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Has anyone got tips for preparing backs for joining. I've tried my planing machine (jointer), a stanley No 7 with and without a shooting board, but cannot get a gap without any light through it.

This forum is one of the best resources for tutorials on the net. Check out the Tutorials section of the main board, you will find what you want there.

Did have a look in the tutorials section, but didn't spot anything!

If they're thicker plates, to be carved, a well set up jointer will make a pretty perfect joint. Practice on some scrap. If your blades are reasonably sharp and beds parallel etc. you should have no trouble.

Good Luck

Setting up a surface planer(jointer) for success can be elusive. Two simple things to try are going really slow, that way if your blades are off, the tallest picks up the others and does all the work, if the fence can move off perpendicular to the blade, sometimes that helps. Otherwise assuming the beds are parallel, getting the outfeed right with the highest blade is key. I use a test piece and run it through with the table a bit low, causing a snipe on the tail end of the cut, and raise the bed till it just goes away. You may want to use two test pieces and keep looking at the results as if you were joining them and see how the arc changes as the outfeed bed is raised.

Can't help with a shooting board, but if the tutorial section is really lacking in that, check youtube.
Rob

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I run the halves through the jointer and then clamp them together. A couple of swipes on my 6 x 89 belt sander do the rest.

How do you do the "swipes on the belt sander"? Does the joint not get out of square too easily?

Thanks for all the advice.

After doing the best you can with the jointer, you can chaulk one edge, rub the other & carefully scrape the highs 'till no light.

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Dave
Milton, ON

If your plane is very sharp, and you're taking very very fine cuts (much thinner than paper) with the stanley you should be able to get to zero light shining through, using a shooting board. I had a bit of a breakthrough on this process, (forget who specifically helped on this forum - but that's where I got the help) realizing that if you're getting gaps in the middle, with too much "meat" on the ends, you need to very gently rotate the pressure from your hand on the plane starting with a little bias on the heel and moving to the toe. If you have too much meat in the center, and gaps on the ends, it's the opposite. And for any spots where you have a small "bump", perhaps due to grain, etc. you can gently "spot-plane" on those bumps.

It definitely takes practice, and a very very sharp plane, but once you're there, it works pretty well.

Hope this helps.