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Hey folks

I tried joining two peices of wood by clamping them together and using a palm plane to smooth and level the two pieces to, what I thought was, the same profile.

Instead, i made the joint worse than the rough-cut pieces of lumber would have been beforehand.

Using a palm plane, how can I make a tight joint? did i just need use use a straightedge or something to find the high spots? I don't know what else to do.

More information, please.
What joint, etc?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I was trying to join two pieces of wood like -----> <----- to each other, just straight on - you know, like a book-matched top... sawed in half, then glued together to create a mirrored look. I'm not dealing with a book-matched top, but i am dealing with two straight pieces of wood that i would like to join together, to achieve a piece of wood that is large enough to draw out my body blank on.

But I want a good, tight, relatively unnoticeable joint. I have clamps, and a palm plane. how can I make the two edges match each other perfectly?

How thick are they?
You might need a jointer.
Some guys use a table saw.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

By palm plane do you mean block plane? If so it might not have enough sole for the task. I use a shooting board and a #3-1/2 bench plane to join acoustic plates. As long as the two boards to be joined are less in thickness than the width of the plane blade this should work. If not I would recomend a #6 or #7 joiner plane and a lot of practice. Or as mentioned a power joiner.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I used a Clamp n' tool guide, some clamps and flush routed my last 2 bookmatched tops - came out perfect.

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

When you say you have clamps, how many clamps do you mean? You really want a clamp about every 2". Also, how thick is the wood?

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David Morris

each piece of wood is about an inch thick. my palm plane blade is only about an inch and a quarter wide. I have only three h-clamps, two c-clamps, and a ton of spring clamps, of various sizes.

i do have a plunge router - but its actually a a dremel with the dremel plunge router base. Dremel only makes one appreciably sized straight router bit for its (non "Trio Series") rotary tools, and I do have this bit. I'm not sure how i would arrange everything so that it cut perfectly straight, as i would have to make several passes at graduating depths.

thanks so much for your help guys!

Call me crazy, but you may have to purchase a router(not a dremel) if you are planning on building a guitar

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Glue some sandpaper, 80 grit, to a level or straight edge.
block up the piece on a workbench,
with the level laying on the bench,
and slide it back and forth until the 2 pieces fit.
It helps if you start with a joint where the ends of the boards are touching,
and not the center.
Or, go find Todd Stocks video on a shooting board at the acoustic section.

dimensional lumber right from the mill usually has edges good enough to glue. or ripped on a table saw, very little prep should be needed.
...i use a dead flat square bar about 14" long, with sandpaper, to true stuff up perfectly.
to make sure the bar itself was dead flat, i sanded it (ground it i suppose would be more appropriate) on a granite surfacing block i bought for 35$ or so. it one of my most useful "tools" for getting things dead flat, and for and sharpening chisels and scrapers and planer blades

Thank you so much everyone! I eventually just used a rigid sanding block and lined up the pre-milled edges, guled and clamped, and they turned out just fine! I was making things way too complicated for myself before. I'll need a block or smooth plane to make better joints in the future. obviously my dinky little palm plane wont do the trick.

thanks again folks. You're all very helpful!

Find a pre-war Stanley Bailey jack plane on Ebay. They're pretty common, not very expensive, and excellent. There's also a lot written on dating them.

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David Morris