I am having trouble edge jointing boards with my #7 jointer plane. At the end of my stroke I must be baring down harder than at the start or in the middle since a straight edge reveals daylight underneath at the far end. In an effort to correct I have made conscience efforts to shift pressure to the back of the plane as it travels the length of the edge. Still though the result is not as I want. I have also tried dishing the middle of the board and then planing until I get a continuous ribbon from the plane. Still though the result isn’t as I want. Maybe I just need more practise. Does anyone have other tips/techniques? And how “true” is “true enough”. Maybe I’m being to demanding of the result.
Thanks,
Rich
Replies
Rich,
Often this is caused by a blunt blade.
Try getting a razor sharp edge and then taking very fine shavings.
This may help.
Cheers,
eddie
Rich... just a few of suggestions.
1/ Check that the sole of your plane is flat..
2/ Rather than using the fore grip with your lead hand, try applying pressure between the frog and the fore grip with your thumb only, using the rest of your fingers as an improvised fence to keep the plane square to the board... thumb only should limit the amount of pressure you can apply.
3/ Check the edge for progress frequently (every couple of passes once you're in the ball-park) with a good straight edge; if the gaps show the same tendency, stop the cut shy of the start of the hollow area.
Other than that, like Eddy said... razor sharp blade and real light shavings.
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
rtoohey,
Please take the advise of others first..I'm still learning too. However, I want my seams to completely disappear if the grain and color allow....very often I'll have a few spots where the joint could be tighter and I'll reach for the smoother or scraper to eliminate any and all gaps.
Last month I had ten boards to join...I put them vertically through the planer 3-4 clamped together at a time...it works! (I'll probably get beat up for that one....lol)
Rich,
No, you're not too demanding. Properly done, when you put the two boards together on the bench you should hear a solid "clack"; if you hold them up to the light you should see no light at all anywhere along the joint (unless you're doing a spring joint, of course).
The way I was taught is at the beginning of every end to end stroke, the left hand should be pushing the toe of the plane down onto the edge. The right hand should be holding the back end of the plane up. To begin the stroke, push forward and down with your left hand only. Don't push with your right hand until the entire sole is one the wood.
Once the entire sole is on the edge, push with both hands equally. (If you want to try a spring joint, push down with both hands in the middle of the edge. I've never been able to make an acceptable spring joint; if you learn, please tell me how you do it.)
On the far end, do just the opposite. As the toe nears the end, stop pushing forward and down with your left hand. Let your right hand press down and forward. Your left hand is used to hold up the toe.
This does take practice. It's very easy to do something wrong, and difficult to do everything right (DAMHIKT). Keep at it and you'll catch on sooner than you think.
But I never begin by going from end to end. Before I get to that point the edge should already be pretty well straight and square.
I check the edges of the boards with a straight edge and a try square before I pick up a plane. I mark the wood where it is too high, where I have to remove wood, and where it's not square. I go after the high spots first, planing only on the high spots and not planing from end to end. I take one or two swipes at a high spot and re-check it with my straight edge and if necessary, my try square.
I have a forty-inch straight edge. With it I have jointed edges six feet long. It's just a matter of working carefully from one end to the other in small increments, planing one high spot at a time, all the way down to the far end--being careful to keep the edge square.
Once I've gotten all the high spots (meaning that the edge is now pretty straight) I check once more with my straight edge, sliding it all the way down the edge. I do the same with a try square, and then I return to any places that need work until I am satisfied the edge is straight and square. Only then do I take one continuous stroke from one end to the other.
Usually there will still be a few places that need work. They are easily found with my straight edge, try square, and by looking at the shaving. As before, I mark the places that need more work. If I'm getting a continuous shaving, I continue going end to end until I'm satisfied all is well.
If there are places that aren't square--and there always are--I try to fix all of them as I hit all the high spots. Sometimes, however, I will be off square after I've taken an end to end shaving.
There are a couple ways I then get things square, depending on how off and how long are the bad sections. For just a little out of square, I again go end to end, taking care on the out of square parts to keep the plane level. If places are REALLY out of square when I get that far in the process, I kick the cat, go in the house, have an adult beverage, and go to bed.
