Replies

1. 
   pzgren | Apr 10, 2006 07:07am | #1

   Doc:

   If you don't want to cut you board into 6 inch wide pieces, you can use hand planes to flatten your board. The first part of this little article covers flattening the face of a board with a hand plane; the rest covers doing the rest of the board. Hope that it is of some use to you.

   James

   _____

   Hand planing (rough) lumber to dimension is not hard:

   Ideally, you need 5 planes: a scrub plane, a #5, a #7 or #8, a #4 or #4-1/2, and a low angle block plane, but you can get away with a #5 and a low angle block plane -- it's just a little harder. (Or you can use the wooden plane equivalents.)

   You'll also need a good straight edge, an accurate try or combination square, a marking/panel gauge, and a pair of winding sticks (you can make these yourself). A card scraper is also handy.

   Select a board face for the reference face. Use a pair of winding sticks and a straight edge to determine the high and low spots. Mark the high spots and use the scrub plane to reduce them to the approximate level of the rest of the board. Check for twist with the winding sticks. Correct with the scrub, as necessary. By this time, you should have a roughly flat (length and width) board with no twist and with a lot of troughs in it. Use the #5 to remove the troughs from the scrub plane. (Planing diagonally or straight across the grain in both directions with the scrub plane and the #5 to remove the scrub troughs will significantly reduce tearout in most woods. Then follow up with the #5 by planing with the grain.) Once the troughs are mostly gone, use the #7 or #8 with the grain to plane the face flat. Once you get full length and full width shavings, you board is very, very close to FLAT. Check with the straight edge and winding sticks. Correct as necessary. Finish up with the smoothing plane (#4 or # 4-1/2). Use the scraper on gnarly grain that gives your smoother a hard time, but be careful not to scrape a dip into the wood. Part 1 of 6, complete.

   Mark this face as your reference face. All other measurements of square, etc, will come from this face.

   Select one long edge, and use the #5 to roughly flatten/smooth it, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Mark this edge as your reference edge. Part 2 of 6, complete.

   Use the reference edge and the try/combination square to mark one of the short edges square. You can use the #5 to plane to rough plane it flat and square to both the reference face and edge -- if the short edge is 4 to 6 or more inches wide; if not, then start with the LA block plane. (Chamfering the edges down to your cutting line will reduce tear out on the corner edges; alternative methods are to clamp a sacrificial piece of wood to the edge and let it tear out instead of your board, or to plane in from each outside edge.) Use the LA block plane to clean it up. Mark the other short edge to the desired length (saw it to rough length, if necessary) and do the same thing to the other short edge. Parts 3 and 4 of 6, complete.

   Use your combination square or a marking/panel gauge to mark the other (unplaned) long edge to the desired finished width. As you did for the reference long edge, use the #5 to roughly smooth it down almost to the cutting line, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Check for straight and square to the reference face and to the 2 short edges. All 4 edges should now be square to the reference face and square to each other. Part 5 of 6, complete.

   Use your marking gauge, basing off the reference face, to mark the thickness of your board around all 4 edges. Flip the board over to the unplaned face and use the scrub plane to plane down almost to the marked reference lines (The bottoms of the troughs should be about 1/16 inch above the cutting line). Use the #5, and the #7 or #8, as before on the reference face to make this face flat and square. Finish up with the smooth plane and, as necessary, the scraper. Part 6 of 6, complete.

   At this time, you should have a board with 2 flat, smooth, and parallel faces, 4 flat and square edges (long edges parallel to each other, as well as short edges parallel to each other, and all 4 edges square to the two faces and to each other), and of the required thickness, length, and width, ready for whatever needs to be done next.

   The first board you do by hand will take what seems like an inordinately long time, but with just a little bit of practice, it becomes nearly as fast as -- and often faster than -- putting a board through a jointer, thickness planer, and sanding sequence.

   A couple of things to keep in mind:

   Keep your plane irons SHARP!!

   If you have only a couple of planes, open the mouth up for the initial rougher planing, and close the mouth for the finer, finish planing.

   Let the plane do the work -- don't force it.

   Try to remove a roughly equal amount of wood from each face; if you don't, the wood will sometimes cup or twist again -- due to internal stresses released by planing -- after you have spent all that time and effort making it flat.

