'Board for planing tougues' / tongueing board

[Davidadew]

In Wells / Hooper's 'Modern Cabinet Work' 1922 edition (2006 reprint) they refer to a 'Board for planing tougues' / tongueing board p63 figure 3.

Now, I'm familiar with various kinds of hand planing aids, but to be honest this one is either new to me or I've forgotten references to it elsewhere.

I've done a search on google and either I've searched for the wrong thing or there isn't anything on there about it.

I can't quite see how the work at the moment - does anyone have refs to it elsewhere or use them?

PS Sorry, but I don't have or intend to get a thickensser so this aid looks like the solution I have for planing lots of thin boards including tongues - currently do it marking the depth and planing which I could do faster with an aid like this.

 

[AndyT]

It's for cutting cross-grained loose tongues, to go into grooves on the edges of two boards that you want to edge-joint. (You want your tongues cross-grained for strength.)

The point of it is a) to hold the small and awkward bits of wood and b) to make them exactly the right size. It's a board with a shallow broad groove the right depth for the tongue thickness and a narrow deep groove the right width to hold it vertically.

Step 1 - plane across the end of a piece of board (from which you want to make your cross-grained tongue.
Step 2 - gauge required width of loose tongue with a cutting gauge.
Step 3 - saw off loose tongue.
Step 4 - wedge it into your shallow groove (whose depth is the exact depth of the finished tongue) and plane the surface till your plane bottoms on the board.
Step 5 - wedge the thicknessed piece on edge in the narrow groove, and plane the sawn edge from step 3.

(Of course some would say that biscuits would be quicker - they may have a point!)

 

[Davidadew]

Many thanks for that. I had slightly misunderstood the diagram and book's description as I thought that the plane blade would damage the surface of the board where the groove, but of course now I've thought about it more and it is possible to use the plane without damaging the board too much but still preserving the correct height.

I've made a bigger one today for bigger bits too and it is working well.

 

[Benchwayze]

Just a small point.
I always use suitable thickness ply for loose tongues.
The stuff has been around for years of course, so there ain't nothing original in using it. But being of consistent thickness, it does save one operation on the tongue board!

HTH
John

 

[Henry Disston]

Jr. Strasil has an adjustable system for planing to consistent widths and thicknesses. Here is a thread where we discussed it.

Instead of using it for tongues, he makes pieces for parquetry.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Great stuff, Roger. Thanks for posting that link.

Cheers :wink:

Paul