Which technique will flatten a workbench the fastest

[Dan Friedrichs]

I guess I should have said: Which technique will flatten MY workbench the fastest.

Built a new workbench top - 60"x30" hard maple. Screwed up a glue-up and have a crown in the top that's at least 1/8" tall. So it needs some flattening. Is that a lot to take off?

Which method of flattening will be fastest? Hand plane (I have a Veritas bevel up jack plane that I'm incompetently dangerous with), router sled, or take it to a cabinet shop for a wide-belting? I'm totally willing to put some sweat into this and handplane it flat (if only to learn how to handle the plane, better), but don't know if 1/8" off is an reasonable amount of material to try to remove.

[Allan Speers]

A Jack plane, a straight edge, and 2 winding sticks. You should be done in 5 minutes or less.


Your workbench doesn't need to be machine-shop level. just "close enough for jazz."

[Phil Mueller]

+1 on the Jack plane. I needed to do the same, and was a complete plane beginner.
My learnings: go real light at first to get a read on whether or not all the laminated boards have the grain running in the same direction and/or a few boards with reversing grain...if you go too aggressive with either of these situations, you risk tear out. Set the iron shallow and set a narrow throat opening. Plane diagonally with the grain in both directions keeping in mind any weird grain areas and stop short of the edge or you may get tear out.

There's a lot more experience on the board than I, and I'm sure they will be along to add to or correct my suggestions.

[Andrew Hughes]

I use a Foreplane to flatten my bench its hardmaple.I don't own a jack plane but it sounds like it's a popular choice.
It really doent take much time but I enjoy the process so I take my time.
Keep at it Dan. Endeavor to persevere

[David Eisenhauer]

Router sled? - Has to be the slowest method. Wide belt? - Have to remove the top, transport it, bring it back and re install it. Hand plane(s)? - Identify the high area(s) with straight edges and winding sticks. Mark/scribble extent of high area(s) with a pencil. Start rubbing a SHARP plane across the width (or at an angle) of the high area(s) in a systematic pattern so as to remove the pencil marking. As said above - set the plane for a very shallow cut and keep an eye or "feel" out for the grain changes. Go at it easy-like to avoid creating bigger problems, and, if a particular spot is giving problems, leave it and work around it to come back to it at a different angle. Almost anything you do with a plane will make it better, especially if you keep it sharp. Use a straight edge to gauge progress. Although high-spot removal and flattening are related, generally work towards getting rid of the high area(s) first, then start looking at flattening. Flattening a bench top takes some long winding sticks so improvise by using long levels or something similar. The top will get flatter as you work it down and it does not have to be NASA flat.

[Frederick Skelly]

If you have can easily get the top to a cabinet shop (e.g., it's not yet attached, you own a truck, a shop is nearby, etc), then have them run it through the sander.

If you'd rather not move it, use the hand plane. If you are a novice at that, like I was the first time, this thread might help. Be aware that I got WAAAY carried away - I thought it did need to be "machine shop flat", as Alan aptly put it.

I don't mean to disagree with the really smart guys who've already replied. But IMO, if it's a new bench top, it does need to be flattened - I wouldn't just remove the hump. You'll use this bench as a reference surface for glue ups, etc. Don't get carried away on tolerances like I did, but IMO you spent real money on that top and I would want it to be as right as I could make it. Using your BU Jack will work for this - I have that tool and love it. But it's going to take a little more time/effort than if you have a longer plane. That's no biggie. Just be aware this may not be a 10 minute job if you are new at flattening like I was.

Here's a link:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?214798-Newbie-Notes-Lessons-learned-while-flattening-my-workbench&highlight=Flattening

Dan, like everything else, YMMV. Best of luck!
Fred

[Joe O'Connor]

I used a router sled to flatten mine, worked great took about an hour.

[roger wiegand]

One of the few times I've really used my #8 jointer plane. Worked like a champ.

