How to true surface of panel

[David Ragan]

Fellow Neanders, please observe the following board:

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It had an irregularity at a glue line, and was a little too wide to chuck in the DW735.

so, as you can see, I took it down a little. How do you all determine where the high spots are?

Eyeball method? upside down on table saw and look for see-saw effect?

run straightedge over it?

How about upside down on table saw on something like carbon paper that transfers to high spots?

As always, Thanks

[Steve Voigt]

A mountain of words has been written about this, so I recommend you do some research. My first choice would be any decent basic woodworking text; you can probably find half a dozen at the local library. Second choice, google "flatten board with handplane" and start reading.

Here are a couple basic thoughts to get you rolling:

- You need a straightedge, a pair of winding sticks, and a long plane. That's it. If you want to thickness by hand, you also need a marking gauge.
- Use the straight edge to determine the high and low spots, and mark them. Try not to remove any material from your low spots; those are your datum points, and every time you lower them, you increase the amount of work you have to do. Knock off the high points with the jack plane. I try to get as close as I can with the jack before I switch to a try plane, otherwise it will take all day.
- Keep checking with both straight edge and winding sticks--it's easy to end up with something that seems straight but is twisted.
- Periodically taking shavings that start a few inches from one end and stop a few inches from the other, otherwise you will end up with a convex board.
- Practice. :) It's not bad once you get the hang of it. Here is what I flattened and thicknessed this morning--one of the tops for a split-top knockdown bench. It's 70 x 9 x 3 3/8. The individual boards i the top were also flattened by hand--I don't own a working 'lectric jointer (I own a non-working one--long story)

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[Nicholas Lawrence]

For small stuff like that I have had reasonably good success with placing the face on a flat surface and trying to get it to tip in all directions. Plane the tip points and repeat until you are happy.

[David Ragan]

I got it done. Wasn't any big deal, really. Board was pretty true to begin with.

Winding sticks showed a hair of twist-I didn't bother with it.

One corner was a little too shallow (1-2mm) when upside down on tablesaw, I had already used the #8 and smoother by that time, so I just left it.