Originally Posted by
Assaf Oppenheimer
Hi all,
was hoping to get some advise as to whether I am proceeding in a smart or at least feasible way.
I'm building a bench, starting with the top back half (split top Roubo) out of hard maple.
I'm using all hand tools (yeah I know)
so my plan is this:
1) plane the sides (2 faces and an edge) as perfect as possible
2) line up the boards for glue up
3) plane down the last edge so that all the boards are of equal thickness (the idea behind this is that it would let me keep the top as thick as possible?)
one thing that concerns me is gaps.
I've dimensioned a couple of the boards so that they are pretty flat. I've done a dry run on it 0 and the gaps between the lumber pretty much disappear using 1 clamp in the middle. If I check with a straight edge and feeler gauges set to 0.004" I can go beneath it. in some areas. does it really take that much work to flatten boards by hand? I have 66" x 5-1/2" boards and it takes me hours to get it that flat. I guess what I'm asking is how flat do I actually need it to be? I would absolutly hate to resurface the top and see gaps appear from deeper levels.
thanks,
any advise would be deeply appreciated.