Whats the largest bits of wood you've hand planed?

[LuptonM]

Atm I am planing 3" thick (very rough sawn oak) that is about 1.4m long and 6" wide and have another 4 bits to go. Quite a daunting task :shock:

How ever I am slightly worried that upon joining them I won't be able to get them to glue well together, as usually the clamps help with the 'hollow' I create but in such thick and long wood I don't think its gunna work, but we'll see

Do even u hand tool guys prepare your timber by hand or do u just stick it through the jointer? I really wish I had one at the moment at time, as even though hand planing is all good and that, its not much fun when the timber requires alot of attention

PS: I must say when I planed the sludge of my 'rain dried timber' from my 'local timber yard' I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the oak.

 

[Paul Chapman]

A couple of thoughts. You don't say what it is you are making. Do you need to use wood of that thickness and width? Couldn't you rip it into smaller sections and then join it together? If not, could you ask your timber yard to put it through their planer/thicknesser and get it roughly to size and then finish it off by hand?

I do all my planing by hand and, yes, what you are attempting is quite hard work. How are you doing the planing? There are some techniques that are easier than others.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

PS: I must say when I planed the sludge of my 'rain dried timber' from my 'local timber yard' I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the oak.

What you've got there is very likely to be fully air dried timber, which is light years away from the kiln dried stuff. Whilst some kilned timber, if it's been done properly, is reasonable to work with, air dried (which is the 'real deal') is so much more 'tactile' under the plane. Badly kilned timber has just had the life sucked out of it and can be a bit of a 'mare to work with.
Slow down and enjoy the planing experience - Rob

 

[Benchwayze]

Another thought...
Not wishing to teach egg-sucking, but have you gone across grain first, to get the rough stuff out of the way? Are you having to take much stuff off to get finished thickness. It always pays to buy sawn timber that is as close to finished thickness, as possible (with an allowance for removing twist of course!)

This might help as the whole process is well shown here:

http://oudluthier.blogspot.com/search?u ... results=37

Click on the 'Roubo Bench' under 'Videos'.

John

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I do have some pictures of a 6' 12x4" pine roof beam that I four-squared for a lathe stand.

Some of the length became the body, and there was enough over for legs as well ..

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Benchwayze]

You're a masochist Derek!
Although, I have some 5" square Douglas Fir that would give me a workout.
It would 'run-in' my new Clifton 5-1/2 too!

John

 

[LuptonM]

The woods for a replacement top for my workbench. I am going to install an record 52 1/2 E vice once I am finished. The top should be thick enough for hold fasts ect. There's always the possibility the base will be replaced later so the legs are flush with the top, but I'd probably just use my efforts make a large Roubo bench when I have the room.

One thing that confuses me is, whats the point of air drying it if you leave it in the rain? I can see that air drying would be better than kiln drying since the process is much slower so bow ect is less likely to happen

The wood was slightly over sized anyway so I cut off the bowed ends, so its fairly flat- maybe a couple of mm to take off.

Don't u just plane diagonally in both directions to get it sort of flat and then plane length ways?


Looks like Derek's mad as well

 

[Benchwayze]

The woods for a replacement top for my workbench. I am going to install an record 52 1/2 E vice once I am finished. The top should be thick enough for hold fasts ect. There's always the possibility the base will be replaced later so the legs are flush with the top, but I'd probably just use my efforts make a large Roubo bench when I have the room.

One thing that confuses me is, whats the point of air drying it if you leave it in the rain? I can see that air drying would be better than kiln drying since the process is much slower so bow ect is less likely to happen

The wood was slightly over sized anyway so I cut off the bowed ends, so its fairly flat- maybe a couple of mm to take off.

Don't u just plane diagonally in both directions to get it sort of flat and then plane length ways?


Looks like Derek's mad as well

ref. Your last question....
Yes Lup... Much labour is taken out of the job that way as well as making it simpler to achieve a flat surface. !

You query re 'air-drying':

Timber can be 'air-dried' under cover, if you have a shed/cum barn with ventilated walls.
Alternatively, keep it 'in stick', with a protective sheet over the top, (Corrugated plastic, exterior ply, etc.) and loose tarpaulin curtains. It's always best to keep the rain off, your material because all the rain does is destroy the drying that's taken place and you need to start again. Where possible leave the timber for a few weeks, in the space where it is to be used, to give the timber chance to acclimatise.

John

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

You're a masochist Derek!
Although, I have some 5" square Douglas Fir that would give me a workout.
It would 'run-in' my new Clifton 5-1/2 too!

