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How can I true up the front and back plates with no light
coming through if I don't have a joiner? Can I use a 2x4
with sand paper on it? Problem is some 2x4's aren't straight.

Any other ideas?

Shooting board and a hand plane.

If the gap is wide you might want to hand plane to start but to get really flat you need a flat surface. I use my Veritas straight edge from Lee Valley when I need to. I get close clamp the halves together put PSA paper on the straight edge, cross hatch the edge and sand off the lines. This is the tool I use (others use a 24" level if the edge is flat enough) :

Cast iron wing or top of a table saw and sandpaper.

-tommy

I mostly use a plane and a shooting board, but I also have a 2' * 4" tempered piece of plate glass that I used sticky sandpaper on. I would hold the two plates together and sand. If after sanding and l ended up with gaps on the ends, I put a little bit of tape under the glass in the center and sanded some more. I did 6 or 8 plates that way.

johnnparchem wrote:I mostly use a plane and a shooting board, but I also have a 2' * 4" tempered piece of plate glass that I used sticky sandpaper on. I would hold the two plates together and sand. If after sanding and l ended up with gaps on the ends, I put a little bit of tape under the glass in the center and sanded some more. I did 6 or 8 plates that way.

I use to do the table saw and plate glass style but I would end up with gaps on the end like John. The straight edge eliminated that for me and took it off just as quick.

While the joint can be made by sanding, I think a better joint is made by a planed surface. It is well worth the effort to learn to sharpen ,set up a plane and use it to do the edges for the joint. Use a cheap or junk top and practice, practice until one gets it.
Tom

I love this forum. Thank you to everyone so wiling to share
their ideas. I'm a new builder and need lots of help but it
makes it so much fun when you guys care enough to
answer questions.....

As you get more into it you will acquire the tooling.
A good plane is a handy tool. Learn to set them up as they don't work well out of the box