I've spent two days trying to do a half lap joints various planks and I can't fucking do it.

I saw multiple videos on how to do it with a circular saw and it kind of work but it seems impossible to get the exact right measurements like they effortlessly do on videos.

I've tried doing it by hand with my saw but I can't keep a straight line.

It seems like a tablesaw would be the most efficient way to do it consistently and professional looking

CAPTCHA: G00NN

>>2930122
You think I'm doing DIY because I'm made of money?

>>2930119 (OP)
no measuring needed
set saw to cut approx 1/2 way through
dado 1st board
on a good flat surface set the 2nd board against the 1st dadoed end
set the saw on top of the 2nd board and drop the blade until it just touches the dadoed surface

>>2930119 (OP)
Clamp the board to some horses so you have room to work. Raise the blade on your saw all the way. Set the saw on the board where you want the inside of the cut to be. Put a speed square on the board to the side of the saw where the cit isn't being made up. Square everything up. Once you have the saw exactly where you want it and you know the speedsquare is Square against the board Clamp that in place. Set your blade height exactly where you want it, use digital calipers if you need to. Lock it in place good. Make sure the shoe of your saw is 90°s to the blade. Start making cuts from the outside, slow and deliberate. This is not a quick and easy method for half laps, it's really tedious and a lot can go wrong. Better methods are a router, table saw or a router table. You could easily do this exact same setup but use a router instead of a circular saw and get much better results. You can also use a router for finger joints, dados, etc.

>start the screw straight, then angle
or
>predill at correct angle
wa la you're a kreg jig

>>2930119 (OP)
Maybe try adding a chisel and rasp to your tool kit, if going by hand.
Chisels to help you take out large chunks and a rasp to help refine the fit. Your saw cuts can act as the border of where you are working with your chisel.
Cut inside your lines and creep up on a snug fit.
Making nice shit takes time. Wither from experience or spending alot of time perfecting. Usually both.

>>2930119 (OP)
For machine cut, cut it a bit small, then use a file or sander to bring it to the perfect fit.

For hand cut you should practice a bit. Take your time to learn to cut in a straight line.

>>2930119 (OP)
Your mistake is clearly not realizing how much prep goes into making sure your half lap will fit together and how much work there is after sawing to add retroactive precision.
For a half-lap you'll need to square 2 sides of your stock and then you'll need to use those reference faces to mark out the joint, rough saw it, chisel it to the lines (a router plane makes the large face a lot easier), assemble it and then you need to plane it again to get rid of the always imperfect fit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4aimRp9V34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfXmFErs9J0
You can't just YOLO it with hand tools. There's an asston of other shit you need to do to make it perfect and half of it is retroactive precision.

>>2931332
> You can't just YOLO it with hand tools.
You can, it was yolo’d with hand tools way before router planes and shit. Crosscut saw, rip saw, chisel, plane for small adjustments

> you'll need to square 2 sides of your stock and then you'll need to use those reference faces to mark out the joint
You don’t need to mark off anything other than the pieces themselves, it’s more accurate too if pieces aren’t perfectly straight. You put them together how you want them and trace the lines. This fake new age artisan stuff is all just snobbery and YouTube somehow convinced people that paul sellers methods are the only way to get anything done.

>>2930125
>You think I'm doing DIY because I'm made of money?
Uhhh...yes, that is a fairly common assumption.
And you better not think the table saw can be any cheap table saw, it has to be a top grade table saw that by itself costs more than 20 years of your DIY projects put together.

>>2932789
I don't really know what to say to that. Enjoy your dog shit?

>>2930119 (OP)
>joinery with a circular saw
lol
>tried doing it by hand with my saw but I can't keep a straight line
this is due to one of two things from my experience:

> A) your saw is unevenly set between left and right side
This is likely if you bought it secondhand or have ever tuned it up yourself. You’ll need to take the time to set and sharpen it if this is the case. Plenty of videos exist on how to do this but you’ll need a set of saw files, a hammer, a lil anvil (a second hammer in a vise works fine), saw set pliers, and enough patience to do a 10 minute job. If you’re using some hardened metal saw from Home Depot throw that thing away and buy a brass backed tenon saw. Spear & Jackson makes a great cheap one that lasts fucking forever.
Alternatively: pic related is another great option for any delicate cuts and it requires no tuning up because blades are replaceable. But blades break easily and they’re more expensive in the long run.

>B) you are gorilla gripping it and flexing your wrist causing it to deviate
A saw needs to be held like a little baby bird. Someone should be able to snatch it out of your hand at any moment mid-cut. Carefully establish the kerf, and let the saw do the work. Stop going monke mode and go monk mode instead.
If it’s not doing the work it fast enough, put a little machine oil on it. If it still isn’t cutting like it should, see the fix in option >A)

Shit is not rocket science when you figure it out.

>>2930119 (OP)
>I've tried doing it by hand with my saw but I can't keep a straight line.
Maybe you should practice cutting a straight line properly instead of trying to do joints

>>2930119 (OP)
I do this kind of stuff at my job sometimes. Mostly we use a router with a rabbit bit to make half lap joints. Honestly doing it with just a circular saw would be super hard and I would probably lose my shit trying to do that. If you want to truly get into woodworking you need to be willing to invest some money in tools, I'd say the basics are a router, table saw, miter saw, various finish nail guns, a drill and impact.

