Hand planing a workbench

[Jim Barrett]

I have a new, purchased in 2004 and never used, LN #7 plane and thought I would give it a whirl. So after flattening the back of the blade, 1000, 4000 and finally 8000, waterstones and putting a 30 degree micro bevel on the iron I was ready to go!
Well after a few hours I am bushed! I had a dish on one end of my bench and was able to take it out by using the #7 at a 45 degree angle to the surface. But now I have a "twist" in the bench....aargh! I tried to take it out but ran out of steam. I have a 6 foot long starrett straight edge which really shows me where the bench is high but I am not really sure how to attack this beast. I am open to suggestions ;)

Thanks,
Jim

[Roy Wall]

Jim -

First of all, that's a heckuva way to break in the #7 (and you too)!

Generally, you would go perpendicular against the long way; then 45* angles from both sides; then long ways for final planing.

I would run pencil marks in sections where you know you are high - and plane them off - then recheck - then remark the high spots. Ideally, it is easier to get to a point where the long edges are just a smidge 'high'....with a 'dish' running down the middle length of the bench. From there, you can just work the sides a bit to get level--- again, always use pencil marks; its the sure way to let you know what you've done and where your working.

You may also have to work the bench in 2-3 sections.

Sounds like you are doing well....that's quite a workout indeed!

[Jim Barrett]

Roy,
Thanks for the input. Yes, I skipped the gym workout today...forgot where my triceps were....now I know!
Yes a maple workbench is a bugger to plane...had some tearout but not too bad. I will have to go back and touch up my blade in the #7.

Jim

[Wilbur Pan]

I'd suggest that your #7 is not the ideal plane for this job. If you are at the "taking out the twist and high spots" part of flattening your workbench, what you need is a plane that will remove a fair amount of wood in a hurry. A #5 with a blade that has a fairly aggressive camber would be better for this. Once you take care of the high spots and the twist, then break out your #7 for surface flattening.

If you haven't seen Chris Schwarz's "Coarse, Medium, and Fine" DVD, you should. He explains a way to use planes set up differently to make flattening a surface pretty efficient.

In a nutshell, he uses a #5 set up to take about a 1/64" shaving, a #7 set to take about 0.004", and a #4 that takes about 0.001". If you have a high spot that's 1/16" high, the #5 will take you 4 strokes to knock that down. With your #7, that will take you 15 strokes, with a heavier plane. No wonder you'll get tired. I don't even want to think about what you'd need to do with the #4. ;)

[Jim Barrett]

Thanks for the tip. I took a look at Schwartz's' article on line and wish I would have checked it out before I started my "workout" ;)
I will take another go at it over the weekend. I have a few number 5's around so I will do a regrind on one of the irons as he suggests.

Regards,
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

I have a few number 5's around so I will do a regrind on one of the irons as he suggests.

I have always thought of using a rounded blade from a #3 in #5 to make a scrub plane.

Just haven't gotten one of them round tuits.

Besides, both of my #5s are just how I like them. Guess I will just have to keep an eye out for a cheap one at a yard sale.

jim

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

Maple is just brutal to plane. It is important to get a fore plane of some sort; something that is coarsely set to get the bulk of the work done.

[Eric Brown]

You might reconsider your workbench height. If it is too high you will use your arms a lot. With a lower bench you use your legs more.

Also, put wax on the bottom of the plane. It will push much nicer.

Eric

[Robert Rozaieski]

Jim,

I'm going to suggest you stick with your #7. You are not removing a lot of material in what you are attempting to do so there is no need for a #5 or fore plane for this work. If you were planing the bench from a rough sawn or newly glued up state then that is what you would do, however, it sounds to me like you are doing some minor maintenance flattening of a bench that was flat and finished at one time. Your #7 is the best tool for this. I think if you go to a #5 or shorter plane now you are going to make matters worse.

To remove twist, you need to know how the top is twisted; namely, which corners are high. A single straight edge alone will not tell you this. You need to use a pair of winding sticks to do so. These can simply be two striaght scraps of wood with parallel sides, wider than your bench top. You put the first across the near edge and the second across the far edge and sight across the tops of the two like this (white stick in front and red stick in back in case you don't immediately see the red one):
106140

If the sticks are light and dark it makes it easier but any two parallel sticks will work. This board has had all twist removed so the tops of the sticks line up parallel. If there were twist, the sticks would form an "X". This shows you your high corners. You then mark the high corners and plane diagonally from high corner to high corner. Take it slowly and recheck with your winding sticks often. You don't want to create a surface that is arched across it's width or twisted in the pposite direction. Take light cuts and check after every few swipes to see how you are progressing so you don't over shoot your mark.

Once you have removed all wind from the top, then take a few final passes along the length. Because a workbench is wide, a minor amount of twist may appear to be a lot as the magnitude of the twist is amplified the wider you go. This is the beauty of the winding sticks; they amplify it even more and allow you to see even minute twist. However, this means you need to work slowly so you don't overdo it. That is why I suggest you stick with your #7 and take light shavings and sneak up on the degree of flat you are looking for. You can't add wood back once it's gone ;).

