finishing wide panels

[bill walton]

I'm building a HE cabinet that will have glued up side panels and top 20" wide. I'd like to be able to run the glued up panels through a planer to the final thickness after they are set but mine is a DW735 only 13" wide. As much as I try, I can't convince myself to purchase a 20 inch planer for this project.
This is my first project with panels this wide. Do you guys without a big planer all glue up with final dimension boards? What size planer do you have? It seems like this would give a better final product. What do you think? TIA

[Jim Dunn]

Bill,
My thread on wide boards is on page 2 as of this date and is titled 20" wide boards. I hope I'm going to soon be in the same predicament:D I was able to find locally, at a cabinet shop, a wide belt sander that is humongus:) So I'd look around or use the Yellow pages to find a cabinet shop in your area.

Jim

[Thomas Prondzinski]

Bill
I would finish the panels in two pieces then biscut joint them and then scrape away the glue line and a little sanding.



Tom

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I would make two 10 inch wide panels to start with. Then run them through the planer. Finally, glue the two 10 inch panels together. Use biscuits and cauls...

For the center glue line, you can use a scraper to scrape it off, a plane or a sander. Using a sander takes some patience to make sure that you don't end up with a dip in the middle. I use a belt sander and ROS. Works great! :)

[Steven Wilson]

When glueing wide panels I take extra care when clamping so that any cleanup is around 1/64" (or less). Then I either smooth them with hand planes and card scrapers or send them through a Performax 16/32.

[Jim Becker]

I do pretty much what Steven talks about, although now that I have the drum sander, it gets used first once I scrape off any excess glue.