# How do you make a straight edge tool?



## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

This is impossible to do perfectly unless you have a perfectly straight edge for a reference. I am going to go to the scrap yard and try to acquire a piece of aluminum tube or channel that can be used as a template. I may purchase a straight edge but I hesitate to because they are very flimsy and one drop or bang could render them useless.


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## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

For small pieces I use the Joiner fence, good out to 3 or 4 feet. I think your idea of chanel or some other device is a good one. Once you get off it isn't long till your entire project is way off. Happy building and be safe!!


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

I know several guys who have made winding sticks (essentially a pair of straight edges) out of channel aluminum from the hardware store. 

You can make your own straight edges out of hardwood relatively easily but the trick is to make THREE, label them A, B and C. Then you start comparing them A to B, A to C and B to C in both orientations (ie spin them around). Make note of high and low spots (feeler gauges for low spots and the straight edges will pivot on high spots). Sand or plane down and test all combinations again. Eventually you arrive at a set of three with one straight edge. Then lock away one or two of them to have as your standards for checking on the piece you use every day.

If on the other hand you are thinking about making a ripping/routing jig, the factory edge on most MDF is pretty dang good. There is a good video tutorial over at the Wood Magazine web site that walks you through making the ripping jig to use with a circular saw and router.


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

Today I took two pieces of oak...actually, oak flooring, and attempted to make a t-square. I first ran them through the table saw to remove the tounge and groove. But then when I joined them together in a "T" I found that if I squared up one side of the t-square the other side was out of square. I evenually determined that both pieces may have just the very slightest unevenness in the edges. So I used my #4 Stanley plane to true the edges up. I did a pretty good job since the t-square was now square on both sides. But then I noticed that farther down the t-square (its about a 36"er), past where my tri-square will measure to, that there appeared to be a almost invisible wave. So I planed it some more and screwed it all up. But with persistance I managed to get it to what appears to be near perfection. But now I can see that my edges on each board are not perfectly square. I apparently am not holding the plane flat on the edge of the board.
How do I make sure my plane rides flat on a 3/4" thick edge?


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

hi Daryl,

do you have the board locked in a vice with the edge your planing facing up?


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

Yes I do. I had to rig up stop blocks and such to hold the board upright and in a stationary position. Then I clamped a board to the side of my plane. The board slide along the side of the board I am planing. This seemed to work a lot better...but what a job getting set up. I gotta build a proper bench soon.
Anyway, I got it done pretty well. But as before the t-sqare is not square on both sides.
Well, I'll let the glue set up and it will be usable for now but I want to get it better at a later date. 
Any suggestions will be appreciated.


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

hi Daryl,

i have to admit the last t-square i made was in the form of a tablessaw sled. and i have to admit, i cheat when it comes to straight edge tools, i use the following. i got a 24', a 36' and a 50' from rockler.

All-In-One Clamp Guides - Rockler Woodworking Tools


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

I hope you meant " instead of '. 

I found that my planing was defective. I made one end narrower than the other. I'll try again tomorrow. This should be doable eventially.

EDIT: Actually, what I should do is to run it through my thickness planer. AHA! Theres some stuff going on in the old head.


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

i may not be following you right. i would have thought you might need to run it through the jointer. sorry if im not following you right?


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

I don't have a jointer. I planed the edges by hand, which I screwed up. What I am saying now is that I should run the boards, on edge, through the power planer to get a uniform board width. Get it?


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

yes, i thought thats what you meant, but sometimes what i think isnt right,lol.

i have all sorts of excuses, age, eyes etc. but they are excuses,lol.


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

This fellow describes how to make your own.
Making Accurate Straight-Edges from Scratch


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

Thats quite interesting Deb. Thanks.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

sofasurfer said:


> Yes I do. I had to rig up stop blocks and such to hold the board upright and in a stationary position. Then I clamped a board to the side of my plane. The board slide along the side of the board I am planing. This seemed to work a lot better...but what a job getting set up. I gotta build a proper bench soon.
> Anyway, I got it done pretty well. But as before the t-sqare is not square on both sides.
> Well, I'll let the glue set up and it will be usable for now but I want to get it better at a later date.
> Any suggestions will be appreciated.


