Help for an unskilled woodworker

[Burt Alcantara]

I've built a carcase for a wash stand out of 1" material. Some of the joints stick out a bit...maybe 1/16" or so. As I wish to put 1/2" stock over this I'd like to flatten these odd pieces so the finished piece looks finished and not cock-eyed.

Also, I'm putting together a bookmatched panel for the front. I've made a number of test cuts using cheap pine boards. I've yet to make perfectly flat resaw cuts so I'll need to flatten the panel as well. Since this is decorative only I'm not concerned if it gets a little thin. The resawn panels will be 1/2".

I'm thinking of a belt sander or hand power planer to fix these issues. Can you recommend one or the other or something better? (I own neither).

Thanks,
Burt

[Chris Kennedy]

Burt,

Of the two, I would recommend a belt sander. A random orbit sander would also probably do the job, and give a better finished look compared to a belt.

Cheers,

Chris

[Michael Faurot]

I've built a carcase for a wash stand out of 1" material. Some of the joints stick out a bit...maybe 1/16" or so.
[...]
I'm thinking of a belt sander or hand power planer to fix these issues. Can you recommend one or the other or something better? (I own neither).


The amount of material you need to remove (1/16") could make this a tricky operation with a belt sander. In particular, belt sanders are typically very agressive in the amount of material they remove, thus it would be very easy to take off more than 1/16". I don't have any experience with a corded power planer, but I suspect the same might be true there as well. If you're looking for a power tool to do this job, a random orbit sander might be better and more controllable.

For myself, I'd deal with this by using a block plane. If you're at all interested in hand tools, a block plane is an excellent tool for doing this type of trimming work and it will allow you to remove the material quickly, but in a controlled manner. If you don't have any experience with hand planes, avoid the inexpensive stuff as you'll just get agrevated. Instead take a look at a quality product from either Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley/Veritas.

[Burt Alcantara]

I used the ROS along with my low-angle jack. I didn't think the ROS would remove that much stock but it worked OK. I used a #60 gator disc. Seemed like it took more time than I would have thought. Are there more aggressive discs or brands on the market?

Thanks,
Burt