Pinch dogs - Spring board edges or no?

[Tyler Bancroft]

That jointer's heavy enough without the extra weight! I find a scribble of paraffin wax on the sole makes life a lot easier, though.

I have no compunctions about leaving the underside largely unrefined. As long as I can mate it to the trestles, it's fine by me. I'm past the point in my life where I spend a lot of time laying on the floor under the table anyway...

[Will Blick]

Tyler, I love inertia in a plane. I have a smoother that is 11lbs, as is, not altered, cuts like hot knife through butter, of course, sharp blades still required. But yes, maybe in a few years, my hands and arms will surrender the weight... I cant stop tinkering with things, horrible habit...

Mel..
> In 3 and 1/2 years of doing panel work often used for exterior, I never had a claim. The jobs
varied in size but needing 100 panels or more was common.

What type of exterior panels are these? Siding? how are they joined? What type of glue, TB3? What type of weather exposure? Pix?
Very interesting... exterior is the ultimate test for wood (and finish), specially when sun hits part of the panel, but not another part, so now you have varying expansion and contraction.
not trying to hijack Tylers thread, hopefully relevant enough...

[Tyler Bancroft]

I didn't realize they made planes out of platinum...

(And I'm curious, so hijack away.)

[Tyler Bancroft]

Hi Tyler,

Fun project. I've done a couple of desktops that were ~60" long full-neander. A couple suggestions:
-Get one face flat on each board (but not necessarily glass smooth-just need a good reference surface for the next step).
-Edge a joint to 90 deg using a square to carefully reference the angle and use a straight-edge to get the length close.
-Repeat with a second board
-Identify gaps by referencing the board off each other. When you get close, you'll experience 'sticktion' when its right and will be able to pivot the boards on the high spots when not. 80" will be a bit of a challenge-may want to practice on shorter boards, but totally doable.
-Repeat for the second joint
-Glue up using cauls to keep the reference faces as flat as possible. I would not trust dogs in this situation.
-Flatten the top and then dress the bottom to final thickness. Note, you'll just need a flat surface for mating to the trestle so may be able to maintain thickness in the middle or taper the sides/edges for aesthetics.

This sequence should keep as much thickness as possible. Will you be using breadboards on the ends?

Best,
Chris
Attachment 440174

That's a nice desk. The grain on these boards is quite beautiful, and I feel like breadboards on the end may detract from the appearance. That being said, given the width of the tabletop, I expect I'll need the breadboards for stability. I want to finish cleaning up the (very) rough-cut finish before I make any final decisions. Your strategy is roughly what I was thinking. I'm not too concerned with the appearance of the underside, as long as it's flat enough for a good fit with the trestles. As well, I'm hoping the little bit of extra thickness I'd save from not getting the underside perfectly flat will help with stability and rigidity. Given the structure of a trestle table, I'll take all the rigidity I can get.

[Will Blick]

Not platinum! (did I write that by accident?)
Brass and steel...
Correction, the smoother is 9lbs... my bad...

[Will Blick]

Chris, what finish on the table?
Is that poly ? nice sheen...

[Alan Schwabacher]

The spring joint arose around 1880 for machine jointer edges. I don't have enough experience with jointer machines to understand what problem they were trying to solve.

Could it have been use of incompletely dried stock that would subsequently dry faster from the ends?

[Tyler Bancroft]

Could it have been use of incompletely dried stock that would subsequently dry faster from the ends?

I thought it was to reduce the tendency of glueups to separate from the ends due to greater seasonal movement near endgrain than in the middle of boards.

[Mel Fulks]

I thought it was to reduce the tendency of glueups to separate from the ends due to greater seasonal movement near endgrain than in the middle of boards.

Agree with this and Alan . The ends do dry out faster ,since they exposed to air. And most agree that air dried wood
will move more than kiln dried in the same room. Some find kiln dried wood harder to plane. Kiln drying is baking. And
some prefer the unbaked dough.

[Will Blick]

Interesting...
So Mel, do you spring now because you always have... i.e. habit / style..
or do you feel if you joint straight, you will have problems?

[Mel Fulks]

Will, I'm retired now and don't own or need a jointer for my constant work on house stuff. But if someone asked me to
work in their shop for a few days I would work same methods. And if asked to deviate from my habits ,I would just go
home.

[Tyler Bancroft]

Not platinum! (did I write that by accident?)

Nah, just trying to figure out how to make a smoother weigh 11 lbs...I think my Veritas #4 weighs about 4.5.

[Will Blick]

I just sold this one... it weighs 9.5 lbs
it is a miter, or move the knob and its a smoother

http://www.marcouplanes.com/Marcou_P...Handplanes.php

[Will Blick]

my smoother now, actually 8.5lbs (I had corrected it above)

http://www.marcouplanes.com/Marcou_P...Handplanes.php

[Jim Koepke]

Have you seen what a 2x4 costs these days?!

My travels have been limited of late. Looking online it looks like they have jumped quite a bit in price. Not sure if it is due to less milling of lumber, fires or storms.

Home Depot 2X.png

2X3 lumber will work and a bit less expensive.

jtk