Jointing with the HL850 bench unit

[ear3]

Question about using the HL850 as a jointer.  I haven't picked up the bench unit yet, but am considering doing so for a job I have coming up with a lot of on-site wainscoting/panel work, where I will want to ensure a gapless fit along the edges between the rail/stile paneling and the inset moulding.  When you run the board through the bench unit cum jointer, does it produce a finished edge, or is additional sanding required?  I want to avoid having to sand the edges too much for risk of beveling them, especially since I will have to delegate a lot of the sanding work to my interns.

 

[Birdhunter]

I have not tried jointing with my 850 as I have an 8" Powermatic jointer. However, I have used the 850 mounted in the bench unit to plane hardwood boards. It produces very clean cuts. My passes were very shallow so I'm not sure if a deep pass would leave such a clean cut.

 

[tbellemare]

My experience was similar, both jointing and rabbeting. When rabbeting, I was doing a door jamb for a storage shed project so the piece was long. It took a lot of care to keep it going through cleanly because the shoe on the planer is so short. Jointing short pieces is not very difficult and I've gotten clean results.

I really don't think this is an appropriate tool for making door jambs like I did but I had to try it, "because it was there".

Tom

 

[MrToolJunkie]

The surface is very clean if you take light passes and move the piece at the right speed. I also would not joint anything much longer than 30 - 36 inches or so.

 

[ear3]

Most of the boards will under 30 -- I'll have a few longer ones, but for those I could just rely on edge sanding.

 

[MrToolJunkie]

I think that you will have good success with this unit - I love mine and use it all the time.

 

[tiralie]

... where I will want to ensure a gapless fit along the edges between the rail/stile paneling and the inset moulding. 

...I would probably change the design if you can so you can use a bolection or rebate/rabbeted moulding that covers any gap rather than use the 850.  It will save time and headaches.
Tim

 

[ear3]

Good suggestion, thanks.  I thought between the HL850 and preassembly on the ground I could make the panels square enough not to have to do that, but maybe the rabbeting will be the quicker route.  That means I will have to bring my router table to the jobsite though...

... where I will want to ensure a gapless fit along the edges between the rail/stile paneling and the inset moulding. 

...I would probably change the design if you can so you can use a bolection or rebate/rabbeted moulding that covers any gap rather than use the 850.  It will save time and headaches.
Tim

 

[semenza]

    Very smooth clean cuts from the 850. I have used the bench unit for resizing and jointing. I found that for up to 36" it works well but you need to make sure you have a good way to hold the piece down for entry and exit unless you rig up some kind of infeed / outfeed support. I used Gripper push blocks.  When you set up the fence be sure to check for square in the center and at both ends. And when feeding material try not to lean hard against the fence. As I found that it can flex a bit. It did work well for me with short pieces with a little practice. And I suggest a couple practice pieces. If you can leave your pieces a few inches long before running them through the 850 , then you will be able to cut away any snipe.

Seth

 

[sancho57]

What Seth said

You can use a sustainer as a infeed/ out feed table .

 

[Brent Taylor]

I used to use a Makita 1100 in the early 80's, for shorter pieces it works fine. Use it in hand for longer stock. Watch your fingertips,  my boss back then loss 7 tips in one pass. Only exposure what you need and use blocks or sticks.   

 

[tiralie]

Good suggestion, thanks.  I thought between the HL850 and preassembly on the ground I could make the panels square enough not to have to do that, but maybe the rabbeting will be the quicker route.  That means I will have to bring my router table to the jobsite though...

... where I will want to ensure a gapless fit along the edges between the rail/stile paneling and the inset moulding. 

...I would probably change the design if you can so you can use a bolection or rebate/rabbeted moulding that covers any gap rather than use the 850.  It will save time and headaches.
Tim

Whether you use the 850 or not, I would just estimate how much molding you need and cut that rabbet in the shop or buy it with the rebate in it already. No need to have extra tools on site if you can prepare it before you get there. Too much stuff on site is a PIA and just a logistics problem.
What kind of wood are you using for the rails and stiles?
I have found that if I rip my rails and stiles to width with the TS 55 I have no gaps when applying molding on the edges.
Tim

 

[ear3]

It's a big project, one that will be first a film set and then relocated to a museum for an installation show -- in addition to making all the 4x8 theatre flats for the set backdrop I'm doing a courtroom where everything will be in oak.  It's mostly on-site work, because dimensions and specs on this sort of project are constantly shifting.  If it were going in someone's home I would rip all the boards myself and mill the moulding, but I'm trying to balance both time and cost and so will be sourcing most of the wood from the BORG.  They have a decent shoe moulding for $1/ft. that I'm considering using for the inset and am going to experiment with rabbeting today for a mock up panel.  Fortunately a good half of the panel work will be simple wainscoting, so that's an easy router operation that I can do from home.  But I did want to use the inset moulding for the judge's bench to make it look ornate and imposing. 

Good suggestion, thanks.  I thought between the HL850 and preassembly on the ground I could make the panels square enough not to have to do that, but maybe the rabbeting will be the quicker route.  That means I will have to bring my router table to the jobsite though...

... where I will want to ensure a gapless fit along the edges between the rail/stile paneling and the inset moulding. 

...I would probably change the design if you can so you can use a bolection or rebate/rabbeted moulding that covers any gap rather than use the 850.  It will save time and headaches.
Tim

Whether you use the 850 or not, I would just estimate how much molding you need and cut that rabbet in the shop or buy it with the rebate in it already. No need to have extra tools on site if you can prepare it before you get there. Too much stuff on site is a PIA and just a logistics problem.
What kind of wood are you using for the rails and stiles?
I have found that if I rip my rails and stiles to width with the TS 55 I have no gaps when applying molding on the edges.
Tim

 

[ear3]

Test panel w/rabbeted moulding turned out pretty well.  Thank god for right triangles making the calculation easy on the overlapping miter lengths (just add the rabbet depth).  If there's time on the project I might still mill the moulding myself to get something more intricate, but it's hard to beat $1 per ft. for prefabbed oak moulding both in terms of time of cost.

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[ear3]

I just remembered that I can use my Kreg router table as a jointer, so I'll be good whether I go with rabbeted moulding or not.