plate joining in a small shop with a small budget

[arbarnhart]

In a thread the other day, I showed my table that let me resaw a little over 4", but here it is again for context:

http://home.nc.rr.com/abhobby/images/resaw.JPG

That's a 9" benchtop saw I picked up for $35. The previous owner had mounted it on a thick hardwood ply base with a board underneath to allow easy mounting on a workmate, which iwhere I have it. Behind the right side of the table, you see a diagonal black line - that is a stell strap he added bolted to the metal frame near the top down to the ply base. He did that to limit sway and increase rigidity. It works.

Anyway, I resawed some redwood that is just over 4". I was going to do a few strum dulcimers, but I happened across "donsplans.com" and bought the plan for the little flat top mando, which requires tops of 8" x 12" - just within the limits of my machinery.

There was a discussion the other day about handplanes needed and how to rig them as joiners. There seemed to be a consensus that a #5, the biggest plane I have, is adequate for small boards and several poeple have #7s mounted on their sides as joiners. I decided to combine those two schools of though and side mounted my #5:

http://home.nc.rr.com/abhobby/images/shop/joiner%20and%20bench.JPG

I mounted it on the end of my bench. You can see I installed a couple of pieces of T-track in my bench. I use that for lots of things. One of the primary things is to hold the rail guid system for my circular saw and router so I can accurately cut and shape boards at the edge of the bench.

Part 2 below...

[arbarnhart]

The system complained about too many images in one post, so here is part two...

The next little item here is simply two strips of hardboard glued on top of another piece of harboard with a small space between them:

http://home.nc.rr.com/abhobby/images/shop/edge%20glue%20board.JPG

It's easiest to explain what it is for by seeing it almost set up:

http://home.nc.rr.com/abhobby/images/shop/plate%20joining%20jig.JPG

The far plate is aligned so that the edge hangs out in the gap between the hardboard strips and the T-bolts are very tight, holding it in place. The near board is loose right now. I applied glue to both edges, slid the near one tight and tightened the T-bolts. The boards aligned perfectly and there is that small airspace under the joint itself so sqeeze out won't stick them to anything. I used white glue, but I plan to use hide as I get better at this (and take less time). I got a pan, cooking thermometer and steel cup at the dollar store and I already had an electric burner. And I have a can of hide. But that's another miserly adventure for another day.

[Darren Kern]

Man, you can find the deals, $35... wow. I'll have to come check out your setup again, now that you've changed everything since last time.

[arbarnhart]

Even though it is set up better than most little 9" saws, I still want to upgrade. It really doesn't have quite the tension it should, so it doesn't cut dead flat faces when resawing. To cut the plates, I set the fence so that I am shaving off the plate on the other side, so that every pass I have the planed face against the fence. So I have to adjust the fence for every pass and the plates need some sanding (a few seconds on each side on my 4" belt sander gets them pretty much there).

Anyway, the point is that if you are on a low budget and have meager tools, this is how it can be done. I would absolutely prefer to have Sunburst's saw and a 30" sander and a big shop to keep them in. But that's not going to happen very soon and I am going to build anyway...

[Darren Kern]

Somehow I missed the pic of your #5 mounted on it's side. Thanks for posting that, it gives me an idea of how to do mine once it arrives. I still might get a #7 because I'm talking to a guy locally that is selling one cheap, and I don't have to pay shipping.

[arbarnhart]

I should have posted a better picture of the plane. I used 3 pieces of hardboard. The bottom one is widest so that the plane sits on it and clamping the plane clamps the whole setup. The other two are stacked to give it enough height to get away from the corner of the blade. The are glued together.