Richard Gillespie
03-05-2004, 10:23 PM
I had a ball. Proved to myself I really don't fully know what I'm doing. As I have posted in the past I've been trying to eliminate sanding when/where ever possible. I glued up two 12"+ wide Ash 5/4 panels that I wanted to make shop shelves out of. They ended up bowed edge to edge. I had previously taken them down to 1-1/16" prior to gluing. They were suppose to end up at about 1" thick. I got lucky, they were just under 1" when I finished.
I started pulling some planes out to use. A #4 and #5 Stanley were used for the most part. The #4 Stanley seemed to work the best. However, I completely misread the grain and ended up with lot of tear out. I was able to take care of most of that by the time I got the panels flat. Running the plane at a slight angle to the grain seem to get the best results. However, I was surprised at how fast the Stanley blade started to dull. I would realize what was happening when the plane started to chatter and felt like it was fighting me. A few moments with the strop took care of it.
I then hand planed one edge straight and trimmed the planes for width and length. I have a Stanley #7 that did a wonderful job on one panel's edge but because the grain crowned to the middle of the edge on the second panel, it didn't work so good.
After trimming, I used wood filler for the tear out I couldn't repair. I would feel bad about the filler but they are shelves for a shop. After sanding the filler out, card scrapers were used for the final flattening. The new shelves look good so far but I need to do a little more work on them like rounding overs and finishing the edges.
My point to this post is that my learning curve has been straight up so far. Other than what I've learned thought these woodworking forums and some TV shows I am self taught as to how to use a plane. I might add that in my opinion my teacher is a dummy. It is too bad that I don't know anyone in my area that is experienced with them. At the present time I'm not in the position to pay for a class.
Based on the results I got on the above panels, I'm sure glad I wasn't trying to flatten a top for a table or piece of furniture.
I started pulling some planes out to use. A #4 and #5 Stanley were used for the most part. The #4 Stanley seemed to work the best. However, I completely misread the grain and ended up with lot of tear out. I was able to take care of most of that by the time I got the panels flat. Running the plane at a slight angle to the grain seem to get the best results. However, I was surprised at how fast the Stanley blade started to dull. I would realize what was happening when the plane started to chatter and felt like it was fighting me. A few moments with the strop took care of it.
I then hand planed one edge straight and trimmed the planes for width and length. I have a Stanley #7 that did a wonderful job on one panel's edge but because the grain crowned to the middle of the edge on the second panel, it didn't work so good.
After trimming, I used wood filler for the tear out I couldn't repair. I would feel bad about the filler but they are shelves for a shop. After sanding the filler out, card scrapers were used for the final flattening. The new shelves look good so far but I need to do a little more work on them like rounding overs and finishing the edges.
My point to this post is that my learning curve has been straight up so far. Other than what I've learned thought these woodworking forums and some TV shows I am self taught as to how to use a plane. I might add that in my opinion my teacher is a dummy. It is too bad that I don't know anyone in my area that is experienced with them. At the present time I'm not in the position to pay for a class.
Based on the results I got on the above panels, I'm sure glad I wasn't trying to flatten a top for a table or piece of furniture.