Flushing edges

[Jared Cuneo]

Ok, so my post in NH has helped come up with some solutions for my plane work creating erroneously beveled box tops, but now I wonder what is the best method to accomplish this job in the first place.

What I am referring to is creating a small box (1/2" stock) and half-blinding the sides together. I generally have a 1/64 or 1/32 mismatch at the top and bottoms (not the actual dovetails themselves) and need to flush the top and bottom of the box.

I've tried laying a full sheet of sandpaper and rubbing the whole box over it. That works pretty well but can round the corners if the sheet catches. Planing with a small block plane I screw it up by creating an outward sloping bevel :(

So, my question is, what is the best way to flush boxtop corners up and still maintain a perfectly flat surface to accept the lid with no gaps?

THANKS

JC

[Alex Yeilding]

I presume you are looking for more than "Plane without slanting the plane toward the outside", so I'll offer the following, hoping to see more from some of the experts here.

1) Make sure your plane is very sharp, and make very fine cuts. You want to sneak up on flushness. If you are 1/64" off, you want to take eight .002" shavings, not two .008" ones. You can work with more care taking a smaller bite, which takes less muscle.

2) Create a level reference near the height at which you will be planing. If you have flat boards piled up next to the box (and maybe in it if you can make them the same height) 1/4" below where you are cutting, any slant on the plane will be more obvious.

3) use a larger plane, which I find easier to keep level.

4) Chack with a square every few strokes, and if you are starting to get a bevel, move the plane (if you are using a cambered blade) to cut more from the high side.

That's what I'd try anyway. Looking forwrard to advice from the experts...

[Doug Shepard]

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[Wilbur Pan]

I hope I understand your question correctly. You've already dovetailed the sides of the box together, but there is a bit of a mismatch along the tops and bottoms of the sides?

Some things I can think of to try based on your current method of using a block plane:

1. As Alex suggested, use a bigger plane. It will be easier to tell if you are off level.

2. Also as Alex suggested, make sure there is some camber to the plane.

3. This is the one that is going to sound a bit crazy, but try planing with your eyes closed :eek: for this operation. Once you have the plane resting on the top of your box, you should be able to make a planing operation without looking. Once you close your eyes, your innate sense of what is level becomes much more acute. If you don't believe me, take a level, hold it out at arm's length, and close your eyes and try to make the level horizontal. I bet you'll be surprised as to how accurate you can be.

[Looking back, the :eek: smiley probably was the wrong one for that sentence, but :cool: didn't seem quite appropriate, either.]

[Mark Stutz]

Jared,
Before I even owned a hand plane I used the sandpaper method, though I used spray adhesive to glue the sandpaper sheet to a piece of MDF. That worked well, since the paper wont raise . You have to be careful, though, so that you remove equal amounts from all sides.

As far as your problem now, how are you doing the half blinds? Router jig? Hand cut? I would think that with good layout and marking if doing hand cut, that I would try to have less of an offset. If using a jig, make sure the stock is sized accurately and double check the placemant. Maybe you can solve the problem befor it starts. If you're already doing all this, thenI'm all out of ides.:confused: