Easiest way to trim length of wide boards

[Steven Mikes]

I have two 18" wide board sitting on my bench that are just a fraction of an inch different in length, maybe 1/8". What's the easiest way to take that off the longer one? It's kind of a lot to plane, but too little to use a panel saw. Only machine saw I own is a bandsaw.

[Frederick Skelly]

Why not handsaw and clean up with a plane?

[Jim Clendon]

It will only take a couple minutes to plane 1/8" of softwood end grain and a few minutes to plane 1/8" of hardwood end grain with your jointer or jack plane. Then finish it with your smoothing, block or edge trimming plane. I assume this is 4/4 material.

[steven c newman]

Knife line then beltsander to get to the line..

[Stu Gillard]

This is where a Japanese saw like a ryoba can excel.

[Jim Koepke]

An easy way would be to jerry rig a long shooting board. (it can be done quickly for one time use)

Strike a line all the way around if you can. Chamfer the far end of the piece to help do away with any blow out or speltching.

At 1/8" and a shaving of 0.003" you would need less than 50 strokes with a plane. A hand saw would likely take more.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

Mark the cut line on both sides of the board. This is where a panel gauge is helpful.

Use a scrub or jack plane with strong camber to take it down close to the lines.

Finish with a jointer plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Rob Luter]

Clamp the short board on top of the long board. Use the edge of the short board to guide your panel saw. As a secondary operation shoot the edges at the same time.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Am I missing something ?

Are there any of you that wouldn’t plane an 1/8” off both faces of an entire board? I don’t know the cubic volume of removing .125 inch across the end of an 18 inch board, but there isn’t that much.

All of the answers work. Even Steven’s belt sander.

Scribe a line and plane to it. It shouldn’t take much to adjust that length on a 4/4, 5/4 or even 6/4 board.

Not comfortable planing to the line. Clamp on a board as a fence and shoot the end square. The fence only needs to be wide enough for the edge of the plane. You really only need the fence for the last few strokes. You could even do this vertically.

You could clamp the shorter board to the longer, and use the short board (okay, Rob already suggested this) as your fence. Then you’d have both boards exactly the same.

Heck, you could scribe a line and do this with a sharp chisel!


I just did this for both ends of a 22 inch wide curly maple table. I have 27 inch wide curly maple table that also will need this.

I’m always learning, so if There’s a better way to do this...

[Steven Mikes]

Thanks for the suggestions, for some reason using a cambered blade on endgrain just didn't occur to me. I'll try it tonight!

[Derek Cohen]

Steve, I take back what I suggested - It was not clear to me (duh) that you needed to remove end grain (I was thinking it was with the grain). My preference now would be to use a low cutting angle, such as in a LA Jack. You could also use a jointer plane as a second alternative.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[chris carter]

I've done this a number of times with my fore plane with a heavy camber. Then clean it up with another appropriate plane. In fact, this is my usual method for wide boards that I have to cut with a panel saw. Just mark my line and cut as close as possible and then plane down; shooting board not really necessary. You just have to approach from both sides so you don't blow anything out.

[Doug Weiner]

(Completely tongue in cheek). Or you could just get a can of wood filler and build a 1/8” addition to the shorter board.

[Doug Dawson]

I have two 18" wide board sitting on my bench that are just a fraction of an inch different in length, maybe 1/8". What's the easiest way to take that off the longer one? It's kind of a lot to plane, but too little to use a panel saw. Only machine saw I own is a bandsaw.

It's probably taken you more time to read these posts than it would have taken to make the cut with a hand saw. :^)

[Steven Mikes]

Doug you must be much better with a saw than I, I cannot get a handsaw to stay on track if there is only 1/32" of material on the outside of the cut. I can follow a line very nicely with at least 1/2"...

[Doug Dawson]

Doug you must be much better with a saw than I, I cannot get a handsaw to stay on track if there is only 1/32" of material on the outside of the cut. I can follow a line very nicely with at least 1/2"...

At least in the case of a Japanese saw, the kerf is quite narrow, thus the saw is very easy to pull (not much wood removal) and, started properly, it's hard to get the saw to veer appreciably off course (enough to require more than a few swipes with a block plane.)