Hi Daryl,

The both sides of your long board do not have to be parallel. I use a drafting square I obtained from my niece. At one end it is 70mm wide near the "T' and only 48mm wide at the outer end. One side has to be jointed straight and this side has to be 90 degrees to the end piece (also with one jointed edge).

Do you have a router table to joint the one side? Or you could use the factory edge from a sheet of MDF.

Our answers are slightly skewed as we are not aware of what tools you have to complete the job.

For example , if you had a router and bearing guided straight bit , you could hot glue or carpet tape the mdf straight edge to you board and this would give you a clean straight edge.

James


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## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

My Father was a sheet metal mechanic and he worked with straight edges all his life. There was always a collection around the house, all of them "out of service' because it got dinged or bent or something.

For him it was a simple matter to check out the shear and the brake in each shop he worked in. It didn't take long for him to tune them up and create a straight edge. The shear is a straight edge and is intended to cut straight lines in steel. When properly setup, you create a 180 degree bend to provide a stiff shoulder and then shear the opposite side to a perfect straight edge the size you need. Dad used one 48" scale and a broad selection of site-made straight edges. I go to the store and look at the steel rules they sell and not one of them is straight. Wood moves with heat and humidity (even maple), so, I'm still using dad's cast-offs.


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## Stefang (Feb 10, 2010)

Hi Daryl,

Here in Norway they sell aluminum boxes which are about 4"X 3/4"X 76" which are used a leveling beams to put your level on. I use mine to attach to my table saw when I want to trim up rough lumber. I also use it as a guide for my circle saw when I saw panels. Maybe they sell them there too.


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## Cochese (Jan 12, 2010)

levon said:


> hi Daryl,
> 
> i have to admit the last t-square i made was in the form of a tablessaw sled. and i have to admit, i cheat when it comes to straight edge tools, i use the following. i got a 24', a 36' and a 50' from rockler.
> 
> All-In-One Clamp Guides - Rockler Woodworking Tools


I've been thinking about getting one of those. I bought a cheaper, but longer one at Home Depot the other day. Works really well, but at the longer lengths (you combine two pieces) you introduce an opportunity for error.

I want one of those clamp guides for 8' plywood.


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

hi Chris

im not sure if rockler sells them or not that is the 8 ft length.
i was lucky enough to go in the atlanta store around new years and got all 3 for 59 bucks.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

To make a second side parallel to the first with a hand plane you need one more tool (besides the work bench). Depending on the width of the stock either a marking gauge or a panel gauge. 

Square one edge. This is now your reference edge. FYI, a #4 is pretty short for the job, a #6,7,8 size (metal or a woodie) would give you more bearing surface but that's for another day.

Now, set your marking gauge (panel gauge) to the final width you want. Perhaps just a hair under the narrowest portion you can find on your board. Carefully scribe two lines, one on each face. Keep the fence of the gauge tight to the freshly jointed edge. Slow and easy, several light passes are probably better than one heavy one where the blade/pin wanders.

Now start planing again but this time watch for that knifed line to appear as a little feather edge. When the little flippy feather appears (and it won't appear all at once) one or two more strokes will finish it. Keep in mind you may need to be doing a little more planing in one area than another. Nothing wrong with working a dozen extra short strokes somewhere along the edge.

As to keeping at right angles to the FACE, that is partly practice and partly technique. Stop using the front knob of the plane. It really just encourages you to bobble left and right. Instead, wrap your left hand (I'm assuming you are right handed) around the front edge of the plane so your thumb is on top and the rest of your fingers are below. Your fingers/knuckles now make a fence and help guide the plane. With a little practice you will begin to feel square or close to it. I happen to grip right in front of the blade. You can grip a little farther forward or even on the far side of the knob. Just experiment a little and you will find the most comfortable spot.

Stop, check with a machinist square several places along the length. If you are drifting out you can try tilting the plane slightly or more likely, examine the shavings and possibly make a change to the lateral adjuster to even things out.

You can buy or make jointing fences for handplanes but your hand works pretty well and chances are you already have that accessory from the factory...