Seriously, if I keep checking try and true as I work, I very rarely wind up with things that are way out of whack--but it has happened. Then, a new day brings new energy for such things.
Keep at it. You'll soon wonder why you ever had trouble.
Alan (no, not that one, the garrulous Alan)
When I was at School, they used to sharpen the planes with a deliberate crown, the technique they taught for adjusting to square was to use the fingers of the left hand as a fence- more wood is removed from the side with the greatest overhang.
Even though I try really hard to have a straight and square edge on my jointer iron, if the cut is very light the approach still works for the final cuts. The trick is (in my old infantry parlance) not to 'chase ground' but to be under very tight control for the finish cuts.
I reckon that putting 1-3/4 * 6' mahogany together without a visible joint is as good a skills test as any other joint and well worth the perseverance.
As an Australian, the best beverage in this circumstance is not beer but Bundy and Coke. Single malt requires just too much attention in these circumstances.
Patto,
Like you, I hold the front of my jointer with just my thumb behind the knob and the rest of my fingers curled underneath as a kind of fence. That way I find it easier to hold the plane level and at a little angle to the work piece.
I've never put a crown on a jointer's iron. I know David Charlesworth, among others, uses a crowned iron in all his bench planes for the same reasons as you. I put a crown on my #4's iron and an even bigger crown on my jack, but never my jointer. I already have enough to think about without having to worry about taking the shaving on the right part of the iron. I round the corners, for flattening, and have the rest of the edge just as straight as I can make it.
I had just removed the clamps and scraped the glue lines on a panel of red oak when a wood working pal of mine came by. As we chatted he looked pretty closely at my red oak panel. Then he actually asked where I had found stock that wide! He was incredulous until I flipped the panel over and showed him the two un-scraped glue lines. You're quite right, it's a great compliment. (NB, I didn't show him all my panel joints!)
Most flattering was that afterwards he often "dropped by" and just happened to have with him some stock he wanted to join--and he had a big mama power jointer at home. Very soon he bought a jointer (a Lie-Nielsen, the dog!) and began to use the noisy thing first, and then finish with his beautiful new plane.
Ahhh...the dream-like sound of a sharp jointer making tissue-thin shavings.
Alan
in your "natural" planing stroke, does the plane drop below the surface afer leaving the board?
If so, you need to work on keeping the plane level.
Try holding your #7 by the tote only. IIRC, the front drops considerably (I got rid of my Stanleys and have Knight wooden planes). The design of a toted plane doesn't allow you to put much downward pressure when holding the tote. So, rather than trying to push the back end down, keep the front end from falling....hopefully the idea is clear. Hold the knob up rather than pushing the tote down.
On the neverending quest for wood.
Alan and Rich,
I think the idea of the spring joint is one to follow to straighten out the end of your board. I was having the same problem as you, except at the beginnng and end of the stroke. So I started taking a pass or two that starts and ends about 2" from the end of the board. That got rid of most of the problem. For a spring joint, take another pass or two to create just the slightest gap when the boards are held together. I take it you are jointing both boards at once, right?
When people 100 years from now see my work, they'll know I cared. --Matt Mulka
Matt,
I know the theory of spring joints, and I have made successful spring joints, but not easily or quickly. I once spent an entire afternoon trying to get an acceptable spring joint on two pieces of red oak...or was it maple...no matter. I worked too hard at it and got poor results. It wasn't fun (see below). so I have sworn off spring joints.
I don't plane both edges of my joints at the same time. I've tried doing it that way, and it worked okay, but when I did so I was bothered that my joints weren't pristine; my joints were sullied because the edges were not square to the sides; I was somehow cheating doing it in a way that made my work less than exact.
That's taking things much too seriously, of course.
One advantage of doing all this for a hobby, and not using my wood work to pay the rent, is that I can choose to take various aspects of it too seriously. If working wood was my sole support I would own and use every time-saving gadget that made economic sense. Because it's a hobby I can buy tools on a whim (I can, but I usually don't) and use whatever arcane and time-consuming methods I want.
Alan
Rich, check the iron for square in the mouth of the plane. Iron should be sharp, weight on the tote when finishing the cut. If the the iron is not square you will get a thicker shaving on one side, this causes the gap.
mike
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