[David Keller NC]

Rob's given good advice - winding sticks are a necessary part of flattening any big plank, whether glued up from little ones or just one big slice out of a tree.

If you have an old #6 sitting around, I'd suggest grinding the camber on the blade out of that one. A #6 has sufficient length to make the flattening of the bench perpendicular to the grain "automatic", though this still does not absolve you of checking frequently and penciling the top to show you where you want to concentrate the strokes of the plane.

Couple of other points - you generally will not want to take more than 2 passes with a roughing plane, or even a medium-set jointing plane, in any one direction (perpendicular to the grain, 45 degrees to the grain, parallel to the grain) without switching to the next orientation. It's quite easy to get the bench out of flat across its width by taking too many "final" passes with the grain down the length. Another point is that it's more important to get the bench as flat as possible across the top rather than along its length.

The reason for this is that any small error (and we're talking 32nds of an inch here, not thousandths) across the width will mean that you will likely plane a board into a cup, which makes cutting and fitting joinery very frustrating - most of the joinery on a case piece is cut across the width of a board. If you've a relatively small error through the length of the bench, you may plane a slight bow into the length of a board, and in general, that's no big deal because a typical board in a piece of furniture will easily flex a 1/32nd of an inch down its length to accomodate dados or other joints in the middle of the board.

[Douglas Brummett]

Some great advice here. I have been doing a lot of hand surfacing lately. Well, a lot by my standards (probably about 50 bdft of rough poplar). This is for the bench that I am building up.

I have the full lineup 3-8 bench planes. I found I was perfectly happy sticking with my scrub, no4, no5, and no8. On narrow boards the scrub was excellent, but was too aggressive for wider boards and no way would I take one to a bench top. I kept wishing I had more camber on my no5, but didn't stop to do anything about it. I think with a decent camber on the no5 the scrub would really never get any action.

At any rate, for flattening a bench top I think that a cambered no5 would be first and be used to knock down all the high spots. Careful inspection is not only needed, but needs to be administered often. You have already discovered that planes allow you to get ahead of yourself pretty easy. Next I would go to the no7 working the diagonals for 1-2 pass and returns with a heavy cut before transferring to a light cut with the grain. Then a smoother to clean up.

Sounds good on paper, but you gotta put in the time and effort. Best of luck.

[Al Navas]

I flattened my bench some time ago, using a Fulton #7. I created a video that shows how I went about it, including the use of winding sticks. Search for "flattening workbench" on my blog.


Al

[Lyndon Graham]

To the Top (and is now Bookmarked for me :p)

This is a great thread guys, and one I will need in 4-8 weeks. Keep the advice coming.

[David Cockey]

Acquire a pair of winding sticks. Use them to determine where the bench top needs to go down more than 1/16", and marke those spots with a pencil. Using a smaller plane (such as a #5) with a 1/16" to 1/8" camber take a pass or two at the high spots your marked. Then check again for high spots and mark them with pencil. Take those spots down next. When the top is withing 1/16" of being flat then bring out the #7. Check for high spots again and mark them, set the #7 for the heaviest shaving which works for you, and take the high spots down so they are close to level with the rest of the top. Now start the methodically planning of the entire surface.

Some of the instructions for flattening a board sees to treat it like it can be an automatic proceedure where repeated passes are made over the entire surface. Similar to how most folks use power tools.

[Mitch Barker]

He used winding sticks to get the last 5 inches are so the bench level with each other. Then he drew a line on each side of the plank connecting the two flat areas. Finally, he planed the middle down to the lines. Hope his makes sense.

[Jim Barrett]

Thanks for all of the input!!
Well I made some winding sticks and they really helped...I had a low spot that took a lot of work to get straightened out but I was able to make the workbench pretty flat....I am very happy with it now!
Thanks again for the help! :)
Jim

[Jerry Balzell]

I searched for flattening workbench, in the blog section and came up no match. Advance search for flattening workbench by Al Navas, same result.

Very interesting post.

[Bob Easton]

I searched for flattening workbench, in the blog section and came up no match. Advance search for flattening workbench by Al Navas, same result.

Very interesting post.

I think Al meant for you to search his blog, not these forums. You'll find the entry about flattening his bench at:
http://sandal-woodsblog.com/2008/05/20/episode-11-flattening-the-workbench/

[Al Navas]

Thanks, Bob! I am glad you caught it, as I had not seen Jerry's post.

Jerry,

In the video I also show the use of winding sticks I made, to go across the bench. It was the only way I could think of that ensured I did not do something really bad to the bench top :D .


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[Jim Barrett]

Al,
Thanks for the video..it helped me get my bench back into shape!

Jim

[Al Navas]

Jim,

You are welcome. I am so glad it helped you! THAT is what my blog is all about - sharing my experiences, and sharing others' experiences with woodworkers all over the world.


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