But a Western saw is not much different (particularly with a back saw,) just has a slightly wider kerf. An eighth of an inch leaves a lot of wiggle room.

[Jake Rothermel]

First, secure the board to your CNC table. . . .

[Pat Barry]

Assuming the long board is if manageable length I suggest to use the bandsaw to rough cut the length and then finish with a plane going from each end to the middle to minimize chance of blowing out / chipping off the corner.

[Doug Dawson]

Assuming the long board is if manageable length I suggest to use the bandsaw to rough cut the length and then finish with a plane going from each end to the middle to minimize chance of blowing out / chipping off the corner.

Even if the board is not of manageable length, roller bearing work stands are very useful tools to have.

[Prashun Patel]

I would clamp them face-to-face, and plane the high side down to meet the low side. It will go quicker than you think.

The tricky part is orienting the boards so they're ergonomic to plane. If they are less than 60" long, I'd stand them up on the floor in the bench vise, then stand on the bench and plane.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Prashun, Even if they’re longer, why couldn’t you simply clamp them on the bench faces together and use the end of the shorter board to effectively be the fence for shooting (e.g. the edge of the plane rides against shorter board) and end up with perfectly matched boards? Sort of like using a modern router bit with a pattern.

As far as sawing goes, I share in the OPs condition of sawing that fine with my current crosscut saws.

That said, why bother when you can quickly plane the stock (from both ends) and reach the same objective. I would use my 5 1/2 or even No.5 without hesitation. Assuming that they’re very sharp...which they are. I was always under the assumption that many people used a BD plane to shoot with. My No.7 works beautifully. I used it because of the extra mass that would plow through end grain.

Historically speaking, we’ve only had readily available low angle BU planes for a relatively short time. The vintage versions were pretty scarce.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I just tried using a chisel. Scribed a line at 1/8 inch. Hand screw on the line. Pared with a chisel. Hardest part was getting the hand screw lined up on the lines.

[Kurtis Johnson]

I have two 18" wide board sitting on my bench that are just a fraction of an inch different in length, maybe 1/8". What's the easiest way to take that off the longer one? It's kind of a lot to plane, but too little to use a panel saw. Only machine saw I own is a bandsaw.I'd be tempted to pare that.

[James Pallas]

Clamp the board flat. Clamp another board against the end, tightly. Saw to the line. Done like this for centuries to fit butt joints. Rather than do this, for other than making a butt joint, I would just plane to the line
.
Jim

[lowell holmes]

You need a sharp 8 or 10 pt Disston crosscut saw. You will love it.
Of course they grow like puppies when you start.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

James, I am not sure I understand the clamping part. Are you clamping it across the board to make a fence for the saw, or what?

[steven c newman]

Clamp the shorter board on top of the longer board....use a pattern bit in a router like a flush trim bit, with the bearing above the cutter.....even a regular flush trim bit, with the shorter board under the longer board will work....

[James Pallas]

James, I am not sure I understand the clamping part. Are you clamping it across the board to make a fence for the saw, or what?
Clamp the boards end to end tight together. One board acts as a back up to keep the thin cut from breaking off. If you are trying to make a butt joint just clamp the ends together and saw right down the line cutting both boards at once. It's a bit like match planing. In the OP's case he would just be supporting the off cut to keep it from breaking out and not supporting the saw. Hand saw, hand held power saws works the same. Having two saw benches or two horses the same height to clamp to helps. Can be done on your bench too if the boards are blocked up so your not sawing into your bench.
Jim
i should also have mentioned that you do the same with a miter box. When you need to take that 32nd or a sliver off of a miter get the work set for the cut than clamp a block also mitered to the box at the end of the work and the saw will be supported on the off side and not try to jump out of the cut.

[Bill McDermott]

I understand the question. It is a common enough thing that gives me pause as well. At this point, I am less hesitant to use the saw, almost as a file sometimes.

I'd saw then plane. I would need to press the plate of the saw into the board to keep it tracking straight with that little material. If the cut wanders toward the edge, back up an half inch and cut down again with stronger pressure on the side of the plate to straighten out the kerf.

