wood planing advice

[Andyb350z]

Hi Everyone

I was wondering if anyone can offer me some advice, I am very much enjoying gluing, clamping different woods together so i can create boards with various patters etc, however, although i try to rip the wood as equal as possible before bonding, i would like to be able to plane the wood smooth before sanding and also some wood that i get that is warped, at this point i only have a hand held electric planer, is there a way / method to plane wide boards using a electric hand plane ?

I did look at thicknesses / planers on ebay, but they tend to be up to 300mm blade width, the boards i would like to plane would be up to 500mm, can these machines achieve this ?

any advice or link to a guide would be very much appreciated.

 

[wallace]

I don't think you can plane a wide board with an electric plane, I tried once and just ended up with lines everywhere. I know it can be done with a router between two battens if that helps

 

[carlb40]

I don't think you can plane a wide board with an electric plane, I tried once and just ended up with lines everywhere. I know it can be done with a router between two battens if that helps

There is a Japanese wood worker amongst others ( see if i can find him) who planes live edge boards for table tops etc with one of these
http://www.makitauk.com/product/woodwor ... laner.html
or
http://www.makitauk.com/product/woodwor ... laner.html
But not sure what he follows it up with.

The router route might be easier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtkBZHLJyD0
Also this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51SSP12Gk8

Or get a No5 and No 7 or 8 hand plane.
That is unless you go for an old planer/ thicknesser such as a wadkin/sedgewick etc
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wadkin-RM-Pla ... 2587aa11ba
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/dominion-plan ... 3a852cda2f

 

[SteveF]

can u not thickness them before glue up?

Steve

 

[carlb40]

A quick video on timber prep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-jo11lsMs

 

[Andyb350z]

i dont mind paying 200-300 for a little portable machine but for my garage and messing around i cant really splash out thousands on a industrial one. I think as mentioned before i need to be more accurate when ripping them and gluing them, maybe more clamps and clamping a few lengths over the top to keep flat, then just sand out any imprefections or high / low spots.

I will have a play tonight as i have glued up some different woods to make a cutting board for the kitchen, im pretty sure this must be something EVERYONE makes at some point, ha haa, thanks again guys

 

[marcros]

To go above 300mm on a planer or thicknesser starts to get very expensive and probably needs more than a 13a plug.

Most machines arent going to be portable- drum sanders, planers, thicknessers etc in that size

What about gluing 2 250mm pieces together. Done properly you shouldn't be able to tell and it will make machinery options easier. You could, for instance use something like a ct330 and make a sled to enable you to use it as a planer (plans around online). A sharp hand plane would be useful for your thin edge to make the wider boards

 

[AndyT]

The trouble with an electric plane is that the cutters are dead straight and not modifiable. So if you try to plane a broad surface, you get 'tramlines' as noted.

The simplest way, avoiding industrial machinery but going beyond the capacity of hobby machines, is to learn to plane by hand. It really is not too hard. There are plenty of good videos to show you how.

You could spend a couple of hundred on a really good new plane by Clifton, Lie Nielsen or Veritas, or a lot less on an old Record or Stanley.

 

[dericlen]

I agree with Andy. We used to plane whole ("t&G softwood) floors by hand, not with the best plane but with a wooden smoothing plane with a carefully ground blade to a slight even curve (as all hand planes should be) so as not to leave ridges on the finished work.

 

[disco_monkey79]

When I made my O/H's chopping board (which was made from different-coloured timbers, to create a pattern), I made it in two halves, so they could each be planed flat on my 6" jointer/planer. I then glued the two halves together, taking care to glue them in as near to the perfect place as possible, then finished off that one join by hand (after the glue had gone off).

 

[bugbear]

The trouble with an electric plane is that the cutters are dead straight and not modifiable. So if you try to plane a broad surface, you get 'tramlines' as noted.

The simplest way, avoiding industrial machinery but going beyond the capacity of hobby machines, is to learn to plane by hand. It really is not too hard. There are plenty of good videos to show you how.

You could spend a couple of hundred on a really good new plane by Clifton, Lie Nielsen or Veritas, or a lot less on an old Record or Stanley.

You also need a properly rigid (enough) and flat (enough) bench.

BugBear