Flattening an oak table top

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John15

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I'm making a 48" x 30" oak table. The top is 4 boards wide and 35mm thick, and after gluing up it hasn't turned out flat enough, in the region of plus or minus 2mm. Can anyone advise me the best method to get it flat. There was a link I saw about 6 months ago using a router on a frame but I can't find it again.
Cheers,
John
 
Without a 30" surface planer the quickest way would be a jack plane! Plenty of good practice there.
 
I recently refurbed an ikea table top which was made from some sort of weird nightmare chinese oak lanimated in 2 inch strips. It was very wild, raising grain, reversed grain etc. And it wasnt flat either. I realised why the manufacturer sanded these tops, initial hand planing was a disapoitment with tearout Any way I didnt want it to beat me so I used a very sharp very finley set smoothing plane and took LOTS (probaly 1000's) of delicate passes accross the laminated strips (not "with" the grain) at 45 and 90 degree. I used a straight edge/wind strips to check for flat. Gradually the areas of tearout got smaller and smaller, then I finished up with a sharp scraper to deal with some grain which was almost "end grain" on the face of the boards in some places.... :lol: Then several applications of dannish oil and a wax buf finish
 
Paul Chapman":248y1k4e said:
There's a video here of how to do it with a router http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/ ... -a-router/

Frankly, I'm surprised that anyone would want to do it this way - so much scope for a cock-up. Flattening a table top is a straight forward, basic, planing skill and not at all difficult. Is there a reason why you don't want to use a plane?

I did a large, too-thin oak board that way fairly recently. The need was to get as thick a piece out of it as possible. The grain was too gnarly to avoid tearout with just planing. when it was done (with a Wealden 6-wing surfacing cutter), it went out to a workshop with a wide enough drum sander, and came back looking great.

I wouldn't do a table top that way, because it's pretty hard to avoid the router support sagging, and, if you can't keep the cutter exactly in one plane all the way across...

Paul is right: sharp plane irons, honed at a high angle to avoid tearout, thin shavings, lots of testing for wind (twist) and checking for high spots. Mark them with soft pencil and plane your marks away...

Oh and bed it really firmly, so it can't wobble!

E.
 
Two millimetre variations isn't much - you'd get more than that on a sawn board of that width, so use the same technique you'd use to prepare such a board.

Personally, I'd use a jackplane with a fairly rank set and camber to the iron, and plane ACROSS the grain to remove the worst of the high spots. Work from both edges towards the centre to avoid breakout at the far edge. Check frequently with straightedge and winding sticks (two pieces of something straight and a bit longer than the tabletop is wide). Once it's flat, take out the jack-plane ripple marks with a fine-set try plane used with the grain. If you get tearout, use a finer set, close up the mouth, sharpen the iron and set the cap-iron as close to the edge of the iron as you can get it. Follow up with a smoothing plane set up the ame way. Do the back first for practice, then the show side. Finish with scraper and sanding if it needs it.

The trick is to remove the bulk of the waste with the jack plane, so the finer-set planes only have to refine the surface, not create it.

That procedure will be quicker than trying to set up a router in a frame, and a lot less noisy and dusty!
 
Cheshirechappie":20trwlev said:
That procedure will be quicker than trying to set up a router in a frame, and a lot less noisy and dusty!

Also, as pointed out in the video, a router will not leave a perfect finish. It will still need cleaning up with a smoothing plane/scraper/sanding or whatever. More trouble than it's worth........

Cheers :wink:

Paul
 
Many thanks for all the above suggestions - very much appreciated. I'm already making progress with a plane - I just thought there maybe a quicker solution. Oh, and the error I estimate is plus or minus 2mm so around 4mm to come off the highest areas as none can be added - I think that's right. I spent much of my life on highway bridgework construction, and arguing tolerances with the contractor drove me nuts.
Cheers,
John
 

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