Another problem re: surfacing by handplane

[Cory Gilmer]

Hi all,

I just finished reading John's thread regarding his problems in successfully surfacing a board 4-square by plane. I'm taking baby steps with this as well and have run across another problem - one earlier in the process. I've used a jack plane with a significant crown to quickly hog off material and get it to the point where I could bring out the jointer plane. I thought I was using the jointer right (as per instructions from Chris Schwarz's book on handplanes and various videos in addition to Rob Cosman's Rough to Ready) but upon checking my work for flatness I see I'm nowhere close. 2 pictures are attached. The first one is with the plane lying along the length of the board, the second with it across the board. I'm more concerned about the first picture, I'm not sure why I'm not getting a flat surface along the board's length. Not to say I'm happy with the lack of flatness across the board's width, but by the look of it I'm not spending enough time on the outside edges of the surface - although I'm not neglecting these areas and in the videos mentioned above the guys don't seem to be spending extra time in these areas. Any thoughts appreciated!

Cory

[Cory Gilmer]

Sorry pics uploaded backwards - first picture is ACROSS the board and second along the length.

[Tri Hoang]

When you get full shavings going across, you pretty much eliminate the problem on the first picture. Once you turn the plane around and go length wise, make sure you take similar # of passes as you move from one edge of the board to another. You need to also make sure that the iron isn't skewed one way or another...aim for consisting thickness. Otherwise, you'll end up with something similar to the first pic. You can correct the problem on the first pic by planing across the board again.

Length-wise, what you show on the second pic could mean that you have not taken enough passes to eliminate the cuts from the passes taking across the board. Avoid the tendency to have a hum in the middle by adding a few extra stop shavings. You may want to also go for a smaller camber on the iron.

I do assume your plane is flat/square.

[Chris Griggs]

It looks like you haven't traversed across the board enough. As Tri said, when working across or at an angle you will know that the cup is out when you get a full length shaving across the width. The picture showing the length looks like that is a ridge left over from the jack planes cambered blade. If you haven't fully removed the cup in the board then you are not hitting those spots and thus the ridges from the rougher plane are still there. Or as Tri said those could be ridges left over from traversing with the jointer. Either way you are going to need to work those high edges to get the ridges out in the center. If your planing along the length of the board skew the jointer a bit so your referencing more of the width - this will help keep thing flat across the width as you work the length.

[Cory Gilmer]

Me too!! I have put lots of work into making sure just that and I'm pretty sure they're good there.

[David Weaver]

Don't overthink it - through shavings at the edges where the board is high and a conscious effort to do a little more work at the outsides of the board next time and then you can look for the next problem to solve.

If you have a board wide enough to plane diagonally from either side, then you won't have to deal with this at all - though planing an x pattern will leave you with ends that are a tiny bit proud of the rest of the board because it is a bit more difficult to plane as you work toward the corners.

But, anyway, a few strokes down the length of those boards, check your work, dial the brain down a little - it looks like there's very little work left to do on that board if the hollow is uniform along the length.

[Terry Beadle]

The picture with the plane edge showing the cross grain dip is a bit to far. However, having a very slight dip cross grain is a good thing. Looks like a couple strokes on the edges, leaving a very slight dip in the middle, and that piece would be good to go.

The very slight light showing on the with the grain shot looks ok to me and a quick treatment with a card scraper would take care of any worries.

[Cory Gilmer]

Thanks for your input everyone. I'll soon have a chance to get back to the shop and give your suggestions a try. I appreciate the help!