Half Lap Joints

[bball]

From searching the web it seems like a common method of making half lap joints is to make a bunch of kerf cuts with a circular saw and then chisel away the remaining wood (http://doityourself.com/power/quickhalflapjoints.htm).  This seems like it might chip the wood causing a sloppy join in the end.  Has anyone tried this method ?  I was think of just using a router to router out the entire chunk of wood but it seems like that might take a while.

bball

[wee beastie]

bbal,

if done properly this will hold well.  The trick is to chisel evenly then sand ever so slighly.  Then, you can connect using your favorite joint compound/glue.  

Ideally you can use a radial arm saw that can make cuts adjacent to each other.  This way you don't have to chisel anything as the blade will cut it all away.   I'm not sure I would suggest doing this with a handheld circular saw, though as the saw may jump.  I could be wrong on this, but do so at your own risk as I've only done this using my radial arm saw.

wee beastie

[BobA]

You can also use your router but you would have to support the router so that the cuts would be even so a jig is probably called for.  Also the lap joint would probably be made in several passes with the depth being increased with each pass.   A nice clean joint could be done with a router but only if a proper supporting jig was fabricated.  Really not a hard job.

BobA

[bball]

Thanks for the input, I am going to experiment with both methods.  I was talking to someone earlier who said the saw/chisel method works well if you have a pretty sharp chisel.  I still think I'm leaning towards the router method but we'll see how the experiments go

bball

[skirge66]

I know you didn't spacificly ask about it, another method you might think about is using a table saw (if you have access to one) using a dato blade, very fast and works like a champ...but the blade isn't cheap.

just a thought

[ErikRuud]

Routers and/or table saws will do a better job, especially if the joint will be visible.

The web site you were looking at was for building framing with does not require perfect joints.