Planing the face of a board?

[Mark Kelly]

When thickness planing the face of a board of, say, 1/2" thick (working your way to either 3/8" or 1/4"), what exactly do you use to hold down the board?

I ask this as I built a workbench initially not as a woodworkers workbench. Soon I hope to install a tail vise or end vise so I can work on the edges of longer boards.

[Tyler Howell]

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[Richard Gillespie]

I must admit, that so far, I haven't tried to plane anything thinner than 1/2". I use two 3/4" brass, bench dogs I bought from Woodcraft. The reason I say two is, I have a straight line series of 3/4" holes in my bench that terminate at the tail vise. Since I tend to plane at an angle, I set one dog at the end and the other along the side of the board. That results in the side force pushing against two points. The board is therefore, setting at an angle to the long axis of the bench. So far, I haven't had to hold the board down, the plane does that.

Let me know if this helps.

Rick

[Mark Kelly]

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[Mark Kelly]

I must admit, that so far, I haven't tried to plane anything thinner than 1/2". I use two 3/4" brass, bench dogs I bought from Woodcraft. The reason I say two is, I have a straight line series of 3/4" holes in my bench that terminate at the tail vise. Since I tend to plane at an angle, I set one dog at the end and the other along the side of the board. That results in the side force pushing against two points. The board is therefore, setting at an angle to the long axis of the bench. So far, I haven't had to hold the board down, the plane does that.

Let me know if this helps.

Rick

So, if I read you right, you don't use a tail vise? That might help me be able to do this until I can get a tail vise built.

So, can bench dogs be pushed into the hole deep enough so that you don't 'hit' the dogs when you plane to the end of the board?

Lastly, I just realized I may have a problem also. The workbench HAS to be perfectly flat to plane a board perfectly flat, correct?

[Tom Scott]

Actually, I would not recommend using a tail vise to hold material that thin anyway as it will tend to buckle the board. If you have bench dogs then you can use those set just lower than the thickness you are planing to. If you don't have bench dogs, then you can clamp a piece of 1/4" plywood across your bench to use as a stop. If necessary, you could also clamp a piece of plywood to the bench along the back edge of the board to keep it from sliding around.
To answer your other question, yes it certainly helps if your bench is a flat reference. Your first objective should be to joint 1 face of the board flat. Then to plane to thickness, use a marking gauge to mark the thickness around the entire perimeter, using your flat face as the reference. Then plane to the line.

Good luck,
Tom

[Richard Gillespie]

So, if I read you right, you don't use a tail vise? That might help me be able to do this until I can get a tail vise built.

So, can bench dogs be pushed into the hole deep enough so that you don't 'hit' the dogs when you plane to the end of the board?

Lastly, I just realized I may have a problem also. The workbench HAS to be perfectly flat to plane a board perfectly flat, correct?

I've only used my tail vise once to hold a board against a dog. For general work my dogs can be pushed down even with the bench. They are tight but not too tight. I use them just high enough to hold the work.

In regards to your question about the flatness of the bench, it is the end result in the board that you are constantly testing for. You look to make sure the board is flat across and length wise and the thickness you want. To do this you are planing high spots until it is flat, regardless of how flat your bench is. Of course, the falter your bench is, helps.

[Ken Salisbury]

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[Alan Turner]

Ian Kerby's bench, as I recall from The Workbench Book by Scott Landis (a wonderful read, BTW) has no tail vise, but uses a plywood stop, through the top at the front leg, which is held to the desired height by a wingnut. Simple and effective. As to the flatness of the bench? I think it is quite important, and well worth the effort to achieve.
Alan

[Mark Kelly]

Ian Kerby's bench, as I recall from The Workbench Book by Scott Landis (a wonderful read, BTW) has no tail vise, but uses a plywood stop, through the top at the front leg, which is held to the desired height by a wingnut. Simple and effective. As to the flatness of the bench? I think it is quite important, and well worth the effort to achieve.
Alan

Anyone have any ideas on how to "flatten" a bench top made of two pieces of 3/4" plywood? The top is relatively flat, there are just areas that "bump" up a little. It is 6 feet long and 31" wide.

Should I have used glue to secure the two pieces of plywood together? Right now the bottom piece is screwed into the bench frame and the top piece (red maple ply) is attached to the bottom ply with finishing nails. I think some of the parts that are not flat are some of the spaces between the frame and first sheet of ply.

[Eric Sanford]

You want to be sure that your top does not have exposed screws...they don't mix well with sharp tools (that you want to keep sharp!). You might consider beefing up the top with a 3/4" mdf piece covered by some hardboard tack glued down. The mdf should help flatten the surface ( assuming the ply is reasonably close to flat) and the hardboard will give you a good work surface. By tacking it in place you will also be able to replace it when it gets too badly beaten up. You can coat the top with an oil (blo mixed with mineral spirits) and then apply a couple coats of wax which helps if you get glue drips.

Eric

[Mark Kelly]

You want to be sure that your top does not have exposed screws...they don't mix well with sharp tools (that you want to keep sharp!). You might consider beefing up the top with a 3/4" mdf piece covered by some hardboard tack glued down. The mdf should help flatten the surface ( assuming the ply is reasonably close to flat) and the hardboard will give you a good work surface. By tacking it in place you will also be able to replace it when it gets too badly beaten up. You can coat the top with an oil (blo mixed with mineral spirits) and then apply a couple coats of wax which helps if you get glue drips.

Eric

Why would MDF be flatter than ply?

The screws are on the bottom ply which is covered by the maple ply. That maple ply has finish nails sunk into it. I never got around to filling in the holes yet with putty, but now that I want to fix this to make it flat, I'll wait until I have achieved the best flatness that I can.

I have considered putting hardboard on top, but the maple ply looks so nice. Maybe after it is beaten up then I can attach hardboard. I will remember what you said on finishing it too.

I think what I do need to do is take the top off and plane flat the frame. Since I didn't have any planes at the time when I made it, I can only imagine that it is probably not perfectly flat to begin with. No sense in not trying, I guess.