Jointing on a Router Table
How to Use
Jointing on a router table is worth your effort.
When beginning a woodworking project, your stock must have square faces and edges for
quality joinery. You can use your router table to joint the edges of wood. It is simple and
fast. The results are excellent.
There are several real advantages to jointing on a router table:
It's accessible to anyone
Ease of setup
Uses economical carbide straight bits
Carbide bits joint the edges of hardwood, MDF, Plywood, most plastics, and aluminum
High speed steel (HSS) jointer knives are limited to cutting wood
Clamp a piece of Formica to the outfeed side of the fence. A precision ground straight edge
(Starret) lines up the router bit and the outfeed fence. The infeed side of the fence is offset by the
thickness of the Formica. To protect your fingers, project no more than 1/16" of the router bit above
your work.
After a couple of passes, the edge is straight. Can it get any simpler?
Jointing on a Router table is easier with a split fence. As you can see in the picture, you can
do it with a "solid" fence as well.
The outfeed side of the fence is tangent with the router bit's sweep. Place the router bit so
that one cutting edge is at its maximum sweep. Place the straight edge on the Formica and
the edge of the router bit. Tighten the fence. The infeed side of the fence is offset by the
desired jointing thickness. In this case, the thickness of the Formica, that is approx 1/32".
For best results both sides of the fence need to be straight, parallel, and square to the
tabletop. It is best to use a carbide straight router bit. A larger cutter diameter minimizes
deflection. I like using a Whiteside 3/4" x 2" cut router bit. It produces the best finish.
