Leveling guidance

[Tony Wilkins]

I started a thread not long ago that described my attempt to flatten a 7’ by 3’ walnut tabletop with using the methods (to the best of my understanding) the Schwartz describes in a few places. I started with rough boards. You can look at the responses I got, mostly that it was too much work or that it wouldn’t work the way I hoped. I stuck with it. Now I’m not the greatest woodworker in the world and have severe physical limitations. I was surprised at just how easy it was and am thrilled with the results. You can judge for yourself.

[Rafael Herrera]

Here's someone flattening an actual roughly sawn board start to finish. No subtle product placements and even using an usually ignored plane.

https://youtu.be/oEdgF8NDsB0

[Mark Rainey]

I started a thread not long ago that described my attempt to flatten a 7’ by 3’ walnut tabletop with using the methods (to the best of my understanding) the Schwartz describes in a few places. I started with rough boards. You can look at the responses I got, mostly that it was too much work or that it wouldn’t work the way I hoped. I stuck with it. Now I’m not the greatest woodworker in the world and have severe physical limitations. I was surprised at just how easy it was and am thrilled with the results. You can judge for yourself.

Tony, did you mean to post a picture of your finished table top? As far as the responses to your planing of a large table, I think you got great advice, especially from a few Neanderthals who work mostly in hand tools. I wish they would give live demonstrations, but in the absence of that, their wisdom is invaluable. Keep us posted on your progress. I will post my finished trestle table.

[Mark Rainey]

Here's someone flattening an actual roughly sawn board start to finish. No subtle product placements and even using an usually ignored plane.

https://youtu.be/oEdgF8NDsB0

Rafael, I will probably review the video tomorrow, but if it was Warren, I would stay up tonight to view it.

[Tony Wilkins]

Tony, did you mean to post a picture of your finished table top? As far as the responses to your planing of a large table, I think you got great advice, especially from a few Neanderthals who work mostly in hand tools. I wish they would give live demonstrations, but in the absence of that, their wisdom is invaluable. Keep us posted on your progress. I will post my finished trestle table.

Did not think about the picture but here…
IMG_0896.jpg

[Mike Allen1010]

Aluminum straightedges from Lee Valley are pretty affordable, especially considering how much you’ll use them -straight, light and stable are key for straight edges. Need them for joining longer edges.

[Eric Brown]

Aluminum straightedges from Lee Valley are pretty affordable, especially considering how much you’ll use them -straight, light and stable are key for straight edges. Need them for joining longer edges.

I simply use a 48" aluminum rule. Light and easy to handle. Straight enough for me.

[Michael J Gardner]

I picked one up from Lee Valley, I think the 38 inch one was what I went with. Hopefully it will help me build longer straight edges too. Been reading the documents Jim gave me and some directions from the Anarchists Tool chest.

I have another question for all you gentlemen. I was able to make some good progress this week putting bevels onto the bottom of my tabletop. I have a question about using a scrub (or foreplane, cambered jack etc) with the grain. For the most part it went swimmingly, but I hit an issue around a knot that I have in the edge of my board. In the picture you can see I filled it in with Epoxy. There were two of them, each about an inch deep. One was within 4 inches of the edge where I did the bevel. My issue was the weird grain direction caused the scrub plane to 'knick' the tissue in that area instead of taking it out in clean bands. I assume the best solution to this would be don't use a board with knots. But I'm sort of learning as I go. I assume if I ever hit this situation in the future, swap to a finer cutting tool for that section to avoid the tear out. Luckily the tear out won't be visible from normal viewing angles.

tear-out.jpg

Here is a quick pick of the progress. I'm done with the rough bezels on all 4 sides now. I just need to clean it up and get everything to the perfect depth. Doing the last bit of work with my 5 1/2. It took a lot of work but it was a ton of fun doing this part. Seeing it come together is quite the feeling.
bevels1.jpg

So I had some trouble with my initial glue up. The edge jointing was perfect everywhere except this one spot. The plan is to to tape off the bevel along the joint, flip the top, and fill it with a small amount of epoxy. I really should have used more than 5 bar clamps when I glued this entire thing up, but it was what I had.
edge-jointing-issue.jpg

[Eric Brown]

I picked one up from Lee Valley, I think the 38 inch one was what I went with. Hopefully it will help me build longer straight edges too. Been reading the documents Jim gave me and some directions from the Anarchists Tool chest.

I have another question for all you gentlemen. I was able to make some good progress this week putting bevels onto the bottom of my tabletop. I have a question about using a scrub (or foreplane, cambered jack etc) with the grain. For the most part it went swimmingly, but I hit an issue around a knot that I have in the edge of my board. In the picture you can see I filled it in with Epoxy. There were two of them, each about an inch deep. One was within 4 inches of the edge where I did the bevel. My issue was the weird grain direction caused the scrub plane to 'knick' the tissue in that area instead of taking it out in clean bands. I assume the best solution to this would be don't use a board with knots. But I'm sort of learning as I go. I assume if I ever hit this situation in the future, swap to a finer cutting tool for that section to avoid the tear out. Luckily the tear out won't be visible from normal viewing angles.

tear-out.jpg

Here is a quick pick of the progress. I'm done with the rough bezels on all 4 sides now. I just need to clean it up and get everything to the perfect depth. Doing the last bit of work with my 5 1/2. It took a lot of work but it was a ton of fun doing this part. Seeing it come together is quite the feeling.
bevels1.jpg

So I had some trouble with my initial glue up. The edge jointing was perfect everywhere except this one spot. The plan is to to tape off the bevel along the joint, flip the top, and fill it with a small amount of epoxy. I really should have used more than 5 bar clamps when I glued this entire thing up, but it was what I had.
edge-jointing-issue.jpg

When you get to those spots you can try approaching it from different angles, skewing the plane. A little denatured alcohol can also help.

[Warren Mickley]

When you get to those spots you can try approaching it from different angles, skewing the plane. A little denatured alcohol can also help.

We have been using the double iron jack plane for 250 years.

[Rafael Herrera]

Try a thin wedge to close the gaps.

[Mike Shields]

The second picture showing the shavings on the floor is great!