Dakota Precision Straight Edge For Setting Planer Tables

[Jacob]

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So how do you know if your planed piece of wood is truly flat?...

By sighting down it and checking for twist with winding sticks.
A straight edge for identifying bumps and hollows is handy - but this is far better made from wood so it won't mark the surface. Wide enough to stand on it's own, unlike a thin straightedge which is only useful for drawing lines or cutting card.
If you have a bit of woodwork skill then making your own straightedge is a matter of minutes and can be as long as you need.

 

[Lonsdale73]

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If you have a bit of woodwork skill then making your own straightedge is a matter of minutes and can be as long as you need.

Ah, therein lies the problem. I lack the necessary natural skills and do require whatever aids - mechanical or otherwise - that will assist me. I've met many a photographer similarly handicapped so they buy an auto-everything camera and every gadget conceivable. Which is fine if all they want is to take some nice photographs of their friends, family, life etc. Problem comes when they decide having an auto-everything camera automatically makes them a professional. I've also met many a brokenhearted new bride who discovered the 'pro' she hired for to cover the biggest day of her life hadn't a clue how to allow for the contrast range and ended up with a series of poorly exposed shots making her dress look grey or so blown none of the detail was showing.

 

[Jacob]

......

If you have a bit of woodwork skill then making your own straightedge is a matter of minutes and can be as long as you need.

Ah, therein lies the problem. I lack the necessary natural skills and do require whatever aids - mechanical or otherwise - that will assist me. I've met many a photographer similarly handicapped so they buy an auto-everything camera and every gadget conceivable. Which is fine if all they want is to take some nice photographs of their friends, family, life etc. Problem comes when they decide having an auto-everything camera automatically makes them a professional. I've also met many a brokenhearted new bride who discovered the 'pro' she hired for to cover the biggest day of her life hadn't a clue how to allow for the contrast range and ended up with a series of poorly exposed shots making her dress look grey or so blown none of the detail was showing.

Right.
Making yourself a straight edge sounds like something you should concentrate on!
Planing a narrow edge is the easiest planing to do and it helps you get a sense of how your plane is (or is not) cutting. Watch the shaving coming out of the slot, see how it varies across the width of the plane. It's a good test for sharpness and plane setting. It's also a good exercise in sighting for level - basic essential skill!
If you just lazily buy a straight edge you are missing some very basic development techniques!
Or to put it another way - if you are dependent on a straight edge you are not good at woodwork! Though they do have their occasional uses.

 

[Lonsdale73]

Or to put it another way - if you are dependent on a straight edge you are not good at woodwork! Though they do have their occasional uses.

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I already know I'm not good at woodwork but I haven't found an inability to sing or play any instruments be any bar to enjoying music.

As a kid, I used to go fishing with a older cousin who would always spot fish in what appeared to me to be desolate stretches of barren water. After a while, my eye became attuned to it and even now - many, many years later - I can still walk along a riverbank and detect movement below its surface. Sighting a level sounds like the same kind of thing and frankly I don't know if I have the time or inclination to develop that skill. I have two planes - can't get on with either of them! Maybe they're not sharp, not set right, my technique is wrong or any permutation of thereof. Lazy perhaps, but I have a planer / thicknesser and a router to help me to achieve what a skilled craftsman would do with a plane. I am the woodworking equivalent of the of the auto-everything photographer, I want to end up with a finished product without necessarily mastering every available tool in the process