Trouble Planing

joec6420 | Posted in New To Woodworking on June 22, 2019 09:58pm

My problem is building my workbench. I’ve laid 2×8 vertically. The problem is with my end 2×8, it doesn’t seam to want to plane. I can plane my whole bench except the last board. the plane just glides across the wood like there is no blade in my plane. I can get small shavings if I go against the grain. (it takes beautiful shavings from any other piece of wood) I have a No.4 and No.6 from WoodRiver and they both act the same way. I’ve tried deeper cuts, and turning my plane at an angle. But nothing seams to work. If you take the blade out of your plane and heavily wax the sole, and then try to use your plane, that’s exactly how this feels.

Replies

roy.unit8c | Jun 23, 2019 08:46am | #1
Try starting a very thin shaving about 1/8" wide and 1/32 or 1/64 inch deep at one corner edge with a chisel, then see if the plane blade will start on the edge and that width and depth, only. Sometimes a block plane on the edge corner will do the same thing. Once that edge has been planed, you can slowly start to widen you passes with your other planes
colinscowen | Jun 23, 2019 08:57am | #2
What do you see if you put a flat edge across these boards?
roy.unit8c | Aug 24, 2019 06:43pm | #3
Put a little mineral spirits on a rag and rub it on the wood. I saw Chris Gochnour do it on his Endfield Shaker cabinet video. I tried it and was able to take nice shavings where it had been difficult to plane before.
mikaol | Jun 18, 2020 08:27pm | #4
Like Colin inferred, does it really need planing?
Mikaol
lat_axe | Jun 19, 2020 03:50am | #5
The likely culprit is the shape and position of that piece of wood in relation to the main part of the top. If the surface of the bit-that-won't plane is below the general, er, plane of the rest of the bench top, the blade can't bite because the plane sole is being lifted up from the end piece by .....

* The rest of the bench top. Does the end piece droop so as not to be co-planar with the rest of the top, which top is holding the plane up and away from the surface of the end piece?

* The edges of the end board. Is it cupped or bowed to some degree so that the plane sole rests only on the edges of the end-board, with the blade area held above the cupped or bowed areas?

*****
You know it's not the plane at fault because it's planing OK elsewhere. The cause must therefore be something about the position of the end piece, that's preventing the blade being able to bite. If so, projecting the blade a lot more will eventually see a very sudden transition from skate-over to blade-bites-and-judders.

Of course, that end piece may be infested by invisible gremlins pushing the plane up just to annoy you. A tempting explanation (as it's not then our own fault) but unlikely to be the right one. :-)

Lataxe