[Rod Sheridan]

Dan, the obvious answer is that a 32" jointer would be fastest:D

That said I would use a plane..........Rod.

[Jamie Buxton]

You left out one other technique: a CNC router. Fast, and guaranteed to be flat. They're getting to be quite common in larger cabinet shops.

Me, I'd use a router bridge. No hassles with grain direction.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Dan, the obvious answer is that a 32" jointer would be fastest:D

That said I would use a plane..........Rod.

Ah, well, the knives on mine are dull, so I'm going to come over and use yours, ok, Rod? :)

[Rod Sheridan]

Ah, well, the knives on mine are dull, so I'm going to come over and use yours, ok, Rod? :)

That would be fantastic, love to meet you.

I'll sharpen the #3 and #7 plane for you:p...........Rod.

[Peter Quinn]

A widebelt works like a planer, it will not flatten your top over its length, and will not always take out twist if you have some of that too. It will improve flateness over the width, and many help over the length but it's not a guarantee. It will leave your top very smooth. and it's pretty fast once you get to a shop. Hand planning an edge grain hard maple lamination with grain running in random directions isn't my idea of joy. I did my own a bit, it's 40" wide....pretty easy to get some good hunks of tear out even with a sharp low angle plane. But it's possible. I like the CNC suggestion. It's really the best way to get a very flat top quickly, once you factor in getting it there, probably have to run one pass crown up and then flip and flatten or shim the top to the base. Is the base its sitting on dead flat? You can flatten the top all you like, if you pull it down with screws to a base that is warped.....there goes your flat reference.

[Brian Holcombe]

This is not a bad job to do by hand. I would suggest that you camber your iron and make the cuts crossgrain. Let your straight edge and winding sticks guide you as to where to cut.

If you have not done this previously, then it is not a 5 minute job for you. However you will learn how to use your jack plane.

Since this is a workbench, I do this about once a year. I do the work crossgrain and just take the highs off along the grain. No sense in perfecting the surface, a little roughness helps the bench to grip.

[Prashun Patel]

My benches are both edge grain laminations (you don't say what yours is). It's been my experience that both tops after glue up were globally flat, but locally bumpy. So, built them in halves and ran each half through the planer. Then I glued the two halves together.

If you're not yet a Ginsu Samurai with your hand planes, then your fastest may be to rip the top in half, flatten through yr benchtop planer (light passes, flip each time), then re-glue.

As long as your top is not bowed, but simply cupped, I'd bet it's thick enough that a thickness planer will joint it just fine.


On the other hand, if you are aspire to hand plane Ginsu samurai status, then this is a great project to learn on.

[Tom Deutsch]

Wow - unless this thread is from the neanderthal forum, I'd be intimidated by the answers. 1/8" is a lot of hard maple to sweep off a decent size area - or I'm a big wuss. I just googled and read about jack planes and winding sticks and they still might as well be sextants and divining rods as far as I'm concerned. LOL If I were the OP, I'd go for dressing the hump with a power planer and getting it roughly level as judged by a straight edge.

[Frank Drackman]

I would grab my trusty #8 and have at it. To flatten workbench tops I do the diagonal cross pattern. I find that if I am fighting the process that if I walk away for a few minutes and come back with a clear head things go so much better. Have fun & don't overthink it.

[Mike Ontko]

Wow - unless this thread is from the neanderthal forum, I'd be intimidated by the answers. 1/8" is a lot of hard maple to sweep off a decent size area - or I'm a big wuss. I just googled and read about jack planes and winding sticks and they still might as well be sextants and divining rods as far as I'm concerned. LOL If I were the OP, I'd go for dressing the hump with a power planer and getting it roughly level as judged by a straight edge.

