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Hey guys,

I am looking for some advice on jointing the aforementioned piece of wood. I ran it through my joiner and because of the heavy figuring am getting massive tear-out. This obviously is really annoying as the more this happens the smaller my wood gets. I have tried to even the two pieces out to maintain the book match and using just the plane without the jointer but without a perfect guideline from the jointer I am having issues getting it just right.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help.

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Check out my site at: http://www.TrueAxeGuitars.ca

You can do it on your table saw. In that case it is all about the fence. Low and long would be the order of the day. You can get close off of the table saw. Are you getting tear out with your plane ? Are your hand plane tuning and sharpening skills good ? You may need to practise on something friendlier first. You may need to use a higher cutting angle with your plane to avoid tear out. Do you have a table saw ?
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Adam-
Some folks use sanding techniques to deal with curly woods. You could probably put together something like:
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com/products/p11.html to deal with your immediate back jointing problem.
If you really get into a problem with the 'too narrow' situation, consider laminating in a center strip. Also, remember that you will be cutting away a bit of the back for the binding, so that will give you some leeway as well.

Try to find some 'difficult' wood offcuts/scraps or buy a stick of curly maple and start practicing.....
Working on your plane tuneup and sharpening might be needed as well as perhaps using a higher cutting angle .
(Same for your power jointer- are the blades really sharp, and properly adjusted?)

Cheers
John

The clamps holding down at the ends caused the glass - which was on a towel - to bow, so releasing those clamps went better.

It took me a week to work that out.

Cheers Hip.

How much are you trying to take off with the jointer in one pass? I have had good luck with taking very light passes on the jointer, combined with slightly dampening the face that I am jointing with a wet cloth.

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Mitch

Another really good trick is to wet the wood. Just wipe some water on the edges with a rag and then pass it over the jointer at an angle and it will make a huge difference.

If you must sandpaper the joint you already have a jig. Your jointer. If you jointer is small you may need to extend the fence with some mdf, or ply. Some self stick sandpaper (roll) on the bed of the jointer and your jointers fence. Nice flat table, square- able fence. Rub away. You can move the fence easily to expose fresh sandpaper. You shouldn't need to do that if you get close off of the table saw.

You want to sand just enough to get there. If you work it too much you can end up chasing your tail so to speak. The problem with sanding joints or anything similar with a back and forth motion is that you wear the ends more than the middle. More sanding doesn't change things. The trick is to start with a slight hollow or sprung joint and sand until flat and no more. If you keep going you will open up the ends.

Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

All I can suggest is really small passes with a really sharp blade. Maybe it's time to replace yours?
A spiral cutterhead makes a huge difference as well but that's a pricey solution.

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Sweet guys,

Thanks for the input I am going to try that sandpaper glass and clamp method then if its not candling properly I think it will give me at least a mildly straight edge to shoot from.

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Check out my site at: http://www.TrueAxeGuitars.ca

Totally agree with Jason. Also, try waxing your jointer table then run the board through extremely slowly. You'll be surprised at the how much a very slow feed rate will reduce tearout.

Ken

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Also know that there is some technique to getting joints that candle properly....

You will get slight hollows wherever your hands rest/push... or wherever you clamp the wood to the jig (If you only use a couple clamps.)

My solution to this is to take a pass or two with hands in the middle, then move hands to the ends.. Then candle 1-half against a straight edge and see where you are hitting.... If you are hollow in the middle.. take a pass or two with hands on the edges and try again... Go slow with extremely light passes or with maybe 2-3 passes on 80-100 grit sandpaper..

I work 1 half against a straight edge until it passes candling, then switch to the other half... Then I candle both together to double check everything is right...

If I am doing a hand planed joint... I lap on sandpaper till it is all square and happy and candles pretty... then take 1 or 2 super light passes with a hand plane.

1 last thing... Joint right before gluing things up... I have had to redo joints that sat overnight before gluing because they didn't candle right the next day...

Tell us how it comes out.

John

I join allot of highly figured woods.
By hand could take allot of time.
A sanded joint sometimes looked a bit dirty -like there was a rounding over of the pieces.

What I use now is a 3/8" marine(birch) plywood piese 30" long by 12" wide that has had one of the long edges run over the jointer to make that side straight & smooth.
I tape my two pieces together so they do not move and clamp them to the plywood with toggle clamps.
With just a mm or so of the edges sticking out from the playwood -on the side that I joined straight.
Then I run this jig up against a pattern shaping bit on my router table so the bearing runs against the plywood .

Works great and I'm done in about 1 minute.

Mike

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Mike Collins