I’m just getting started in woodworking and thanks to a second hand Stanley #4 my neighbor got for me, I tried squaring up a board for the first time today.
Overall, it went pretty good, for a first time. It was much easier than I expected. There was a lot of trial and error, but I was able to figure most things out.
The one thing I had persistent problems with was keeping the board in place. I was using a worktable that had a planing stop, which worked well if I was planing straight into the stop, but whenever I tried planing diagonally across the board, the board would turn. The board I was using was kind of light (it’s only 12″ x 18″), so that probably had something to do with it. I did find a webpage on using hand planes for face jointing, but the piece of wood the author was using was 8 feet long, so it was heavy enough to hold itself in place.
I’d appreciate any tips on how to secure/clamp a small board for face jointing. By the way, I’m pretty sure it’s not an issue with the plane. The blade is real sharp, and I was getting shavings approaching 0.001″.
Replies
If you don't have a work bench with a vice and bench dogs, then one way is to use a clamp or hand screw to secure the board. This means that you will have to periodically move the clamp or hand screw to work the entire board; another option, if you have dog holes in your work table (or can put some in it), is to use a hold fast.
One other method would be to clamp a piece of wood (that is somewhat thinner than your work piece) along the side of your work piece to keep it from moving in that direction; doing so will eliminate the need to move the clamp off your work piece as you would if you directly clamp the work piece.
Should you decide to keep up this business of working on wood with hand tools, you know that you'll have to get or build yourself a "proper" work bench. ;-)
Anyway, welcome to the Neanderthal woodworking world. You've already discovered how much fun it can be. And congratulations on your first hand plane!
I must warn you though....that first plane is only the beginning...soon, you'll discover the need for another, then another, and yet another. By that time, you'll have already gone over the edge and will be well on your way down that slippery slope. Then it's too late...you'll have already become a Neander woodworker with a Plane (Saw, Chisel, Drill, etc) Problem..... Just warning you what you're getting into... ;-)
Cheers,
James
All good suggestions.. Even a non-skid rubber mat works (to a point) if it is clean!
I don't know how big the board was, but if you see yourself doing this fairly often, you could make a bench hook, which is basically a board with a cleat along the back edge and one end on the top, with some provision to attach it to a bench top. If you don't have any kind of real bench and want to keep it really simple, you can get a silid core door and make a base for that, then drill for bench dogs, as was mentioned before. With dogs and wedges, you can hold a board pretty securely. For more ideas, there are a few good workbench books out there. They explain and diagram bench hooks and shooting boards.
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