# Butt Joins



## HowardHammerman (Sep 30, 2009)

I am making a table. The finished top will be 48" by 14". I am using some beautiful white oak that I was able to buy. I want the finished width to be 3/4". The raw wood is about 13/16". I have a Delta 6" joiner/planer. 

The wood that I received was about 7-8 inches wide. I decided to rip the blanks to 5.25" by 50 inches so I would have enough to work with.

I squared the ends on the joiner and then planed the sides to 3/4".
I have three pieces. When I laid them out on the work bench the edges joined nicely (dry) but I noticed that one of the pieces is still bowed and are various points one board is slightly higher than another but not the entire length.

I need to point out that my joiner does not have an automatic feed. I am sure that I might have fed the wood in different speeds, different pressures, etc.

So my question is this: Do I join the board (biscut joins) and the do a lot of sanding OR do I rip the lengths in half and then re-plane?

Thanks in advance.


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## Keith Mathewson (Sep 23, 2010)

I don't think ripping them will have any positive effect. It sounds like the rough stock was not jointed to flat before running through the planer. A board which it not flat will come out of a planer with the same curve only thinner. The problem is most likely that you didn't start out with thick enough material to have a net 3/4" board. 1/16" for both jointing and planing is not enough over 50". If the bow is slight you may be able to glue them together with the bows in opposite directions. How is the top to be attached to the table?


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## HowardHammerman (Sep 30, 2009)

The top will be attached to the legs/base with figure eight fixtures. I am following the plans in Wood magazine about three months ago.

So are you suggesting that I stand the boards on end and re-rip them width-wise? I have a ten inch table saw that will not be able to reach the top of the 5 1/4" board. In that case would I be best advised to rip the boards in half (making them about 2 1/2" wide) and then re-saw them a bit thinner?

There is no real requirement to keep the finished width of the top to 3/4". If the width was 5/8" it would still look good.

Please advise.


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## Zircon (Aug 1, 2009)

No need to rerip or use biscuits. They only complicate alignment. Just edge glue with the two straight boards on the outside and the bowed one in the middle. Alternate growth rings down, up and down and spring the bowed board straight and clamp it and glue. Use two C clamps on each end lightly to hold the two pieces together so that the top is flat and use a large Jorgensen style wood clamp to reach into the middle to spring the boards together before you use the bar clamps. Only do boards one and two and when they are dry clamp board three to the joined one and two.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Howard Let's talk terms first*

Quote: 
I want the finished width to be 3/4". The raw wood is about 13/16". I have a Delta 6" joiner/planer.


The "width" of a board is not the *thickness*, in your case 3/4".
Your boards are 5 1/4" wide. If you stand the boards on "edge" not end that's called a resaw. No need for that.
You say you have a jointer/planer. Most likely it's a "jointer" which, removes stock from the bottom of the board as you pass it over the knives. A jointer can only "flatten or surface" one face of the board or an edge. A planer has the knives above the board and will make the board a constant thickness and is "self feeding". To use a jointer requires some eyeballing of the work before you just start joining. If you sight down the length you look for curve or cup. If the board is concave, you must joint a few passes in from each end to remove the concave and get the board flat. If you just run a concave board over the jointer it will take too much stock off and the board will be too thin when it finally, if ever becomes flat.
You can use it like a motorized hand plane and just remove stock where it's necessary, but you must use good technique and safety precautions when making "partial" passes rather than full length passes.

You should really never glue a board with curve to a flat board as it will affect the flat one. You only need 14" so your 5 1/4" boards will be fine if you join 3 of them together. You must also have perfectly straight "rips" to join them together. Well, within a 1/32" or so. Look at the end grain on the boards if it "smiles", alternate the smiles 1 facing up, 2 facing down. If the grain is vertical then it's quarter sawn and will be flatter so it won't matter.
To glue up 48" long boards use about 5 clamps with just enough pressure to squeeze out a small amount of glue when you apply the clamping pressure. Don't slather on the glue and hope to keep the boards lined up when applying pressure.
It will make them too slippery. You can put some clamps on the ends of two boards to line them up or use "cauls" , short heavy boards, across the width to keep them flat across until the glue sets up. Use wax paper between them to get them apart afterward. Or just glue them one at a time.
Who knew there was so much involved in just a simple table top???:wallbash: bill


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## Keith Mathewson (Sep 23, 2010)

All good advise.

A couple of points-
Alternating growth rings has no measurable effect on glue up stability.
Quartersawn wood is not more or less likely to be flat from the yard, it is more stable and has about 1/2 the seasonal movement as flatsawn.
Opposing SLIGHT cupping in glue-ups works well in most applications.


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## HowardHammerman (Sep 30, 2009)

I glued up the top last night before reading all your good advice.

I did glue up all three board. I used 8 bar clamps. While the glue was still wet I pushed and pulled until the edges were about even.

This morning I removed the clamps and while I will have to do a bit of sanding, it doesn't look hard. I did not use the biscuts afterall.

Thanks for all the good points. I will follow them the next time.


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