Half lap joint

- HALF LAP JOINTS ON THE TABLE SAW -

A half lap joint can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Personally I'm all about the simple, so let me share a simple approach to half lap joints using the table saw.

Make sure that your pieces are the same in width and thickness. The first thing to do is line up the ends of the boards so that they are flush as shown in the picture.

Then using a pencil I mark the width of this joint using the edge where the two boards meet as my guide.

Now using a square I can transfer this line on to the side of the board.

Then using a ruler I draw an x by connected the corners with in this area, like shown in the picture below. A half lap is created by removing half of the material from each board and in order to do that I need to find the center of the board, it's now located at the center of the x I just drew.

Now I adjust the table saw blade height to level out with the center of this x, and I'm ready to go.
Then using my miter gauge I will remove the waste material, I do like to use a stop block when creating these joints because it makes for easy repeatability, and if your building something like a picture frame that's eight times you will have to repeat this process leaving a lot of room for mistakes that can be easily be avoided with a stop block.

With my last pass complete I'm left with a cut surface that is less then desirable. The problem is that a normal blade leaves behind cross cut marks through the matting surfaces of the joint, now you can avoid this by purchasing a flat tooth blade or a dado stack. But I've never found this to be a big deal, I just give the surface a couple of light passes with my block plane, or you could use a solid sanding block it really doesn't take much effort to clean up. How ever you decide to approach this take the time, this will ensure the joint will close up nice and tight.

And you did it, a simple half lap joint using the table saw. I hope this helps you and you're able to get out in your shop and use this joint to build something awesome.