Half Laps

[Fisherman]

Good Morning, I am making a bunch of Picture Frames using Half Lap Joints. Just curious how the Hand Tool Crowd would do it? Two saw cuts, or multiple crosscuts and clean up with a chisel. I am using a Table saw and Dado and cleaning them up with a Router Plane. White Oak 1-1/2 wide , 1/2 " thick . I do not have any decent Handsaws yet, but I think it might be faster by hand.
Thanks, Coffee break over now back to work for me.

[YSU65]

I do not use hand tools on most of the half laps I make. I use a tenon jig - you can make one that slides next to your table saw fence. I cut the shoulder first then the lap cut. I have cut half laps for outdoor things with a hand saw and was very happy with the results.

[Phil S.]

I used a dado blade on these 1X4 cedar frames -



And just glued up the sawn faces with TBIII.

I think to do them with a handsaw I'd make two cuts and clean them up with the router plane if needed. Someone good with a back saw could likely cut them accurately enough to forego the plane, particularly on smaller dimension pieces. I think I've seen St. Roy do a single cut and just split off the cheeks in straight grained wood, but that may have been for tenons rather than half laps and it was St. Roy doing it.

[Guest]

I've made a number of half laps with hand tools. I saw them and fit with a shoulder plane. One thing I've learned: don't count on getting a nice looking joint by marking the center of the board. Instead, use a marking gauge to mark the thickness of the laps, reference from the same face (I always reference from the show face) of both boards and cut away the waste. It really doesn't matter how thick the laps are or whether the boards vary a little in thickness. As long as you reference from the same face of both boards, the finished joint should come out flush on the face.

[Lynford in Reno]

For this size half laps it is done almost entirely with back saws. A carcass saw for the shoulder cross grain cut and a tenon saw on the long grain cut. The mitered half lap as shown above is a little more complex but on the first piece cut the miter completely through and on the second piece cut the miter only half way through then remove the waste. After the sawing the final fitting is probably best done with a shoulder plane but a router plane works too. Careful marking and cutting on the wrong side of the mark are probably the biggest problems for people starting with hand tools.

[Carl Grover]

I do them with all saw cuts after carefully laying everything out. When that doesn't work so well I tune them with a shoulder plane.





Then I cuss them. That usually does it.



Carl

[Fisherman]

Thanks to all, I will need to invest in some Handsaws soon. Sticking with table saw for now. I have done larger pieces for outside projects by hand but they did not need to be too accurate.