Replies

1. 
   eddiefromaustralia | Jul 12, 2003 08:45am | #1

   Rodney,

   Try using a handplane - you need the blade set sharp and fine - use winding boards to detect whether the board is in wind (twisted) or out of wind (flat).

   After a while you can eyeball it but it takes a bit of practice.

   (I'm in the middle of a job where I have had to flatten and joint 15 hard boards by hand - back to being a first year apprentice)

   For the final cuts, have the blade super sharp and set superfine - should be taking shavings that look like a tissue and float to the floor like one too!

   Ideally you should be using a No6 plane or higher, but a No5 plane will do at a pinch.

   Cheers,

   eddie

2. 
   BG | Jul 12, 2003 01:52pm | #2

   Rodknee,

   Just wanted to second what Eddie said about using a hand plane to flatten boards.  Like yourself, I don't have a jointer...if I buy one it'll be an eight inch machine...but there are so many different ways of achieving square and with space and money constraints I have not made the leap yet.  So, I either buy S3S or flatten with handplanes..but in most cases, even buying S3S requires a little hand planing. 

   That is the key point I want to make. Regardless of how big and wonderful the machine is...TS, Jointer, planer, etc...the outcome is often less than perfect for many reasons that may or may not be related to the machine. It's the planes and chisels that allow you to sweeten up the board or joint.  For me, the best way to get to know my planes is doing a bit of flattening on some big boards.  I worked a piece of cherry Thursday night that is 11x54x 12/4 ...I worked it with the #5 and #7 and finished up with the #4  ...I fiddled with the mouth position and blade to achieve different outcomes and work around knots and stuff.  Eddie is correct, I probably could have done it all with a #5.  Last night I worked some smaller pieces of red oak into square...and cut 24 small mortices with some chisels (don't have a mortice machine either).

   I still want all the machines I can get, however, being able to turn to the handtool for fine tuning is essential.   

3. 
   RMillard | Jul 12, 2003 04:25pm | #3

   I don’t own a jointer either ( and never will) but I don’t feel the least bit handicapped because of it. I routinely flatten and thickness boards as wide as 20 inches and on occasion even wider.

   As noted in the other replies, hand planes are the way to go. If I have to hog off a lot of material, I will reach for my Makita power plane. Here is the process I follow.

   If the board is significantly thicker than what its finished dimension will be, I try to take nearly equal amounts off both sides, as this will keep the moisture content in equilibrium, and minimize any warping. I also, rough the board to thickness one day leaving a little bit so that if it does “get away” from me, I have some room to work it out. With stable material like mahogany I leave about a 1/16” less stable woods, about twice that is good. After sitting for a day or so on stickers, I plane it to final thickness. Note that I work almost exclusively with rough sawn material, which is significantly oversized as compared to S2S material. This being oversized is a benefit, as it allows far more options than a surfaced board does, since they are at times BBR ( bowed beyond recovery)

   First, I get rid of any crown along the length , I do this by sighting , but a straightedge is probably better. I then check for twist with winding sticks. My winding sticks are two framing squares, but any pair of straight edges will work. One stick is placed at each end of the board. I place a strip of light colored wood behind the far one to aid in sighting the deviation from true. To remove the twist, imagine the board divided into quadrants ( one line down its center, and one dividing it in half along its length) . In theory, the center of the board, along its length will by your bench mark, and you will bring the ends into the same plane as this area. As you sight over the winding sticks you will note the deviation ( if any) with one stick going appearing to go up hill and the other down hill. The objective is to plane off the high corners, leaving your benchmark area untouched. To do this take more passes with the plane in the high quadrants. Take an occasional pass down the full length of the center. I use my scrub plane for this, but despite what some people say, a jack plane with the iron rounded works just as well. After a very short learning curve you will be able to judge how much to plane and the process will go quickly.

