Planing a 24 inch wide board

[Greg Magone]

It looks like I have a need to plane a 24" wide board, but only have a planer that is good for 12 inches! Well, the board is actually 6 4" wide boards glued together.

I am considering planing two boards and then gluing the two planed boards together. How hard would it be to make equivalent to a 24" board planed at once?

This board is the table top for a small filing cabinet. I want it to look nice and uniform and not have obvious issues.

[Roderick Gentry]

Not sure what you are really asking here, you can make them in halves then glue that up. If you had say a 13" planer. You will probably not get a perfect joint, but a scraper, hand plane, or belt sander should be OK. Few of us have planers over 16-18 inches.

Normally it doesn't look great to glue a larger piece up out of too many small pieces. And I generally prefer odd numbers of pieces, but if the wood is nice it should be fine.

[glenn bradley]

Jointing and planing narrower boards to glue up into wide panels is a common activity. With a 12" planer I would probably do three or four blanks that glued up to 25" and then trim to final width after glue-up. If you have not done panel glue-ups before there are a range of articles on this process and how to increase success. Read/watch several and choose the method that suits you best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukfBnyDXO1o
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/video-glue-up-a-panel
http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/video/jointing-boards-for-dead-flat-panel-glue-ups.aspx

[Art Mann]

I have done what you are proposing to do many times. The critical issues are to have all the boards planed to the same thickness within a close tolerance and then using some sort of alignment strategy to make sure the two halves are very closely aligned so you don't have much scraping/sanding/hand planing to do. I use a doweling jig called the "Dowelmax" but I expect correctly installed biscuits or loose tenons would also work well.

[Jim Andrew]

Use cauls to do the glueup, so the panel is flat and even.

[Keith Outten]

Find someone in your area that owns a CNC router. A 48" by 96" router can plane a table top that size in about ten minutes. A second light cut pass can be done which will leave your table top ready for sanding. Check our Friends of The Creek directory for people in your area.

I think Mick Martin is in your area.

[Erik Christensen]

the best method to use is driven by the tools available. if there is a cabinet shop nearby that will run it through their wide belt for a reasonable fee that would be far faster, easier and give the best results. in my shop I would glue up the top an a single session in a vacuum bag with show side down for registration then finish top with either had planes or sander depending on tearout

[dan sherman]

The best method in my opinion is to book match joint the boards before gluing them up into a panel. Additionally if you use clamping cauls during the glue up phase all you will need to do is clean up the glue lines with a sander or card scrapper. I blogged about this last year when I made some wide tops for end tables. dans-hobbies.com/2013/09/17/jointing-perfectly/ Like Art said, the boards need to be the same thickness.

[John C Bush]

Hi Greg,

I live in Edmonds and have a 25" drum sander if you need help. I sent a PM but not sure it made it to you. Let me know if I can help. John Bush

[johnny means]

Sometimes we really overthink this. Not a single piece of Victorian or Chippendale period furniture was made using a 24" planer. Mill your panels, glue them up carefully, then sand, scrape or plane the joints level. It really is not that hard. Certainly doesn't warrant a day treking around town or outsourcing to another shop. As my wife says," K.I.S.S.".

[Jim Matthews]

If you want to keep the board "whole" consider a router on a sled.

It's the way many of the table makers using live edge
boards manage.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FckZpatgkFw