>>2932804
>it has to be a top grade table saw that by itself costs more than 20 years of your DIY projects put together
you can get a single phase powermatic 66 or unisaw for sub $500 with an ounce of patience. so that rules out all the zoomiezooms
my friend couldnt sell his pristine og green 66 with an incra fence & miter gauge and full 8ft beismeyer fence with a built in router table plus a rotary phase converter for $1k. finally sold the accessories on ebay and dumped the saw for $300. this was last summer
just looked and there was more several options locally as described including cherry picel

>>2933051
Nta, but it's not rocket science, dude. You're convinced you need to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on that shit because you've never practiced free-hand. You can train your body to be the machine, bro. It's not hard, but it does require time and discipline. People been doing it since the beginning of man. You're basically saying "I'm too weak to do it myself". Not everything needs to be a fine piece of woodworking, either. Sometimes ya just gotta slap some shit together for a project so you can get done what needs doing and then you take it apart or adapt it to some other use. The difference between a craftsman and you is that you are absolutely worthless without your own special tools and you take forever. Someone who understands the art innately can make anything work and it'll look and work great.

Two days is hardly any amount of time, kid. That's like you got used to pulling the trigger, but haven't even developed the strength to hold that trigger down for a half an hour, let alone all fucken day. Discipline your body. Gonna have to learn how to see the lines and use your body. Knowing how to barbie doll is an important part. Lock certain joints down and only use others to maintain straightness and consistency. More importantly, take your time and don't rush. Speed will come when you've built up skill and knowledge through experience. I would get a Ryoba like this anon has here: >>2933123. A circ isn't the tool for the job unless you know what you're doing.

set your depth on the circular saw, cut a few lines, chisel it out, no?

you are never going to rip it perfectly to depth and be a nice cut

>>2933189
Speak for yourself.

>>2933147
>>>"Every time I try to make a Renaissance painting it turns out shit, what gives?"
>>"There's a lot of prep involved that you're not doing."
>"HURR GRUG WAS PAINTING ON CAVE WALLS WITH ANIMAL BLOOD 250,000 YEARS AGO SCRUB!"
Okay. Enjoy your dogshit.

Funniest thread I've read in a minute. Hey op why don't you pay a real man to do it(like me). Or take your time and buy some sandpaper. We're not building the fucking challenger here kid.

>>2933249
Why don't you show us your magnum opus if you're so special? Can't wait to see it.

>>2933249
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to try and make a renaissance painting if you haven’t made a caveman drawing yet, maybe OP just wants something functional

>>2930119 (OP)
> I've tried doing it by hand with my saw but I can't keep a straight line.
What kind of saw are you using?

Build a jig

>>2930119 (OP)
>he doesn't saw, plane, and chisel his joints entirely with hand tools
NGMI, just end your life now.

>>2932789
The time period your thinking of also had people producing their own food.
Can you do that?
They also spent their entire lives crafting a skill and doing it 10 hours a day. You can't just set down your keyboard and be a professional old world carpenter overnight.

Brother. I'm white trash and if you can't do a lap joint just stop or shut the fuck up and learn from people rather than telling everyone you just asked for advice that you know better.
Holy shit.

>>2933385
I've tried using a shitty home depot saw, a back saw and an old crosscut saw.
I think the main issue may just be the fact that I don't have a good work bench of vice or any way to really get the wood held down.
>>2930127
so far this has been the best method.

>>2933139
I picked up a radial arm saw from 1982 for free off of facebook. You can do cross cuts, rips, bevels, miters and it even has an accessory attachment for routing.

>>2933627
Most cheap back saws are shit for jointery, get a cheap razorsaw, not that jap saws are always better but you won’t find a better western style saw for $30, let alone one that does both cross and rip cuts well. And just practice sawing straight lines a bit before you try to make a joint, plenty of good explanation videos online

>>2933338
You're right anon. Telling someone to mark out where to cut and then refine it with a chisel is clearly 9001 steps too far. I frankly cannot believe that I would suggest something requiring such an absurd amount of specialist tooling. I kneel before your wisdom.

>>2933638
There is a reason it was free. Craftsman saws were recalled for being unsafe. Those low end Craftsman saws were crap and gave radial arm saws a bad name. They don't hold their zero and they flex under load. Oh and their guards were dogshit and chopped peoples arms off. You can get $50 for it here: http://radialarmsawrecall.com

See if you can get a Rockwell/Delta, DeWalt, Walker-Turner, or Red Star made one. The more cast iron in it the better. Like your women, it should have CURVES. Picture related. The more straight angles on it, the newer and more lightly built it will be. You want something that takes two people to get into the back of your truck at minimum. If it needs a forklift you'll really have something worth owning.

>>2933756
DeWalt saws that look like this are the best kind they made. Their 'flat top' ones with all cast iron arms were decent. Once they started adding plastic and sheet metal to them their quality went down.

>>2933688
>let alone one that does both cross and rip cuts well
on a joinery saw that is a meme, my dude

>>2933638
>>2933756
I am confused, can you the blade 90 degrees on the hanging part to use as an upside down table saw or nah?

>>2933888
>can you the blade 90 degrees on the hanging part to use as an upside down table saw
yes but you should make sure your insurance is paid up beforehand
radials will do all spts of neat shit and it was only limpwristed edamamebois that have them a bad name
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/222/17116.pdf