My wife is looking for a chimney cabinet, and I have been watching the Shaker video workshop several times. I’m new to this, so I do not plan to make the same cabinet in the video (a little to much for me at the moment). One question I do have, is how does he get such long, wide flat boards? I have never seen boards that are straight enough (the boards I have seen would be 1/4 inch by the time you were done flattening). I know that you could use plywood instead which would be dead flat, but then you have to worry about vineering to sides of the plywood, and it doesn’t look as good.
– Does he use an 8/4 and then just plane until you get down to 3/4. If so thats a ton of waste. Also would seem that you would have to have a really long jointer to get flat from one end to the other.
– Does he flatten the best he can, and assume that the wood will move in place during glue-up? Seems inaccurate.
Any tips on how to do this if your using hand planes instead of a jointer? (note that I do have a planer, just no jointer).
Replies
Oh Sure That's Easy
User,
Well I am known for being a little quick to kid beginners and that puts them off.
PAST VICTIMS I AM KIDDING AROUND DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY.
It is just that they ask basically : I want to make a rocket ship to take me safely to the moon on the first try and I only have a week to build it. Should I buy a screw gun or what ?
I came perilously close to taking that obnoxious tack now but your question is so well organized and thoughtful that I think you are not past all hope.
: )
(my attempt at humor please bear with me/us )
My short answer :
http://www.amazon.com/Nick-englers-woodworking-wisdom-Engler/dp/0762101792/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1367173448&sr=1-1
The long answer :
(Taking a very deep breath )
See photos :
In the words of Douglas Adams (see first photo), buy perfectly stable, high quality, wood , acclimate it to your house (not necessarily your shop), in the mean time learn to sharpen like a samurai sword maker (or a real woodworker)(same thing), have or make an extremely flat work surface at the low height just for hand planing, make or buy winding sticks (see photo), clamp the rough thick plank on your bench, using the planes shown plane one side of the board flat (jointer what 's a jointer ), send out for lots of chocolate cake, you will need the extra calories for planing, when one side of plank is flat use a tall fence on your bandsaw (no bandsaw quit now), resaw off the wood that is keeping the board from being close to the thickness you want plus a little for your perfectly stable plank to change because it will, re plane the first side flat then flip it over and plane the second side parallel to the first, look in the book (you bought the book right ?) for how to mark the lines to plane to (but then if you bought the book you would be reading all this there and not bothering me this way (more humor smile please) and viola . . .
your perfectly flat plank with the "waste" in one piece for making small boxes or to use for veneer or some such.
Thank you , thank you
don't applaud or throw flowers
just throw money.
Now cut it all up and maybe make raised panels to put in your finished project. But that is a whole 'nother breath. I got to rest.
PS: Oh yes, you have the electric powered thickness planer so you could plane the second side parallel using that but do you really want to ? Planers. Noisy, filthy things. I shun them.
Up to you to decide if I am kidding or not there.
Not elegant, but it works on any size board from 8' of 4/4 to a 30' beam a foot wide and two feet thick. There is more to it than just this, but it will give you the idea.
Set the board on a work surface or saw horses so the middle of the board is dead level. Now, using a level, mark each end with a horizontal line. Next, run a tight string or straightedge from end to end connecting the horizontal lines we've made. Essentially we're drawing a line clear around the board that would make it dead flat. Now use an electric hand plane to bring the surface to the lines.
Jointing without a jointer
There are a couple of ways you can approach this.
The simplest is just to buy the boards planed flat. There is no disgrace in taking shortcuts. There are those who love to prepare stock, and even those who love to do it by hand. I hate it. For me, it just takes time away from the part of the project I like, the actual building, and I get precious little time in the shop as it is. For small projects, I use my jointer and planer, for big projects I call the lumber company and have them do it (and deliver it too). For an extra 22 cents a board foot, it isn't worth my time to joint and plane 100 board feet.
If buying the wood already planed isn't an option, or you don't want do, there are ways to face joint a board without a jointer. Like roc says, start out with flat, straight grained stock. What you do next is take a hand plane; a #5 jack works best, and knock off the high spots until the board sits flat on your bench/reference surface. Going diagonal in one direction, then the other, and then parallel to the grain is the normal planing progression. You don't have plane the board until it is completely smooth, you just need it flat enough to go through the planer without rocking or getting caught on the roller. Run the board through the planer until the other side is flat. Then flip the board over and plane the board to thickness. 4/4 should be plenty to get to 3/4 if the stock is decent to start out with. Some species we get here in MN, like white pine, are flat enough rough cut to run through the planner without any prep. Smaller boards can be run on a sled; somewhere FWW has an article on this.
To edge joint, draw a straight line on the edge of the board, cut it as closely as you can on the band saw, run the jack plane down the edge once or twice, and then run it through the table saw with the hand planed edge against the fence. The saw cut side should end up straight and square enough to use as if it was run through a jointer. You can also screw a straight reference board to the board and then run that against the fence instead of using the bandsaw and hand plane.
Regardless of how you thickness and joint, it is important to use the stock as soon as possible, especially if the boards are wide. Even correctly dried and prepared stock will warp if (when) the moisture level changes. The 3 dimensional case is what holds everything flat and square.
I forgot the most important item. Sorry
Save up and buy a real straight edge.
http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworking-knots/general-discussion/straight-edge
use it along the length of the board and diagonally.