   Skewing the plane often helps reduce tear out and makes planing easier.

   Use of a shooting board makes this significantly easier.

   Expect to get a good upper body work out!

   This is not the only sequence that it can be done in, but it works quite well.

   Good luck, and have fun! There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment you get when you have taken a piece of rough lumber and turned it into a nicely finished, dimensioned, board using only hand-powered tools.

2. 
   citrouille | Apr 11, 2006 01:55am | #2

   If you have a thickness planer go to the General discussion and look at my answer to "planing rough lumber safely" or something like that.

   C.

1. 
   sparrow | Apr 11, 2006 06:43am | #3

   A solution to jointing a board that is too wide for your jointer is to rip the board in half, then joint and plane each half to close to final dimension, and then glue them back together. Final clean up/dimensioning can be done with a hand plane or on a wide belt sander. An advantage of this method is that the ripping helps remove quite a bit of stress from the board, and that the final glued back together piece is quite stable. If you're fussy and have good luck, the grain between the divided planks can be matched very well and it will be pretty much invisible. It helps to have a bit of extra length in the plank so that the edges can be slid up or down against each other to get the best grain match.

3. 
   AdamCherubini | Apr 11, 2006 08:05pm | #4

   I guess another aspect to this question is whether you should  flatten a face at all.  If you imagine a cupped and twisted board, inside that board is a perfectly flat board.  But how thick is it?  If you start with twisted 4/4, do you end up with flat 1/2" or 3/8" stock?  And does this even solve the problem?  Won't the cup and twist come back?

   Here comes the controversial part (please dont' get your feelings hurt):

   What I see are woodworkers machining wood like its aluminum- without any regard for grain other than its esthetic value.  There's no sympthy or intimacy for the wood.  No understanding for why it is the way it is.  They seek a block of dimensionally stable material, which wood will never be.

   So my advice is to do absolutely as little to this board as possible.  If you can, restrain it in its assembly, do it.  That structure will be required to keep this board from moving in the future anyway. 

   Just as an example, I work with really wide stock (15"+). Its impossible to get stock this wide that's flat, and its pointless to try to plane it flat.  So I surface plane as best I can- smoothing the exterior, ignoring the interior, then I restrain it in my twin screw vise and cut the dovetails in this condition.  Once assembled the dovetails will restrain the cup and twist adequately well.  (Just an example). 

   So in summation, I would encourage you to ask yourself why it is that you need flat stock, what will happen if it warps later, and what about your joinery or expectations you can change to allow for the use of actual wood, as opposed to alumnium, mdf, or plywood.

   Adam

   P.S.  So in rereading, I can see how this might sound really offensive.  But I'm not sure how to make it more polite and keep my meaning equally clear.  So believe me whan I say I'm really trying to help, be plain and clear, and not offend.

    

4. 
   cadiddlehopper | Apr 13, 2006 03:09am | #5

   See FWW #175, page 58.

   Cadiddlehopper

5. 
   hdgis1 | Apr 21, 2006 04:00am | #6

   Momentarily setting aside some of the ethereal cereal, it is quite easy to face joint a board on a jointer that is too small. With that said, this will only work if your jointer has a rabbetting ledge. Set your fence as far back as possible. Now joint as normal. Eventually a small ledge will form which will ride down over the edge of table. Once you have the rest of the board flat, take to planer. Here you will need a jig. I think its called a secondary platen. In any case, take a piece of plywood as long as  both of your tables (in/out) and screw a small stop on the bottom that will catch on the outside edge of yoru in feed table. Hint - if you are planing a board with a ridge created from your jointer remember to cut your plywood table narrow enough to allow for this. Onc eyou have created the jig, place the piece on it with jointed side down and ridge hanging over side. Smooth side that is up and then flip. You may need to lower table as the unplaned ridge will be thicker. Hint - you may need to start with board a bit thicker than you normally would.

    

   Boy - that was a lot clearer in my head! Anyway, hope that helps.

1. 
   Jfrostjr | Apr 21, 2006 04:03pm | #7

   Great suggestion!Jerry

6. 
   SteveSchoene | Apr 22, 2006 05:29am | #8

   I'm surprised no one has mentioned the other solution--get a larger jointer.  They are made up to about 20" wide, and 24" or even 30" may be found in the realm of the "old iron".