I'm kind of in the same boat (though this boat has a fiberglass hull and 75hp Mercury motor and not cedar strip hull with maple paddles). Hand tools can be quick and efficient, when you've got the experience and the right hand tools. But from my perspective, in either case--human powered or electric hand plane--you're only working on an isolated section of the surface. If you want to be sure the whole surface is flat and perpendicular to the sides, then it needs to be referenced off of some other external source. And, that's what the router sled does.

I built a small router sled last week so I could reflatten the bottom of a table top that I had inadvertently sanded too agressively on one corner. Creating the sled and guide rails, then taking 1/32" off the entire surface took under an hour--and that's fast for me ;)

[Brian Holcombe]

My benches are both edge grain laminations (you don't say what yours is). It's been my experience that both tops after glue up were globally flat, but locally bumpy. So, built them in halves and ran each half through the planer. Then I glued the two halves together.

If you're not yet a Ginsu Samurai with your hand planes, then your fastest may be to rip the top in half, flatten through yr benchtop planer (light passes, flip each time), then re-glue.

As long as your top is not bowed, but simply cupped, I'd bet it's thick enough that a thickness planer will joint it just fine.


On the other hand, if you are aspire to hand plane Ginsu samurai status, then this is a great project to learn on.

:D


Although......this is what the Samurai might use;

http://japan-tool.com/kanna/Yarri_Handle/sP2280132.jpg

[johnny means]

Rather than planing that much off, I would rip it into three or four pieces. Re-edge, properly matching opposing edges, re-glue (carefully), then plane. This would eliminate the need to remove that much thickness.

[Martin Wasner]

Rough it with a hand held power planer, gun it through a widebelt would be my answer. Unless you're mission critical on a thickness, in which case, you're hosed.

You could probably just put it through the widebelt though. Depending on the thickness, the hold down rollers aren't strong enough to flatten it out then sand it the way a planer would. Most hold down rollers are set around seventy five pounds I believe, even with doubles, that's only a hundred, fifty pounds of pressure, likely not enough. Good luck finding a planer that big anyways, very few shops in my experience have one that large. I'd likely just widebelt it, do a skip pass until I'm just hitting it, then do light passes until it's almost flat, flip it and grind hard until the back is close enough, then finish off the good face. It'd have to start out crown up.

A CNC would make short work of it as well.

[Allan Speers]

I would grab my trusty #8 and have at it. To flatten workbench tops I do the diagonal cross pattern. I find that if I am fighting the process that if I walk away for a few minutes and come back with a clear head things go so much better. Have fun & don't overthink it.


It's actually better, in most cases to use a smaller plane, like a jack or #6. It's a mistake to use a really long jointer, thinking that the plane will sort of "flatten the top for you." You can end up taking off too much, and still have twist, etc. (Those long jointers are meant for edge-jointing, not face jointing, though they can be useful on a bench when you are almost done, set very shallow.)

Best to use a straight edge & winding sticks, marking as David E mentioned above, and just take off what you need in smaller slices. Better control.

And really, a 1/8" hump in Hard Maple is not much at all, with a cambered blade.

[Myk Rian]

Router sled? - Has to be the slowest method.
But the easiest to do it with accuracy. I did a table slab with one.

[J.R. Rutter]

CNC with spoil board fly cutter, then widebelt. :)

[Erik Christensen]

when my bench top needed flattening post glue-up I used both methods - router sled on the top and hand planes on the bottom. I had no confidence in my hand plane skills hence it got relegated to the hidden side.

the OP asked for fastest - for me the router sled took about half the time that the hand planes did - I think they both came out about the same as far as flat goes - YMMV.

were I to do it again - if I was in a hurry i'd use router sled and if I wanted to enjoy the process and get a workout i'd go the hand plane route

[Mark Philippi]

To get that much crown flat I would rent or borrow an electric hand plane (like carpenters use on doors) Then finish with the #5 and #7

[Floyd Mah]

A few light passes with a scrub plane will remove the lump and then you can go on to the other planes. It's a good investment if you have to deal with twisted wood, rough lumber, or for doing prep work prior to planing.