Some would just flip the plank over and use the flat work bench to tell where the high spots are and plane them off but I find flipping an eighty pound plank over and over kind of hard on my bench and kind of hard on me.
Even if you use the excellent idea of the string you may find you still want the straight edge for jointing two boards for an edge joint glue up. Not to brag, becuase the fine straight edge made it possible for me to do a decent job, but that table is all hand jointed and all of the joints are invisible other than where the grain heads off in different directions but there are simply zero glue lines visible.
Also for checking the flatness of a table see pic.
Starrett Envy
roc, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a jointer than a 48" Starrett? Not that I am lusting after your straight edge or anything:)
Pick a path
roc, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a jointer than a 48" Starrett? Not that I am lusting after your straight edge or anything:)
Oh sure. But i have several answers to that here goes :
Probably cheeper to just go buy some stapled together FSO's (Furniture Shaped Objects).
The nice thing about buying the jointer INSTED of the straight edge is that the crafts person puts on a bunch of muscle mass from turning the jointer upside down and using it on top of wide glued up boards to check where to hand plane. That is unless you can figggurr out how to run the boards that are more than twice as wide as the jointer table over the jointer let alone stuff them through the thickness planer.
It isn't about saving money it is about having fun doing hand tool woodworking. One can tell when they are having fun by the number of blisters on their plane pushing hand, the in ability to get up from the thirty millionth squat that day while squinting at the gap under the straight edge and the realization that you have spent three hours sharpening and two and a half hours actually cutting wood
Cheep straight edges or just doing what ever people do who don't use them (i can't imagine) actually stimulates a great deal of imagination and creativity . . .
inventing excuses for why the joints look like they do and why the table tops look like a mogul run at the ski slopes.
I once stopped in a pro's shop to say hi and see if i might help him out a few hours a week just for a little extra fun and cash. One look across the surfaces of the pantry doors he had just finished told me that the partnership wasn't going to be a happy one. He had a good time sculpting whoopdy doos in the doors with his power sanders so that is the main thing. The shop is no longer there by the way.
Or look at it this way the price of the straight edge is about the same as one or two months for the texting and cell phone bills for a couple of teenagers and when all the yacking is over one doesn't have a perfectly resell-able tool to show for it. Let alone something tangible after twenty years.
But i am getting all too serious about this.
When a person gets really good they don't even need the sacred jointer all they need is a hammer. Only I ain't that good yet.
Already have:)
Actually, I picked my path years ago, with no regrets. The part of woodworking I like is the design, construction, and use of the object (I am trying to force myself to like finishing, not quite there yet). If I could wave a wand and make a stack of properly seasoned, thicknessed, rough cut wood magically appear, I would. Whatever speeds that pile, I am all for. I don't get that much time for woodworking. I am doing the house, wife, 3 kids, mortgage, and family dog thing all the while working a rather stressful job, so I concentrate on the aspects of woodworking I like (it helps with keening sane). And I am the one paying for that teenager to text about girls, MInecraft, and whatever it is they do. At least he is taking woodshop, sigh.
I do like doing hand cut joinery, sometimes. It depends on the piece. Sometimes it is just plain faster, sometimes it is not. Sometimes it is a distraction from the main goal of what I am doing. I do almost always finish hand plane; I don't like the noise or dust of sanders and it is way faster. This is despite having a father who worked at 3M and stockpiled a lifetime of free sandpaper:)
I think this all stems from having done manual labor for about 15 years in my youth (with the aches and pains to prove it). I have no Romantic attachment for doing things the hard way, and a touch of arthritis limits how long I can do certain things anyways. I can do the 4 square thing by hand if I really have to, e.g. ebony for harpsichord keys, but I really don't like to. I can't wait for my 15" Griz planer to be joined by its soon to be friend, the 8" jointer.
p.s. That is a really cool table top, too. Wish I had the time and patience for that sort of thing, but fact is, I don't.
And, as a former machinist, I really do covet that Starrett straight edge:)
: )
I wasn't saying any thing when I said "Pick a Path" I just needed a title for the post. Sounds stupid now that I look at it again.
Thanks for the complements.
Yes I don't live in the normal world of mortgages and child raising.
I have always put the highest premium on my free time and making sure I have some. I pay for that in other ways some would find too austere. Not that I don't work full time; I do.
Any way . . .
My partner, known for a long time on Knots as Queenmasteroftheuniverseandbabybunnytrainer has for many years been researching and experimenting with things that alleviate her arthritis. Foods that belong to the night shade plants tend to bring on pain within hours or over night. Here is some "official" corroboration for the situation. I hope this helps you.
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/nightshades?qh=YToxOntpOjA7czo5OiJhcnRocml0aXMiO30%3D
For the most part I can eat the hell out of these foods no problem and have no bad effects. Must be the Irish in me.
In the same breath I can not eat dried fruits, peanut butter or whole grains and beans during the winter or my thumbs and fingers split and crack and even bleed. Painful. I have to tape them up to get any work done.
If I stay away from that stuff I experience absolutely no cracking even when my skin gets all dried out from washing my hands too much, handling solvents or what not. So I know there is something to it but the same foods may not effect a given person the same way.
PS: in another time and place you and I might have made a good team. Finishing fasinates me, I enjoy the details of woodworking processes more than the assembling or completed projects.
As far as keeping sane goes . . . here is one of my favorite lines from a Douglas Adams book :
"The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."
: )
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