Half-Lap Joints in long stock

[rfoxy]

New member to Forum. Never used the feature before. Own a Mark V with a table upgrade to 520 System. Never had much luck getting half lap joints to work on long stock such as 2 x 4s. Anybody out there know the best way to cut one on 8' stock on a Mark V? Small parts are easy but with long stock the board tends not to stay aligned on the miter guage even with the extension.

[Bruce]

You can try sliding the headstock as far left as it will go, then use your rip fence on the right extension table as the support for the long end of the board. The smaller surface of the fence will give less resistance. Be sure your table and fence top are waxed and real slick (or use a product like TopCote). In conjunction with the miter gauge extension you can get good results. I would probably make the first shoulder cut with a regular blade, then switch to a dado do hog out the rest.

Bruce

[chiroindixon]

Having wrestled with long stock with less than desirable results, I shelved my miter gauge and build several cross cutting sleds. Much better results.

When I first bought my 520 package, I did get the SS sled. It works well enough but once you see how simple the principle is, buy some of the SS miter slot guide rods and build your own.

There are several commercial sleds out there but be sure that the guide rails have the "coin" to run in the SS table slot. (Look at your SS miter gauge) If not, you run the risk of the sled (or another brand miter gauge) popping up and off table. Bad scene. It bit me badly several years ago. The offending sled went straight to a machinist and now has "coins" front and rear. It's locked in now!

To see someone really make use of a sled, try finding David J Marks and WOODWORKS on the DIY network. He is a real master and I learn more with every show.

Of course, then you will learn that you are dealing with the question of is it better to move the workpiece over the tool, or the tool over the workpiece?

Using your 520 to make several jigs or fixtures to clamp to the stock and rout those dados with a router may be the much better and safer way to go.

The 520 is a fine machine but it will not directly do many of the operations you think it should. Start researching the world of jigs and fixtures. Half of the challenge is to learn to build not only your shop, but many of your own tools.

Doc

[Ed in Tampa]

Having wrestled with long stock with less than desirable results, I shelved my miter gauge and build several cross cutting sleds. Much better results.

When I first bought my 520 package, I did get the SS sled. It works well enough but once you see how simple the principle is, buy some of the SS miter slot guide rods and build your own.

There are several commercial sleds out there but be sure that the guide rails have the "coin" to run in the SS table slot. (Look at your SS miter gauge) If not, you run the risk of the sled (or another brand miter gauge) popping up and off table. Bad scene. It bit me badly several years ago. The offending sled went straight to a machinist and now has "coins" front and rear. It's locked in now!

To see someone really make use of a sled, try finding David J Marks and WOODWORKS on the DIY network. He is a real master and I learn more with every show.

Of course, then you will learn that you are dealing with the question of is it better to move the workpiece over the tool, or the tool over the workpiece?

Using your 520 to make several jigs or fixtures to clamp to the stock and rout those dados with a router may be the much better and safer way to go.

The 520 is a fine machine but it will not directly do many of the operations you think it should. Start researching the world of jigs and fixtures. Half of the challenge is to learn to build not only your shop, but many of your own tools.

Doc

Hey Doc
Any chance of getting some pictures of your sleds??
Ed

[Ed in Tampa]

I should have said Any chance of getting some pictures of your sleds and favorite jigs?
Ed

[chiroindixon]

I just tired three times to upload some photos of sleds but I get an error message that the file exceeds the allows limits.....

Actually it tells me that I'm sending a JPG file....my computer says it's a JPEG file well within the defined limits. 1.19MB is less than 1.91MB..at least I thought so.

Another glitch for the administrator to figure out. It took the guys at SSUG.org a week or two when they had the same problem.

Ed....I'll work to fire you one privately...

Doc

[Bruce]

You might try renaming it with the jpg extension. Most pc's are pretty picky about having a 3 character extension on their filenames. Also, that's a pretty big file for a jpeg. You could probably convert it to a much smaller size without much loss in quality.

[Greenvilleguy]

One of the wonderful things about woodworking is that there are many ways to solve the same problem. While sleds are a good idea and I had never thought of using the top of my fence as a narrow table (thanks!), here are some ways I've attacked half laps in long 2 x 4 stock.

1. I've used my radial arm saw and a dado blade. A radial arm saw is well suited to this task. Sometimes the SS simply isn't the best answer. Since you may not have a Radial arm saw, I'll continue.
2. For constuction type lumber, I've used a circular saw. If the joint is at the end, leave the board longer than you need so you can cut the half lap "in the middle" and cut off the end. This way, the circular saw is supported on both sides of the joint. I don't put a dado blade on circular saw; I just use repeated cuts and clean it out with a shoulder plane.
3. I've actually cut the cheeks of the half laps on the end of a board with a band saw and the shoulders with a back saw.
4. I've even cut half laps on the end with a hand saw. Yes, hand saws still work.
5. While I've never actually tried it, I like the router idea that someone else mention too.

I'm sure there are 50 ways to do it and figuring out how is part of the fun.