should I use a longer plane?

[Steven Lee, NC]

I am flattening the cupped side of my work bench top. The other side is nearly where I want it. This is the bottom side so I am not planning on making it perfectly smooth but it's still decent practice for me. I have 4ft levels I am using for winding sticks and to check for flatness. The cup leaves both ends of the level about 1/8" off the table top. top is slightly under 4' wide and 7.5 ft long.

I am using a 5 1/2 with a fairly cambered blade and I think I am progressing nicely. I am thinking of cambering it more just to remove the material faster.

Is a longer plane better for hogging off material faster or do I just stick with the 5 1/2? I have a #8 coming in hopefully next week that I plan to use to flatten the top with.


In the heavy/medium/fine world, where does a #8 tend to be used? For a 4' wide top, would you have start with a bigger plane first and work your way smaller? or vice versa.


and in reference to the sacrilege post going on, I am using vintage :D although I was pretty clueless until I was able to use a LN and realize what sort of performance I should be shooting for.

[Frederick Skelly]

Steve,
I just flattened my 2' x 6' bench for the first time. I started with a #5, but found it easier/faster to use a #7. Then, after the 7 is getting full length shavings switch to a shorter plane. YMMV.

If you want to see my lessons learned from that first try, search for a post in my name with the words "Newbie Notes" in the title. (Sorry. I dont know how to post a link with this crappy brower.)

Fred

[Jim Koepke]

I am using a 5 1/2 with a fairly cambered blade and I think I am progressing nicely. I am thinking of cambering it more just to remove the material faster.

My feelings tell me when things are progressing nicely, rushing doesn't help. Unless your bench top is real thick you may not want to take off one more shaving than is necessary.


Is a longer plane better for hogging off material faster or do I just stick with the 5 1/2? I have a #8 coming in hopefully next week that I plan to use to flatten the top with.


My choice would actually be a narrower and shorter plane like a #5-1/4. But to each their own. Often my #6 is used like a scrub. Usually it isn't for taking thick scallops of shavings but more for fine tuning the scrub work.

Scrub seems to be fast and nimble which is easier with a light plane than a heavy hunk of iron.



In the heavy/medium/fine world, where does a #8 tend to be used? For a 4' wide top, would you have start with a bigger plane first and work your way smaller? or vice versa.


The heavy/medium/fine world is just one person's way of stating their method of progressing through their woodworking. Starting with a rough cut piece of wood, one would start with the heavy planing of the scrub plane. This could be followed by another somewhat heavy cut of a triplane or a jointer. Either of these could be dialed back toward a medium cut. The fine cut would follow for a show surface and maybe even inside surfaces for some folks.

Smoothing can be done with a large plane. There is one problem which often occurs. When the larger plane is set up to take thick shavings to quickly dimension a piece, the blade and chip breaker will not be set up for the best smoothing. One could change blade sets and readjust everything or switch to a plane set up for the specific task of final smoothing.

If someone is always doing the same thing, it is easy to set up a specific procedure. Some live a minimalist approach of having a three plane solution. Well of course then they want a block plane and a different jack plane to set up for scrub work and so on.



and in reference to the sacrilege post going on, I am using vintage although I was pretty clueless until I was able to use a LN and realize what sort of performance I should be shooting for.

It is good to know what the equipment can do. In my opinion, vintage allows one to have a larger repertoire of tools to call upon.

jtk

[Christopher Charles]

How out of flat is the top? I took the high spots off mine with at #5 and then finished flattening with a vintage #7. Toothed the top after that. It's a workbench--no need to overthink it :)

C