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## sofasurfer (May 30, 2009)

I made another t-square today. I ran the boards through the thickness planer, on edge. Now the edges are perfectly parallel. But when I assembled it I still had trouble. One edge square, the other not. So I checked it against doors, counter tops and table tops in the house. I determined that over a distance of 2 feet my t-square was out by about 3/32". So I picked what I determined was the most truely square door and used it to adjust my t-square. I'll be darned. Now it is almost perfectly square on both edges.
So theres a tip...use a permanent part of your house as a reference to verify your square. Its in a dry, fairly stable atmosphere and its already settled. It should be reliable for years.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Rob...

nice lil tutorial!!! 

love my #7!!! what a TANK!!!


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Hi all
At this link you can see an other way to do the job
Forum Association Les Copeaux :: Connexion
Is from my friend Champy

It is a very good way.
Santé


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

Santé said:


> Hi all
> At this link you can see an other way to do the job
> Forum Association Les Copeaux :: Connexion
> Is from my friend Champy
> ...


Salut Daniel !

Le Link, il n'existe pas !

Peter


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

istracpsboss said:


> Salut Daniel !
> 
> Le Link, il n'existe pas !
> 
> Peter


Yes Peter it do the job, when i clic on the link of your post, i go directly on the thread and the 9 pics are a little little higher


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## gav (Oct 12, 2009)

Sorry Daniel, but it does not work for us. I takes me to a 'log in' page.
I presume that you must be logged in already, and that is why you can go directly to the page.


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

gav said:


> Sorry Daniel, but it does not work for us. I takes me to a 'log in' page.
> I presume that you must be logged in already, and that is why you can go directly to the page.


Sorry, that is just, they are in the private part of the forum (only for members).

I will try tu copy them for you.
one moment, they will come


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Voilà

This photos are made by my friend Champy of lescopeaux.asso.fr


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

straight edge tools


=======


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Champy My friend made some video at this address (for everyone this time)

YouTube - Ponceuse oscillante perso 1

Santé


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## MarcoBernardini (Jan 26, 2010)

Santé said:


> Champy My friend made some video at this address (for everyone this time)
> 
> YouTube - Ponceuse oscillante perso 1
> 
> Santé


Genial!
I bet Champy found some good usages for the column of that drill 
Back to straight edges, generally I use an alumin(i)um rectangular profile. Here it is a common bricklayer tool, available even in 3 meters pieces, and it is pretty rigid.


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Yes, me too I use this profile. Champy has improved: 1) extended his table, he can move panels 70cm wide, 2) installed a micrometer adjustment. e melio cosi no?

Santé


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## MarcoBernardini (Jan 26, 2010)

Santé said:


> Yes, me too I use this profile. Champy has improved: 1) extended his table, he can move panels 70cm wide, 2) installed a micrometer adjustment. e melio cosi no?
> 
> Santé


At this point a 240×100 cm table would allow him to work on a whole door 
Currently I'm using an Ikea kitchen top (246×62) as working surface, and it is really nice: the only problem is it is a bit narrow, but being 38 kg it makes a good ballast.
And just yesterday night I bought a cheap Chinese dial indicator (11.98 USD, 9.05 EUR) to look more "serious" when I work :lol:


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Oh, yes a table of 2m46 is a very comfortable table !


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

Santé said:


> Champy My friend made some video at this address (for everyone this time)
> 
> YouTube - Ponceuse oscillante perso 1
> 
> Santé


Fascinating ! When I saw the first clip I thought it was a filing machine. It wasn't until I looked at the 2nd and 3rd clips that I realised that it was a drum sander with an automated rise and fall. Very ingenious !

Cheers

Peter


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

Santé said:


> Yes, me too I use this profile. Champy has improved: 1) extended his table, he can move panels 70cm wide, 2) installed a micrometer adjustment. e melio cosi no?
> 
> Santé


The extension to his table is great. Judging by his mechanism for the micrometer and his drum sander, he is also an engineer !

Cheers

Peter


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

istracpsboss said:


> The extension to his table is great. Judging by his mechanism for the micrometer and his drum sander, he is also an engineer !
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Peter


Yes, he is very clever, he makes a router table, very special. The router may take any position between vertical and horizontal with the table that can move in 2 positions on the horizontal plane

Daniel


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## tbreland (Apr 18, 2009)

The easiest way (I discovered yesterday) is to overclamp a cheap HF bar clamp. Once it snaps at the trigger, you are left with a straight piece of aluminum, complete with holes for hardware.