Without sawing, I would plane bevels (chamfers) on all four sides down to the marked line. They will all overlap until the remaining material is easy to plane away... right down to the edge of the chamfers,

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Will have to give that a try one of these days.

[Allen Read]

How thick are these boards. I seem to have missed it above. The procedure for 1/2" thick would be different than for 2" thick. For 3/4", which seems to be the assumption above, most of the methods would work. It depends on what tools you have and what you feel comfortable doing. I'd probably run a chisel on both faces then use a LA block plane to clean it up. But the other solutions would work too.

Allen

[Brian Hale]

Glue a piece of scrap to the end of the long board, mark/scribe and cut

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

Mark the cut line on both sides of the board. This is where a panel gauge is helpful.


Use a scrub or jack plane with strong camber to take it down close to the lines.


Finish with a jointer plane.


Regards from Perth


Derek





Prashun, Even if they’re longer, why couldn’t you simply clamp them on the bench faces together and use the end of the shorter board to effectively be the fence for shooting (e.g. the edge of the plane rides against shorter board) and end up with perfectly matched boards? Sort of like using a modern router bit with a pattern.


As far as sawing goes, I share in the OPs condition of sawing that fine with my current crosscut saws.


That said, why bother when you can quickly plane the stock (from both ends) and reach the same objective. I would use my 5 1/2 or even No.5 without hesitation. Assuming that they’re very sharp...which they are. I was always under the assumption that many people used a BD plane to shoot with. My No.7 works beautifully. I used it because of the extra mass that would plow through end grain.


Historically speaking, we’ve only had readily available low angle BU planes for a relatively short time. The vintage versions were pretty scarce.


Did recently just that - planed end-grain with BD plane with heavy camber. The board is 3/4" thick, about 8" wide:

407029

Had to remove about 2.5mm (1/10"). First I chamfered the end and then clamped it in the vice:

407030

About a dozen strokes and it was already close to the line:

407031

This requires some power stance and some muscles but the work goes very fast too. Like with other rough tools (draw knife or axe, for example), always hit the corners. Cambered blade allows to make cuts narrower than board thickness, that makes it easier to push:

407032

End grain shavings are about 0.20mm (1/128") thick, beech wood:

407033

Used Veritas Custom #5-1/2 for this, with PM-V11 blade. With nearly 35 degree bevel it is almost indestructible edge in roughing tool:

407034

[steven c newman]

They do make these about any length needed...
407042
This one a 1/4" shank....they do make 1/2" shank ones, too
Bearing rides against the shorter plank....cutter trims the longer plank to match...

[Jim Koepke]

They do make these about any length needed...
407042
This one a 1/4" shank....they do make 1/2" shank ones, too
Bearing rides against the shorter plank....cutter trims the longer plank to match...

An easy solution unless the OP doesn't have an electric router.

This post is long enough now that it would likely be quicker to take it down carefully with a plane, even if the blade had to be sharpened first, than it takes to read all the posts above.

jtk

[Steven Mikes]

Update: I just planed it down with a BU Jack, set the blade out a little farther than usual when planing end grain and put a lot of force into each stroke. Planed from both ends in to avoid splintering. Didn't take long at all. Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone!

[Kevin Hampshire]

Steven, FWIW, If I were using power tools, I think your belt sander is a pretty good suggestion.

But I don’t think a pattern bit is a good suggestion for end grain. It’s pretty hard not to blow out the ends when doing end grain.

Additionally, I have seen end grain shatter, splinter and even seen end grain fibers completely separate (like the bristles on a paint brush) when routed.

Not saying it absolutely cannot be done, but there is a higher probability of issues in end grain. I lost count of the number of components I’ve seen destroyed while routing end grain.

[Jim Koepke]

Update: I just planed it down with a BU Jack, set the blade out a little farther than usual when planing end grain and put a lot of force into each stroke. Planed from both ends in to avoid splintering. Didn't take long at all. Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone!

Getting it done! :D:D:D

By now doing it likely took less time than it takes to read this thread.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

I also use a speed square and a skill saw.