Vectric Customer

Is there a male and female bit that is used to mate two pieces of wood together. What I am trying to put together is 3.5 inches thick. Any suggestions?
Thanks Kathy

There are lots of variations, most are called glue line bits ( I use these) and finger joint bits work well for wood that doesn't chip out.

Lots of joints to do it.

If side to side - just a flat butt joint is as strong as anything. Glue and clamp with a good quality wood glue is more than is needed. Anything else is overkill. A butt joint on edge to edge is stronger than the wood itself. Anything more is just not necessary, as far as strength in concerned.

Other than strength - a spline is very helpful for alignment. Could also do a half lap.

Please explain half lap. I am a novice at this
Thanks, Kathy

Kathy,
Take a look at this.
http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking ... lap-joints


Michael

And if you want to get more exotic...

http://makezine.com/2014/12/04/50-digit ... ts-poster/


~M

Thanks. for the links.

Kathy,

What are you trying to do?

A side to side glued edge is as simple and as strong as it can get.

we are trying to make a bar top 8ft long by 20 inches wide and 2 inches thick out of some lumber that we cut with an alaskan saw mill.

Any suggestions?

Just a standard edge joint glue-up should be fine. See if this Fine Woodworking article is helpful: Gluing Up

Read the article from Randal.

You do not need anything special - just a flat straight edge.

I have used a freud glueline rip blade on my table saw and glued up from that.
There are jigs to make a straight cut on a table saw.

If you have a jointer - even better.

You don't need a male - female cutter for that joint.

AFTER - the glueup you will make the top surface nice and flat.
There are various ways to do that.

Here is the thing. . . .

Even when using a glue joint bit (or molding cutter) you have to have two straight edges to start with.

Unless you have a really big honking jointer, a jointer will NOT straighten those edges over 8 feet.

That is why lumber yards have a machine that does straight line ripping.

What I do is use a very long piece of board, usually a piece of plywood. Tack it to the piece that needs to get straight and do a first cut. Then nudge the fence over a bit, like a 1/32, and take a final cut. That is because when cutting thicker lumber the blade can do a bit of flexing. Usually can hear and see it.


Pay attention to which face was down when you run the boards, I flip boards over when I cut the other edge. That way if the blade is not at a perfect 90, the edges will still line up correctly. What you do NOT want to do is swap the boards end for end. Mark the end you start the cuts with, and line them up the same way when you glue up. So, get your grain matching figured out before you start cutting.

If you are considering using a glue line bit to line surfaces up, keep in mind that doing so eats up some lumber. I generally will use a spline cut with a slotting bit. NOT on a router table, if the board has any bow that will cause the edges to definitely not line up.

I have been using this method for years and it works well for me. I do not own a jointer since I am not interested in having a jointer with an 8 foot bed in my shop. The ones with 42 inch beds are fine for small stuff, but I can just as good results on the table saw and skip all the fun of sharpening and changing jointer knives. Modern saw blades are amazing and IMHO have made edge jointing something of the past. Jointers are good for flattening faces of boards, can't do that on the TS. (But I have flattened more than one board on the CNC machine!)