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I have read that it may be possible to edge joint wood turnign your router table into a jointer of sorts by shimming the outfeed side of the fence 1/32 or 1/64 of an inch or so. Then leveling the straight cut bit with his side of the fence, therefore leaving a 1/32 or 1/64 "gap" from the blade to the infeed fence.
I am just getting into woodworking. WOuld this work? What could i find at my local harware storwe that would allow me this 1/32 - 1/64 gap?
Suggest you post this over in the woodworking NG
It would work for edge jo> x-no-archive:yes
Yes
Aluminum flashing should be about right.
Bob
Cut your own shims on your table saw.
Sounds like you need a better grade of router table. On mine, each side of the router has separate fences, each fence can be adjusted individually. I've got a router that handles 1/2" shank bits and I've used it for edge joining stock with a suitable straight bit. Using aluminum sheet stock to shim one side isn't likely to be too satisfactory. As another poster said, you're going to want a fairly large surface for infeed and outfeed, as flat as you can get it. What you get is a miserable approximation of a real jointer, but it did do the job for me for a one-off job.
Stan
It'll get you by but as other's have said, the shortcoming is the fence length. As a general rule of thumb, the longest board you can make a straight edge on is the length of the outfeed support. Of course reality is you can come pretty close on a longer board with care.
You also have to be careful about feed speed...most jointers have a fairly large diameter cutter so slight feed variations don't leave scallops or burns as easily. With a smaller diameter router bit, if you hesitate or feed too fast you will not get a smooth surface. It's also a little easier to snipe the ends of the board using the router method. I tend to leave the boards long and cut any possible snipe off after.
Really good quality router bits will make a big difference also. Stay away from the bottom dollar bits and search out better ones. 1/2" dia shank bits are going to be your minimum so don't even bother if your router will only take 1/4. A good high horsepower router will also make a big difference.
So...after all the warnings, be advised that it DOES work with care and you CAN get good results. It's not a good substitute for a jointer if you are doing more than the offhand job but it'll get you by in a pinch.
Koz
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