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Thread: Favorite technique for cutting a long, wide rabbet with the grain?

  1. #1
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    Aug 2003
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    Favorite technique for cutting a long, wide rabbet with the grain?

    TL;DR: How to cut wide, deep rabbet in hard maple without exhausting myself?

    I have a bunch of rabbets to cut in some 7' long curly, rock maple boards. This is for an interior trim project and I need to fit them around some framing lumber in the archway into my den.

    The boards are about 7/8" thick and I need to hog out most of the depth leaving about 1/4" of material left. They need to be about 1-3/8" wide. So a decent amount to remove.

    I did the initial shoulder cut on the slider, but the board was twisted just enough (wind I cant do much about) that the TS technique seemed not that safe or accurate.

    Normally the answer to this would be my veritas RH skew rabbet plane, but the grain was going so hard the other way it seemed to make me question if this was really the best idea. I did that enough to get down to a bit of a lip on the sidewall, then switched to using my LN 10 -1/4 left handed which seemed to work better but was much slower then I really wanted. I think adjusting the mouth wider would help. I was getting a lot of jamming in the mouth, so I think that may have been part of my problem.

    Do I need to just pony up and buy a matching LH Skew Rabbet?

  2. #2
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    How about starting the rabbet with a router and finishing with a plane.

    Plus, you can do several rabbets on wide board and then rip the board to the width you want.
    Last edited by lowell holmes; 09-17-2019 at 2:11 PM.

  3. #3
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    Resaw, mark to keep correct grain orientation, rip section to house the long rabbett into three strips (A/B/C).

    Discard strip B and reglue to leave desired groove.

  4. #4
    Maybe a total bonehead idea but would it make sense to plough a narrow groove on the face and another on the edge, then finish with the rabbet plane? Sounds like a ton of work any way you look at it, but since you aren’t trying to hear about just doing it on the table saw maybe that’s a way?

  5. #5
    Dumb question alert: If the only reason you were averse to using a power tool (table saw) is twist, then why not an edge router with a rabbet bit?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew Springer View Post
    TL;DR: How to cut wide, deep rabbet in hard maple without exhausting myself?

    I have a bunch of rabbets to cut in some 7' long curly, rock maple boards. This is for an interior trim project and I need to fit them around some framing lumber in the archway into my den.

    The boards are about 7/8" thick and I need to hog out most of the depth leaving about 1/4" of material left. They need to be about 1-3/8" wide. So a decent amount to remove.

    I did the initial shoulder cut on the slider, but the board was twisted just enough (wind I cant do much about) that the TS technique seemed not that safe or accurate.

    Normally the answer to this would be my veritas RH skew rabbet plane, but the grain was going so hard the other way it seemed to make me question if this was really the best idea. I did that enough to get down to a bit of a lip on the sidewall, then switched to using my LN 10 -1/4 left handed which seemed to work better but was much slower then I really wanted. I think adjusting the mouth wider would help. I was getting a lot of jamming in the mouth, so I think that may have been part of my problem.

    Do I need to just pony up and buy a matching LH Skew Rabbet?
    I don't know what TL;DR means.

    I would not buy a left handed skew rabbet.

    I have done this kind of work many times by hand. Some think you want to use power tools. If you want to do this by hand I will give a method.

  7. #7
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    I don't know what TL;DR means.
    Me neither.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    I don't know what TL;DR means. ....
    (Internet speak for "Too long. Didn't read." I.e. a summary of the text.)

  9. #9
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    As Lowell said, I cut the tongues on my table breadboard ends by running a narrow dado along the desired shoulder line, split out the bulk of the waste on the tongue down to my final depth line with a chisel, then use a plane to smooth/final depth the remaining surface. Not that much work actually because the dado is narrow and the chisel takes out the bulk of the waste before turning it over to a little final smoothing with a handy plane.
    David

  10. #10
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    Sorry about the use of internet jargon. It's what all us kids are using these days (I'm 45).

    David,
    I hadn't thought about using the plow plane to cut the shoulders. Kinda like a wide kerfing plane. I think that might work out well. I was nervous about spltting off the full depth because I was worried I was going to break the remaining bit of board out, but it hadn't occurred to me to score the outer board edge too.

    I thought about busting out the router also, the main hesitation there was I have terrible DC for the handheld and I didn't feel like spraying micro dust maple everywhere. I got into hand tools initially to try to avoid routers. But maybe I should just pony up and do it that way.

  11. With the shoulder of the rebate defined by a 1/4" plow to depth, careful work for a few passes and then the shoulder makes a good "fence' to register a bench plane to take down the rest. Easy-peasy. 'course it's hard rock maple, but otherwise, ....
    Fair winds and following seas,
    Jim Waldron

  12. #12
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    I would go with a hand held router and make several passes. I think because of the wind issue this is better than router table.

  13. #13
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    Finished top rail.jpg
    Back when I made a screen door for the house, needed a rebate for the screen's frame to sit in...
    IMAG0192.jpg
    The rebate plane is in the background...along with the bottom corner of the screen door ( raised panels )
    rebate done.jpg
    Just set the set for however wide you want to go...this one will cut 1" wide.
    edge plane, with shavings.jpg
    Uses an old skew chisel from a Harbor Freight lathe chisel. Cuts on the skew.

  14. #14
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    Seattle Wa
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    I use the method described by Warren and David. It goes quickly and pretty much dust free.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    White Lake, Michigan
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    Resaw the maple, rip one of the pieces to the proper width, and then glue them together to form the rabbit.

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