How Flat is Flat? Plus Planer Leaving Lines on Wood

[Don Stutsman]

To remove the 'nick lines' without replacing the knives - move one of the knives slightly to the right or left. Retighten and use it.

[Chip Lindley]

This is a solid-body guitar. I wouldn't dream of trying to make an acoustic guitar right now. I felt like a Telecaster was a realistic goal, since you can rout the body out of a flat slab.

I've been trying to get my planer to face-joint pieces of walnut for a guitar body. The pieces are between 20 and 24" long, and they're about 7" wide. They will range in thickness between 3/8" and 3/4".

As the Warden said in Cool Hand Luke..."What we have here is...failure to communicate!"

I am clueless as to what your reference was to 3/8 in. thick slabs of guitar wood! Why didn't you say Solid Body?? My vintage Fender Custom Telecaster's body is almost 1-3/4" thick.

You need a jointer!

[glenn bradley]

It's starting to sound like making a sled work is nearly impossible.

Not at all. I used this version for about a year and a half while I saved up for a larger jointer, I still use it on wider boards now and again. If the issue is support (shim frequency, compression, etc.) you can add or remove the adjustable blocks as required. I made mine out of hard maple and made a few extra and do use them when milling thinner stock for additional support. Takes a few hours (not counting waiting for glue to dry) to make and has paid that time back a hundred-fold.

There is also a video: http://www.finewoodworking.com/subsc...e.aspx?id=5245

[Myk Rian]

Cabinet scrapers remove planer marks.

[Steve H Graham]

As the Warden said in Cool Hand Luke..."What we have here is...failure to communicate!"

It can be hard to synthesize facts from multiple posts, and some of the details are in separate threads.

I'm gluing several slabs of walnut together, back to front, to make a 1 7/8"-thick Telecaster slab with bookmatching on the front and back. I would not want an acoustic made from 3/8"-thick wood unless I were El Kabong.

[Don Stutsman]

I can't respond to the twist issue except to say that I would check everything for 'flat; then test the wood. you are correct that sanding may resolve the issue as would a plane or scraping. As for the planer lines, a previous writer correctly identified the 'line' problem as nicks in your knives. I do not have that planer, but if you can loosen the knives and get any lateral movement, just move the knives from side to side to realign them so that the nick no longer lines up. That will solve your problem until you get another nick or have youe knives sharpened.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I would say the lines are either due to nicks or dull blades. The blades in my planer are horribly dull, but they are fine for now as I'm just taking the rough cut off some knotty pine and not worth new blades in my case.

As for the planer sled, I would say you have one or more issues:
1) Sled is not flat, either top or bottom
2) Sled is no strong enough to fight against the roller pressure
3) You are relieving stress when you plane the wood, causing it to bow after removed from the sled
4) You are applying too much pressure when attaching the wood to the planer, adding stress, then planing, then releiving the stress, thus the bow appears

[Jim Summers]

I would not want an acoustic made from 3/8"-thick wood unless I were El Kabong.

Wow another Boomerang fan!

[Alan Lightstone]

I would not want an acoustic made from 3/8"-thick wood unless I were El Kabong.

ROTFL. Too funny. Dating yourself a little, though.

[eric eaton]

If you are really in love with your piece of wood then glue 2 pieces of flat wood on each side, plane it as a unit and then just rip them off afterwards. If you make them at least 4" longer on each end then they will eat the snipe so your workpiece ends up dead flat.

I have the 735 and it is an excellent but fussy machine. The knives can be shifted left to right about 1/8" of an inch. I always set a fresh edge to one side so I know which way to shift. And most of the time those lines can be ignored as they scrape/sand right off.

Good luck

P.S. Knots and the Dewalt 735 are bad ... very bad.

[Steve H Graham]

I got it working, but I ended up ordering a small jointer anyway.

Here is the odd thing: the lines on the wood went away. The planer works fine now. I think I got some tape or something stuck to the blades, but it's hard to understand how that could make these scratches.