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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: bball on May 10, 2003, 02:02:40 pm

Title: Half Lap Joints
Post by: bball on May 10, 2003, 02:02:40 pm

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 (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

Title: Re:Half Lap Joints
Post by: wee beastie on May 10, 2003, 04:56:47 pm

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

Title: Re:Half Lap Joints
Post by: BobA on May 10, 2003, 06:47:55 pm

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

Title: Re:Half Lap Joints
Post by: bball on May 11, 2003, 02:51:11 am

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

Title: Re:Half Lap Joints
Post by: skirge66 on May 11, 2003, 03:27:50 am

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

Title: Re:Half Lap Joints
Post by: ErikRuud on May 12, 2003, 09:46:22 am

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.