Hmmmm... my first attempt tells me that either I screwed up when I jointed the boards on the router table or that the router isn't perpendicular to the table top. The boards didn't go together flat, but rather at a slight angle. If you clamp them down flat, the bottom seam wants to open up. The good news is that the angle seems to be uniform and I can just turn the boards over to make them match up. Sucks to have to work off sawhorses. A real free standing work table would be much better.
Ian
I'm not sure what you have for tools in your shop, but here is something thats always worked for me, and better than a joiner or the router table for jointing boards. 1st you need a piece of straight plywood longer than the boards to straighten.About 8 inches wide works great.Add a reinforcing strip (1x1 works fine) to keep the new tool flat. I keep a 50 inch piece and an 8 foot piece ready and hanging on the wall. They are now tools.
Next plane your boards to be joined flat on the 2 wide faces. Once you get the boards flat and to the thickness you want, you set up for the next process.
Set up your boards that need the edges cleaned up on a workbench, old table, whatever work surface you have. ( I use the extensions on my unisaw)
Measure the distance from the blade to the edge of the "table" on your circular saw.Lets pretend its 6 inches. Add 1/4 inch at least and clamp your new plywood tool to the board to be straightened at 6 1/4 inches from the board edge. . Run the circular saw along the plywood tools edge, or fence if you will. You now have 3 sides square on a board. Now you can either finish up the 4th side on a table saw or radial arm saw, of if you don't have one of those, repeat what you just did.
For me this not only ALWAYS works, but produces a straighter cleaner edge for gluing. I find it a major pita to joint boards, in particular wide or long ones on a jointer. Same with the router table.
This is so simple it'll make you say, after you tried it, "why didn't I think of that"
Now if you already ripped those wide boards down to 5 inches (which was not my suggestion btw) this procedure won't work. Thats why you prep your boards 1st, then rip them into narrower pieces , but only if needed. 8 inch dry cedar is perfectly stable if finished correctly, as in all surfaces finished. All surfaces, inside, outside, bottom, the whole piece of furniture. If you only finish the parts that show, I give you my 100% guarantee that it will warp, twist, crack, you name it.
When woodworking in a basic shop you need to think outside of the box. Forget about all the tools the woodworking mags tell you that you need. There job is to sell tools for their advertisers. Look at what you have for tools, and figure out a SAFE simple way to do it. There always is.
