smoothing the tops after glue up

[jeff vanek]

what are you guys using to smooth the tops of jointed boards after a glue up? card scraper? hand plane? belt sander?

[johnny means]

Most of my glue ups get dimensioned post-glue. Of course, we're talking about door panels and other sub 20" parts for the most part. Anything larger that I can't size after gluing up gets assembled super carefully so as to avoid anything more than a quick hit with the ROS or card scraper. Sometimes I have to really go nuts with the clamps and cauls, but I think its worth the extra effort.

[Leo Graywacz]

My buddies 36" wide belt sander :D

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I'm with Johnny on this...an ounce of prevention. On panel glue-ups I usually spring the joint, lay the boards across battens so they are uniformly elevated above the clamp bars, back the boards with calls and register the joint line with pair of clamps at the ends. If I gently scrape away the glue beads when they turn rubbery, then a few swipes with the card scraper is all that is needed before a light finish sanding.Fwiw, I learned this lesson the hard way (many times) a tiny bit of misalignment when the glue is wet makes tit all too tempting to over-use the can scraper to level the joint and then you get troughs in the panel...depending on how you've oriented the grain a plane can cause other problems.

[David Kumm]

For any glue up that will be run through a sander- drum in my case- I use polyurethane glue. Lot easier on the belts than yellow. Dave

[Dave Lehnert]

Hand plane

[Jim Matthews]

+1 sprung joint, set on battens, bevel up smoother across the works to level them together.

FWIW - I wait a day after the glue is dry before smoothing.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, accurate material dimensioning and careful glue up alignment results in a panel that can be surfaced with a hand plane and card scraper in a couple of minutes.

Regards, Rod.

[Rich Engelhardt]

what are you guys using to smooth the tops of jointed boards after a glue up? card scraper? hand plane? belt sander?
I tried the 3x21 belt sander last week.
In 15 seconds, I gouged the Poplar I was working with so bad, it took an hour to get it back right again w/the ROS and hand sanding.

I've scratched that method off my list ;).

[steven c newman]

212945I'll handplane, then sand.212946 The red plane is a scrub plane. Think of it as an angry beaver. I then follow up with a 1/4 sander, and IF it needs it, a piece of freshly cut glass as a scraper.

[Frank Drew]

Belt sanding without a stabilizing sanding frame is very risky, IMO. But with one it's a great method.

[Jeff Duncan]

Everything goes through the wide belt after glue-up....just makes life so much easier;)

Before that I used a drum sander, and before that I used all sorts of methods including hand planes, belt sanders and ROS, and each has their benefits and drawbacks. An ROS although slow can still very easily leave dishes if your not careful of sanding evenly!

Oh and everything gets plain old yellow glue. Even if it was a problem for my belts, it wouldn't be worth the hassle of using Poly glues...too much hassle, but that's just me, YMMV:D

good luck,
JeffD

[Tom Jones III]

I use a cheap tiny little hand plane to hit the actual glue line then use a smoother on the whole thing. Careful machining and gluing means I can often smooth the glue up faster than I can put away all the clamps.

[Prashun Patel]

A handplane is a great thing here, but just be careful you glue up yr panels with the same grain direction. Else, you increase yr risk of tearout (DAMHIKT).

Another great tip I've followed is to let the glue dry for about 1 hour, then to pop it off with a putty knife. I do have a beater block plane for the times I need to take a plane to the dried glue line. IMHO, it's good to do that b4 putting it through the planer or jointer.

[Jerome Hanby]

Sounds like one of thsoe HF smoother planes might make a good beater for this use...

[Robert LaPlaca]

Hi, accurate material dimensioning and careful glue up alignment results in a panel that can be surfaced with a hand plane and card scraper in a couple of minutes.

Regards, Rod.


+1 agreement

[Brian Tymchak]

...and IF it needs it, a piece of freshly cut glass as a scraper.

Well, that's a new one on me. Never heard of using glass.

[David Hostetler]

A well sharpened hand plane, assuming grain direction is all going the same way... Like was mentioned above, if grain direction is going in opposite directions you run into tear out. Don't ask me why I know this. I am trying to put it out of my memory...

[Chris Tsutsui]

I would use cauls protected with freezer paper or masking tape so they don't get glued to the work piece along with parallel clamps.

Sometimes I'll use a moistened rag to cleanup yellow glue squeeze out but I switched to a different method because you can actually rub glue into pores this way on certain woods.

If I was really anal I'd tape up the edges so the squeeze out oozes onto blue painters or green frogtape. Then wait until the glue turns to slightly rubbery but not rock hard and not "wet". Then I remove the the glue beads off in some light passes, remove the tape and finish.

[Peter Quinn]

Everything gets glued up to no wider than 15" for the first round. Then it all goes through my 15" planer. Next it gets glued up up to 36", and I'll take it to work and run it through the wide belt, or if wider and manageable it goes through my 22-44 drum sander at home. Some things are just too big to go through the drum and too wide for the wide-belt, so the last glue joint gets done very carefully, and it gets scraped and sanded flush. All this assumes proper stock preparation, careful glue ups, cauls, etc. For small items like cabinet doors, if done right there is minimal squeeze out and little if any leveling of joints, so a card scraper and ROS are typically sufficient. I have done tops at work up to 60"X120", same strategy. Make the biggest pieces that will fit through the planer, keep the hand finished joints to a minimum.