hand jointing

[john mclane]

I'm starting to make a bedside table with drawers out of cherry. I got some nice grained rough sawed cherry and started to prepare it. I don't have a power jointer and am trying to plane the edges with a jointer plane for gluing together. The trouble I'm having is keeping everything square.

I used the table saw to get the rough edges off and tried to keep straight on the long axis and then used the hand plane on some matched edges to get smother and get the saw blade marks out. The table saw blade is perpendicular and when I check the edges coming off the table saw, the edges are close to square. However, after some light planing the edges keep coming slightly off square.

The blades are good and sharp on the plane and the plane is square. I have a good workbench and can hold the wood tight.

What do I need to check? Any other hints

[Clint Jones]

First off what size plane are you using to joint the edges with. A No.7 sized plane (22 inches is good) Just get a square and keep checking the edge as you go removing material as necesary. It should get straight on its own if you are using a larger plane.

[Ron Brese]

Mate the surfaces that will be facing up together and align the edges to be glued and clamp them together. Plane both edges at the same time. This way even if the edges are not perfectly square they should come together in a complimentary way and the panel should lay flat.

Ron Brese

[Eddie Darby]

Check that your blade is level with the sole of the plane, so that the chip is even throughout.
You can actually measure the shaving itself if you have calipers.
Check your technique, is it always the same side that is slanting?
If you need help, try a magnetic fence like the one Lee Valley sells.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=41716&cat=1,41182

Have an engineers square handy and check frequently.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32601&cat=1,42936,42941

David Charlesworth uses a cambered blade to help with keeping things square.

[Brian Kent]

Ron,

I'm glad you wrote that. I had been jointing the glue edges by putting the two boards side by side, but without the faces together. It worked OK, but only because I had a wider surface to plane. I missed the obvious - that when they are faced together the angle errors would compliment or counteract each other.

Brian

[Fred Gross]

Check the board to see if it's square to your bench when it's in the vise. If it's canted slightly and your holding the plane level, it maybe causing the chamfer. And watch the shaving as it passes through the mouth to see it is consistent thickness across its width. Also, don't over extend your arms as you make a pass. You need a little arm motion to get the plane moving; but after that, you should "step" through the pass on longer boards.

Practice on scraps and take the time to develop good body mechanics. The more often you do it "right", you'll develop muscle memory and it will become much more intuitive and less frustrating. About once a month, I take a rough sawn scrap and square/dimension it with only hand planes, marking gauge and a square.

[john mclane]

Thanks for the advise. I think all of them were true. My bench was a little off square (we had water in the basement couple of weeks ago and I forgot to level again when moved back in). I was holding the plane a little screwed. I did like the idea of facing the boards together and planing the matching surfaces together. I had never heard of doing that. My #5 plane was square and overall in good shape, but I ended up buying an older #7 Stanley on the on-line auction. (Did I hear slippery slope). Blade was okay but used quite abit and not quite square on the business end. I can sharpen but don't think I can make square so I think I'll get a Hock blade instead. The rest of it is okay.

Glued up tonight and the edges are looking good. Only about 4 more flat glues up before I can even think of next steps.

[James Owen]

Thanks for the advise. ....

Blade was okay but used quite abit and not quite square on the business end. I can sharpen but don't think I can make square so I think I'll get a Hock blade instead. The rest of it is okay.

Squaring the iron is not difficult. Use a small (accurate) try or engineer's or combination square to mark it. Then grind (watch the temperature so you don't draw the temper) or file down to the line. Re-establish the bevel and hone as usual. Re-install in your plane and adjust for use. You're done. Shouldn't take more than about 10 to 15 minutes, at the very most.

[Alex Yeilding]

Check out Charlesworth's video or this web page from Jeff Gorman: http://www.amgron.clara.net/planingpoints/edgeplaning/squareedgeindex.htm
Both describe a process of using a very slightly cambered edge on your jointer plane iron. Then with the plane cutting a slightly thicker slice in the middle, move the middle to the high side of the board as you plane. I frequently find myself introducng a very little twist in my initial planing. Using a square to check from the reference surface, and markiing in pencil (or chaulk on a dark wood) the high spots at various points along the board, I can move the center of my plane to those high points as I plane, taking a couple of thou off the high points on each pass.