Advise on hope chest top

[mclear6]

I am building a hope chest for my brother and his wife. The base cabinet for the chest is 46 inches long, 20 inches wide, and 18 inches high. I currently have (2) 7-1/2 inch, (2) 5 1/2 inch, and (1) 2 1/2 inch wide pieces of red oak, all 48 inches long.

I am planning to run all pieces through a planner and since I do not have a joiner, I will run the pieces on the table saw with an offset sacrificial fence to help create a straight edge. (I still might get access to a joiner... if that is the case, I will run them over the joiner)

I have 2 questions:

1) My question is, should I rip the wider pieces down to have all uniform width pieces for my glue up?

2) What recommendations are there for the glue up? I do not have a biscuit joiner, but do have a pocket hole jig.

I was planing of just gluing can clamping, but is there something else I should do?

Thanks in advance for all the help

[rjwaldren]

Try to get to the joiner and you'll be fine. With a lot of care you can get good results with the TS or a router, but the joiner will make it much more painless. Just edge joining with glue should be very strong.

The last time I did this without a jointer I was using (very unforgiving) hard maple and it still came out great. Red Oak should be pretty easy to get good results with regardless of the method you choose.

As far as ripping the boards to a uniform size, do what's visually best, I'd shoot for the 5-5 1/2 in range.

[SARGE..g-47]

(1) Unless you are making the Hope Chest with a rustic look.. ripping the stock to uniform widths give a more refined look.

(2) As long as the edges are square.. you should have no trouble with the glue up regardless if you joint the edges with the TS.. hand jointer or power jointer. Having good clamps is a must.. prepare everything before applying glue.. make sure you are laid out in proper sequence.. dry run the stock to make sure you get a "butt-kiss" edge to edge..

I personally don't fool with biscuits or the like. Good preparation is the key IMO.

Good luck...

[scmhogg]

You should be able to get a joinable edge with your TS. I get a cleaner cut by taking an extra pass that cuts about 1/2 the blade width.

Just in case your blade is not perfectly perpendicular, flip the boards over before trimming the second edge. This will result in a true 180 degree joint.

You could also use a router table with a slightly raised outfeed instead of a jointer.

Steve

[Tom Miller]

Steve's suggestion of a half-kerf cleanup pass is a good one. I would additionally suggest the use of a feather board to really hold the stock steady against the fence.

The 7 1/2" wide planks are wide enough that they may cup. A common suggestion is to rip in half, then flip one of the halves over such that if it cups it will be in the opposite direction as the other half. Then rejoin.

Regards,
Tom

[mclear6]

thanks for all of the suggestions.... When the temperature warms up a little, I'l get back out in the garage and try to finish the project.

I might rip the the two 7 1/2 inch pieces in half and leave the 5 1/2 inch in the middle