John

Hi John

This stuff is a piece of cake compared to the local hardwoods! :lol:

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Paul Chapman]

I think you are going about this the wrong way. A bench top needs, ideally, to be very flat. Wide boards will tend to move more as the finished bench top takes up and releases moisture. A better way to have approached this would have been to have the boards ripped into narrower pieces (say 2" to 3") and then, alternately, turn every other piece over and end for end and then join them together again. That way you would end up with a far more stable top. If it's not too late, I would still consider doing that. The planing will be easier as well :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Benchwayze]

The planing will be easier as well :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

True, but the ripping sorted out my old bandsaw Paul! :shock: I can't wait to test the Tuffsaw blades though. With those I should get some nice Douglas fir planks from that 5 x 5 !

John

 

[woodbloke]

I've got a 75mm thick beech top on my bench which over the years has moved somewhat. It's never bothered me too much but if I were to do the same again, I'd use a multiple layer of 18mm mdf with a sacrificial piece of oil tempered hardboard over the top - Rob

 

[Benchwayze]

To be honest Rob, now that I have sawn the SYP into the lengths for the bench-top, I am looking at them with new eyes. They don't look anywhere near wide enough to finish above 3.5 inches.

I'd rather not buy any more timber and start again. So I still have the option of using MDF, maybe with a thin sheet of WPB Ply on the top.

I will surely find a use for the SYP.

Now I must NOT hijack this thread! So I am going to hand-plane the legs of my workbench!

John

 

[bosshogg]

Atm I am planing 3" thick (very rough sawn oak) that is about 1.4m long and 6" wide and have another 4 bits to go. Quite a daunting task :shock:

How ever I am slightly worried that upon joining them I won't be able to get them to glue well together, as usually the clamps help with the 'hollow' I create but in such thick and long wood I don't think its gunna work, but we'll see

Do even u hand tool guys prepare your timber by hand or do u just stick it through the jointer? I really wish I had one at the moment at time, as even though hand planing is all good and that, its not much fun when the timber requires alot of attention

PS: I must say when I planed the sludge of my 'rain dried timber' from my 'local timber yard' I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the oak.

If you can grip both planks together and prepare the edges for gluing and can create a purposeful, small, camber to these edges, plane them up, marking the ends so that these can be matched. When you glue up any imperfections to the planed edges won't matter as they will be matched, each to each other. You will then need a couple of 4" pinch dogs (I would suggest four, two each end) these will cramp the ends together and due to the small camber glue will squeeze out along the full length of the joint, as the camber applies pressure from the centre outwards. As for planing up the faces you have some good information expressed above...hope this helps...bosshogg

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.A.E. :|

 

[Sawyer]

For really big bits with a lot of twist and such like, you can sometimes be better off starting with an adze - even if you have machines available. Wear safety boots though!

Love the planing Derek. That's what I call hand work.

 

[jimi43]

Two oak beams...

That old Record No.7 is a fine workhorse...

...although it does look a bit lonely out there...and tiny!

Eight foot each if I remember correctly....

Jim

 

[mtr1]

Think I can top most...perhaps.

I pse'd two pieces of English/Euro cherry about 17yrs ago that measured 16'x20"x2 1/2" for a ref table, for large banqueting. Looked nice when done, don't have pic's(so I guess it didn't happen though my arms remember) as I was working for someone else at the time, but it went to the Netherlands.

 

[Crooked Tree]

Flattened all the rough band-sawn beech for the frame and end cap of my workbench by hand. One board ~ 1"*8"*8' and the other ~2"*8"*8' (ish, if I remember rightly) + some bandsawn meranti. Used my mid sixties No.5 mostly and a bit of SB4. Lots of sharpening! This was especially difficult because without a workbench I had to use the workmate, with a piece of the 2" clamped on top to make a stiffer and flatter surface for flattening the thinner stuff, but the workmate still moved and flexed continually. Depth of cut was limited by the ability of my weight to hold the workmate to the floor during cuts, and longer bits had to be planed in sections owing to lack of support.

Still meaning to update the progress on the workbench thread...

 

[bosshogg]

Once planed 3 no. 3" x 12" x 13' or so, caledonia pine, dressed it down to 2" then sawed the battens by hand dressing them finally to 2" x 2" studs and further framing, in order to build a shop front...needs must. Therapeutic mind you, worked 7am - 7pm...lost in the mire...bosshogg

Can't help a man who doesn't tell you what he wants (hammer)

 

[jameslee30]

I reckon I can beat you once again...

2 French Oak Beams. 6Meters long, 300mm x 300mm. So heavy we had to use a forklift to turn them over. Planed 3 sides of each.

There were also 5 more beams that were a mere 4.5meters long, 250mm x 250mm.

Pics with 4" belt sander at one end then the other!

Cheers, James