Novice Panel Help

[David Wadstrup]

Hello,

I still learning the ropes, and have two very basic woodworking questions. 1) I have a number of wide panels to glue up and am wondering how best to approach flattening them. Should I flatten and dimension each board prior to glue up, or should it glue up and then flatten the whole panel? If it makes a difference, most panels will be made up of 2 or 3 boards, and will be an overall size of approximately 21" x 40".

Thanks for your advice.

David

[David Weaver]

If you're using hand tools, joint the boards and glue them and then do your flattening after that. If you need hints on grain orientation, saw the ends of the boards and look at the jointed edges, or plane parts of a surface, but there's no great reason to do a lot of work flattening until the boards are already glued together (otherwise you'll just do it twice and maybe overshoot your thickness wants).

If you're using power tools, you'll probably be stuck thicknessing them most of the way and making the joints as perfect as possible so as to do little other than finish planing the result.

[Curt Putnam]

Is the stock rough sawn? If so, I'd want to ensure that it's flat enough to know that I'm gluing up a flat enough panel that I'll be able hit hit my thickness target. One strategy is to keep your initial panel glue-ups to a total width of less than your thickness planer. If you don't have a thickness planer or are going to glue up the full width at one shot, well then, just go for it. Use some well waxed cauls above and below the panel, cross grain (perpendicular to the long edge), to help keep it flat during glue-up. That about sums up my accumulated "wisdom."

[Casey Gooding]

I agree with Curt. Your boards should be fairly flat before glue up. That's the best way to ensure that your edges are square so you don't end up with gaps in your glue line. Cauls are also fantastic.