with a jointer plane?

Nope, you've got it. There is no better or more direct way. Clamp the pack between two pieces of softwood -- "whitewood" from a big box store is fine (it's spruce), with the edges barely sticking up. Plane the whole pack, sacrificial boards and all, straight up in your vice. Once you're producing a shaving that includes the two sacrificial boards and the veneer in between you should be good. Don't use a cambered iron, just one with the edges barely taken off.

You don't need a shooting board or a bunch of frou-frou B/S. You just need to know how to shoot an edge and most people are used to doing this with a board in the vice, or sitting atop the bench.

If the pack is too big or cumbersome for your vice, use a couple of pipe clamps all the way across the bench, clamping the pack to your front apron. This is easier if your vice is installed with its front jaw inset flush in the benchtop - you'll only need one clamp for the other end of the pack.

[Robert Engel]

I've done the same thing as above, but I don't use a plane much anymore. Instead I use a 2x2x12 piece of square wood with 80 grit on one face and 120 on the other. I use it on veneer that tends to tear out or I can't figure the grain direction.

I feel I get better results this way.

Could pass the whole package over the jointer?

[Leigh Betsch]

Ya know how you get an idea stuck in your head and ya gotta just try it? So I built a 6 ft shooting board for my LN51. It works great. The veneers all match up just great. Nice crisp edges and dead straight w/o gaps. There is definitely a technique to it, and I can get a slight (.020”) taper end to end but the taper doesn’t affect the fit and I can work it out if I want to take the time. I know I likely could just have clamped the veneers between 2 boards but I just had to try it

[Christopher Charles]

Touching up veneers with a shooting plane on a shooting board is one of my favorite things! Glad it worked out and will look forward to seeing the project come together.

Best,
Chris

[Mike Henderson]

What I do is glue sandpaper to a piece of straight substrate, such as MDF. Then I use that to straighten an edge. I make the sanding block about 12" long.

When doing a radial match, I stack the pieces and sand them all at the same time.

Mike

[Leigh Betsch]

Here it is, if the link works. https://youtu.be/SGTqaGq97LM