Use Your Router Table as a Jointer

When people ask me about tools to get for their shop when they're gettin' rollin', router table for me is really, really high on the list. It's such a versatile addition to the shop 'cause there's all sorts of stuff we can do on the router table. Of course, the router can come off the router table, be used handheld. And in the world of versatility, one of the things that not everybody knows is we can use the router table as a jointer. So let's talk a little bit about attributes of a joiner.

On a jointer, there's an infeed table, a cutter and an outfeed table. The infeed table is slightly below the cutter. The outfeed table is offset and it's even with the cutter. So on a router table, here's what you gotta have. There needs to be a way to offset our outfeed fence.

So the outfeed fence is the one on this side. The reason I'm pointing this out is this is a really cool setup with this Kreg table. This rod will store here and there's another one just like it on the other side of the fence. Then when we don't use these, the fence halves are coplanar. When we want a joint on the router table, then we can slip this in and there are spots available there.

The spots to put it into are different sizes. The different size slot controls how much offset you're creating, so you can take off more or less per pass depending on which slot you use. What that rod is doing is shimming the fence out consistently. Now there are a couple things I like about this. One is if you've got a limited budget and you're not ready to buy a jointer yet, this solves that problem.

We can edge joint here on the router table. Even if you already have a jointer, sometimes I joint on the router table because router bits, currently unplugged, spin at a very high RPM, two flutes on the router bit. So we're getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 40, 44,000 cuts per minute from this cutter. That really high cuts per minute number is something that'll give us a really good surface finish even in materials like curly maple, which can have a tendency to chip when you're jointing them. Also because the router bit is carbide tipped, we can edge joint pretty much anything.

Manmade materials, plexiglass. If you have tool steel knives and a jointer, you shouldn't be using your jointer for manmade materials. To get this to work what we need to do is get the outfeed fence, the one that we shimmed out, in line with the router bit. So I'm gonna do that using a straight edge, put that on the fence, and what I'm looking for is when that bit is top dead center, the cutter is at its maximum point in this direction. Align the fence.

And I'm gonna lock it and then I'm gonna spin the cutter. And what I'm looking for is right there, it's dragging on that ruler just a little bit, so I think my fence might be a little too far back. Micro adjust. Hand spin. It's just kissing it right there.

Might be the perfect spot. Let's get some dust collection, some power, some hearing protection, and then we'll be ready for a test cut. You gotta love it when the cut quality is so good on that jointed edge that it's got a little sheen to it and you can really see the cool, cool curl. You can really see the curl in that curly maple. Now let's talk about that cut.

When you set this up, one of three things are gonna happen. This cut cut perfectly on the first try. That doesn't always happen for me. One scenario would be I'm cutting, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, and the board hits the outfeed side. It bumps into it and it can't continue.

That tells you you're not taking enough material off. The fence is too far forward. Alternatively, it cuts, and when you get to the bit, it snipes. So what that tells you is the fence is too far back and it's taken too much material off. So let's just for the sake of you understanding what this part is, I'm gonna bring the fence a little bit forward.

See if we can simulate our two setups here. Right there it made a cut, but it can't continue. The fence is too far forward. Let's go the other way. Well, you heard it.

At the end of the cut, the board kind of fell into the cutter. Snipe is that little overcut right there. That tells us the fence is too far back. So a good idea is when you're first set up, grab a piece of scrap and do some test cuts and symptomatically, after the straight edge set up, you can tell if this is cutting right or not and you can adjust accordingly. End of the day, edge jointing stock like this, the router table makes a great jointer and it's a great workaround if you don't have a joiner, and it's a great technique to know about even if you do own a joiner.