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Best method for joining boards edge-to-edge?
EightBySix:
I think you'll be ok with just glue, because of the relatively large surface area, unless you need it to be super strong. biscuits are more for getting the joints lined up rather than adding strength anyway. If you need it to stand up to a beating, I would use Tongue and groove. You could make a slot in each - t moulding style - and then insert a separate piece for the Tongue.
knave:
I made a chessboard like this in junior high woodshop. Just used glue, it's still around to this day, in fact my mom uses it as a table/plant stand with a wooden base that she had. It's pretty strong. Held up over 20 years.
Fursphere:
Like many others have said - Biscuit Joiner or Dad Tounge and Groove. But both of those require special equipment. (table saw w/ dado blades or biscuit joiner).
If you're on a tight budget, dowl rods, a hand drill and some paitence go a long way.
If you do buy a biscuit joiner - don't go cheap. The $150 Dewalt (amazon.com) is about as low as I'd go.. anything cheaper usually has a plastic fence and you'll end up redoing things a lot because of drift.
The touge & groove option is very nice, but has a lot of setup time. I'm actually setting up a second table saw as a dedicate dado table...
Woodshop Flunky:
Your right, gluing end grain is going to be weaker, but it is still going to be a really strong joint. I would likely use dowels, but I have a Dowelmax jig, and I wouldn't trying to align mating dowel joints with a cheap jig.
I might suggest just using a spline if you're really concerned. If you you have a slot cutter you can do this with a router, and then glue a spline in the grove you cut. You can stop short of making a full length groove, and you will see no evidence of a spline on any exterior edge.
Again, unless your going to really abuse this, the end to end glue joint is still going to be really strong.
web_traveler:
method I use for wide panels is to not plane the boards down to finish thickness at first. I then glue up "mini" panels that are not wider than can be handled on the planar I have. I then plane these mini panels down to the final thickness. You then have fewer "boards" to worry about a precise glue-up. You can now glue these mini panels together using whatever method you wish. (dowels, biscuits, splines, cawls, etc.) This cuts down on the final sanding or scraping or whatever method you use before applying finish. This works for me and I have made several tables, or cabinets requiring wider panels.
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