edge jointing extra long lumber... best method?

[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.
Edging big doorsJPG copy.jpgEdging stiles.jpg
Aigner extension on jointer.jpg

[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!