   If you have a surface planer , then you only need to flatten the board enough to insure that it is not cupped and it does not rock. If you don’t have a planer, then of course you will have to proceed by hand with longer planes, checking frequently with a straightedge and winding sticks. Some woods don’t respond well to planing with the grain, at the roughing stage, so you may have to plane across the grain or at an angle to it.

   Rob Millard

4. 
   EdHarrison | Jul 12, 2003 06:02pm | #4

   Here's a shadowbox that I did for a military retirement. The photo was taken before it was finished and there are faults in it that were later fixed but I don't have a better picture (for one thing the brass plaque in the center section was later centered). The dimensions of the rectangular part of the shadowbox are roughly 30 x 11 x 4 inches.

   the point I would make is that the back board (which is removable by 6 wood screws) is baltic birch plywood. The "raised relief" plaques are cherry. Maybe that will give you some ideas. If you make the wide dimension part from a good quality plywood, you won't have to fool with flattening such a wide board.

   Good luck to you. Ed

5. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Jul 12, 2003 07:55pm | #5

   One approach is to true up narrower boards and then glue them together to make a wider panel.   If the individual boards are flat and the edges square, the panel will be flat and true too.

6. 
   johnhardy | Jul 12, 2003 09:45pm | #6

   One way to do this without using the handplane method is to use a portable planer.

   What you do is create a sled, which is flat and true (perhaps a 12 inch wide melamine shelf from Home Depot ...) and put your stock on the sled. Shim it where appropriate so that the rollers don't flatten it. Run it through and get the top fairly flat. Turn it over and plane the reverse side. Perhaps go back to the original face for some more work. When done you should have a piece that is very flat and true. If you're using rough stock, I'd try to take the same amount of stock off of both faces so that moisture is consistent and you don't have warping later on.

   John

7. 
   Napie | Jul 14, 2003 07:09pm | #7

   It is very easy to do with a router mounted in a sled with rails, (level and straight), along each side of the board or panel.  It is how I flattened my workbench to the first time, it is very fast using a 2" planer bit.

1. 
   firemarshalmike | Jul 15, 2003 04:12am | #8

   Not an expert or anything, but I  use a hand plane to get a decent size flat on the convex face of the board. Then I run the board through the thickness planer with the flat I've planed on the bed of the machine. Then I flip the board and finish the side I started with the hand plane. Does that make sense?

1. 
   RMillard | Jul 15, 2003 01:26pm | #9

   You are absolutely correct, as long as that flat is flat, in other words it has been checked with a pair of winding sticks, and is sufficiently large to keep the board stable as it goes through the planer. Also, the board must be rigid enough that the feed rollers don’t distort it

   You have hit on what many people miss, when flattening boards, in preparation for running them through the planer. The face that will be down on the bed, does not need to be flat over its entire width. I run some pretty nasty looking stuff through my planer, yet it comes out to my high standard of flatness.

   Rob Millard

2. 
   Dalewood | Jul 15, 2003 03:08pm | #10

   Napie,  Can you give us some details on the sled you use  to  flatten boards.  How is it constructed and how does the router mount and run along the sled?  Thanks  Dalewood

1. 
   eddiefromaustralia | Jul 15, 2003 03:34pm | #11

   Dale,

   Photo 10 on this page is the common way it's done.

   Cheers,

   eddie

1. 
   Dalewood | Jul 15, 2003 03:44pm | #12

   Eddie, Not sure what page you are referring to.  Was a page link left out?  Dalewood

1. 
   eddiefromaustralia | Jul 16, 2003 12:14am | #13

   http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc/ShopProj/TradBnch/index3.html

   Sorry Dale,

   I was sure that I'd hyperlinked it.

   Cheers,

   eddie

2. 
   Dalewood | Jul 16, 2003 02:14pm | #14

   Thanks Eddie, Thats cool!!!  It is sort of what I thought but I wanted to make sure.   Dalewood

3. 
   eddiefromaustralia | Jul 16, 2003 02:53pm | #15

   No problems Dale,

   Make sure that the cross rails don't distort under the weight of the router.

   Cheers,

   eddie