An afternoon in the shop

[Richard Gillespie]

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.

[harry strasil]

sure is fun when a plan comes together isn't it.

for what its worth, I always use a long jointer(I use all wood planes) and start out with the blade set fine and plane across the grain at about a 45 or 30 degree angle to find the high spots, then use a foreplane with the blade ground and finished so that it is a 32cnd high in themiddle so that the blade has a convex edge and take down the high spots with the grain being careful not to go too deep, then back to the jointer cross grain and then with the grain to finish. just make sure the edges of the jointer blade are rounded a little to prevent the edges gouging and leaving lines. YOu can also take a soft pencil and make wavy lines about 3 or 4 inches apart from side to side and when the lines are gone it is flat.


The way I do it

irnsrgn

[Richard Gillespie]

Thanks Harry for your post.

As you can tell, I'm using all CI planes. I've made the blades on on all but my jointer and low angle smoother convex. I'll change the jointer to a slightly convex blade and try the initial planing at the 30 to 45 degree angle you describe.

Again thanks, I'll take all the advice I can get.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I think you have taken the right approach. In my opinion one of the best ways of learning new techniques and getting practice is to make storage and fixtures for the shop. Every time I want to get going with some new skill I built a shop fixture or a piece of furniture. As you found out, you end up with something useful and you learn a lot about what works and what doesn't. It's far better to learn this way on cheaper wood and on a project which doesn't need to look perfect to be servicable. Conversely, using expensive hardwoods for a piece which will end up in the house and be viewed by family and visitors is a potentially expensive and dangerous place to make mistakes. Of course I've done that too over the years with varying levels of success.

Remember, there is no such thing as scrap-- there are only small projects and fixtures waiting to happen.