What planes do you use on a glued-up panel?

[Tom Jones III]

Obviously you are going to finish up with a smoother of some sort, but what other planes do you use on a large glued-up panel? Do you start with something big like a jointer and treat the panel as if it were a single piece of rough lumber or do you start with something smaller and focus on the glue joints to get them flat?

What I'm looking at specifically is a rather large table top 36"x72". Since it was so large I didn't get the joints as flat as I normally like and there is quite a bit of work to be done.

[David Turner]

Tom:

I scrap all the glue off first and then attack the difference in the panels at the glue lines with a jack plane (#5). Once I have the joints reasonably level then a fore plane or jointer plane to get everything flat (#6, 7 or 8). I then finish up with a smoother and card scraper.

David Turner
Plymouth, Mi.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Tom

I usually work across the grain first, and once this is flat, then work down the grain.

For working across the grain, I most prefer a LV LAJ, with a 25 degree blade that is cambered like a smoother, if the variation in board height is minimal.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/Blumplanereview-SmootherandForePlanes_html_4969de99.jpg

.. or a jack plane if there is more to remove ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/AThicknessingTechnique_html_m769c963e.jpg

After this I will use a jointer with the grain if absolute flatness is needed, or a try plane otherwise ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/ArmoireProject1_html_m4712d933.jpg

You may find this thicknessing technique helful: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/AThicknessingTechnique.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom Jones III]

Thanks for the quick reply guys, and pictures as well!

[David Keller NC]

Tom - one thing to be aware of is the grain direction. One rarely finds book-matched panels in furniture from the age of handwork (1850 or so and previous), and there's a reason. By definition, a panel made of glued-up boards that have been resawn to yield bookmatched pieces have the grain running in opposite directions along the glue line. This can be quite challenging to plane, as one direction of the plane will give a nice finish on one half of the bookmatched panel, and will really tear out the opposite side.

There are various ways of dealing with this, and no two situations are exactly alike, so you will have to experiment. One method is to plane one side of the panel very close to the glue line, then reverse the direction for the other side, and use a card scraper on the glue line itself. Another method is to use a metal plane with and extremely fine-set mouth and a very sharp blade, and take very light shavings. This strategy will usually allow you to plane against the direction of the grain without bad tear out. Yet another is to use a scraper plane on the whole panel.

I personally prefer to switch directions and plane very carefully so that there's not much glue line to clean up, and finish with a card scraper. This method is quite a bit faster than the sraper plane, or very finely set plane.

[Mike Henderson]

When gluing up big panels, you can't beat cauls (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/Cauls.htm)for getting the panel flat. Three sets are usually enough but the more the better.

Mike