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

tbreland said:


> The easiest way (I discovered yesterday) is to overclamp a cheap HF bar clamp. Once it snaps at the trigger, you are left with a straight piece of aluminum, complete with holes for hardware.


Sorry, I don't understand what you say (and Google no more):sarcastic:


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## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

tbreland said:


> The easiest way (I discovered yesterday) is to overclamp a cheap HF bar clamp. Once it snaps at the trigger, you are left with a straight piece of aluminum, complete with holes for hardware.


La maniere le plus fascile (j'ai decouvre hier), c'est a faire une clampe au dessus avec un étau moins cher. Une fois que ca fait claquer au manette, vous restez avec une morceau édroit d'aluminum, complet avec les trous pour le quincaillerie.

Moi, je ne le comprends pas non plus, mais le traduction c'est approximatif.

I don't understand it either but my translation is close.


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

allthunbs said:


> La maniere le plus fascile (j'ai decouvre hier), c'est a faire une clampe au dessus avec un étau moins cher. Une fois que ca fait claquer au manette, vous restez avec une morceau édroit d'aluminum, complet avec les trous pour le quincaillerie.
> 
> Moi, je ne le comprends pas non plus, mais le traduction c'est approximatif.
> 
> I don't understand it either but my translation is close.


Thaks for the translation !

Santé


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## tbreland (Apr 18, 2009)

Probably should have made ot clearer that it was more for referencing a straight edge.


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## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

tbreland said:


> Probably should have made ot clearer that it was more for referencing a straight edge.


Got some pictures Thomas?


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## Swallow (Jan 13, 2010)

sofasurfer said:


> I don't have a jointer. I planed the edges by hand, which I screwed up. What I am saying now is that I should run the boards, on edge, through the power planer to get a uniform board width. Get it?


The problem with that is that there is nothing in the geometry of the thickness planer that will give you a good second edge if the primary one is screwed up, that is why one uses a jointer, to acquire a good working edge.


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## cowtown_eric (Apr 30, 2010)

for straightedges of the plebian variety, yer further ahead to go with some flat aluminium stock, which you can purchase at the local borg. 

But if length is what you need, most scrap metal yards have tons of aluminium extrusions often in 12 foot lengths that would do ya quite well. Typically they cost about 20 bucks a length, depending on what they weigh...

but to get real anal, My Moore and Wright 5' steel machinists straightedge has instructions on where you can support it....Not Hold it, cause the heat of your hands on one side of the bar can cause it to distort.....so you "support it"

Now in some trades that level of obsessiveness is essential, My experience is that aluminium flat stock is quite suitable, and scrap aluminium extrusions are equally so for all matters related to woodworkng. 

I've made guides to slide down aluminium extrusions to guide a laminate slitter to cut up 12' sheets of HPL with less than 1/8" of waste...

If I hadn't done that I would have gotten two cuttings per sheets vs 6 cuttings, the economics was the primary driver....20 bucks of aluminium extrusion, two hours making it work as a guide, and instead of 9 sheets of 5x12 formica, I did it with 3, saving 400 bucks.

and the cutting was all flat lay on the Ts table, so risk was minimized to boot.

Only drawback with aluminium straight edges is that if you use them with carbide scribers, they soon become worn, BUT I would much rather sacrifice a 20 buck piece of aluminium that a 5' machinist's steel straight edge or a 20" machinists square....

Eric

Eric


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## dirkost (Jul 8, 2009)

Hi Ho: I was always looking for a straight edge, especially a long one. One that is really cheap and is pretty good is simply a metal stud, available at most hardware stores for a couple of bucks. It is also 8 feet long.

If you don't need quite the length, a 6 foot spirit level from Harbor Freight is not much more.

Dirk


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## tdublyou (Jan 8, 2010)

cowtown_eric said:


> for straightedges of the plebian variety, yer further ahead to go with some flat aluminium stock, which you can purchase at the local borg.
> 
> But if length is what you need, most scrap metal yards have tons of aluminium extrusions often in 12 foot lengths that would do ya quite well. Typically they cost about 20 bucks a length, depending on what they weigh...
> 
> ...


The aluminum extrusions do work very well. I have a 6', 8' and 12'. all were free as they were the head frame members from old aluminum patio doors I was tearing out and replacing.


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