Hand jointing and power planing : good compromise ?

[pompon44]

Hi,

So far, I'm (tryin to, at least) milling my wood all by hand. I'm slowing getting reasonable results, but I already suspect that the thicknessing part will take ages for all but small boards and/or tiny projects.

For budget (and space), I'm considering buying a benchtop planer, so I'll be able to continue jointing by hand, but thickness by machine.

Is that a practical approach (not for a pro, but for a hobbyist) ? Or is it still a bit too romantic and on the long term jointing by hand is too much work ?

Regards,

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi Pompon,

Many workers use machine prepared timber, and joint/finish with handplanes etc.

If you want to thickness with a handplane, then it's a good idea to buy timber as close to your finished dimensions as possible, to cut down on the work.

If you really don't fancy doing all this by hand, I would suggest that buying PAR (Planed all round) timber, would be the best way. A good planer/thicknesser is not going to come cheap! Add to that the dust, the noise, and the electricity bill for a decent motor. And you won't save much, with today's timber prices; even after buying rough sawn timber! Although I think in France, you have much better and less expensive timber.

Regards
John

 

[bugbear]

For budget (and space), I'm considering buying a benchtop planer, so I'll be able to continue jointing by hand, but thickness by machine.

Is that a practical approach (not for a pro, but for a hobbyist) ? Or is it still a bit too romantic and on the long term jointing by hand is too much work ?

It's a compromise I've heard before. I can offer no comment on its relevance to your context. However, thicknessing is (as I'm sure you know) more work than jointing/surfacing.

Thicknessers are (of course) much more compact than (power) jointers.

BugBear

 

[Anonymous]

pompon

do you mean a hand-held electric planer? or a small thickness planer?

I run all boards through a benchtop thicknesser that cost me £200 and then plane them to finish using a smoother. Edges are sorted with a #7

 

[tnimble]

I'm doing my thicknessing at hand. Its a lot of work but gives satisfaction when the job is done.


Last weekeind I did most of the wood at the left. This weekiend I wll finished the last pieces and I have another lot of about the same to do. I guess I'm eligible for a scrub plane.

 

[pompon44]

Hi,

Tony : I meant a benchtop power thicknesser. What's yours ? Are you happy with it ? And how do you flatten your boards before thicknessing them ? By hand or with a power jointer ?

tnimble : I agree it gives some satisfaction, but it also makes any project a lot longer. And with only little shop time a day (or even a week sometimes), I'd like to spend more time on joinery than on milling ;-)

 

[wizer]

You can, of course, build a jig for surface planing on a thicknesser. There are plans on FWW. That will reduce your hand tool work to edge jointing.

 

[bugbear]

I'm doing my thicknessing at hand. Its a lot of work but gives satisfaction when the job is done.


Last weekeind I did most of the wood at the left. This weekiend I wll finished the last pieces and I have another lot of about the same to do. I guess I'm eligible for a scrub plane.

Scrubs are at their (remarkable) best when working at 45-90 degrees to the grain, and thus work best on wider pieces than you have.

They're still effective along the grain, but prone to tearout.

DEEP tearout.

The way the chips break up when working at an angle is part of a scrub's effectiveness.

BugBear

 

[tnimble]

Scrubs are at their (remarkable) best when working at 45-90 degrees to the grain, and thus work best on wider pieces than you have.

They're still effective along the grain, but prone to tearout.

DEEP tearout.

The way the chips break up when working at an angle is part of a scrub's effectiveness.

BugBear

I was informed that the scrub was used to remove the high spots and some if the twist / wind with diagonal strokes. After having removed the high spots you resort to the jack plane to further reduce the high spots. Then go to the jointer to get it to final flattness and finish with the smoother.

Depending on the tear out you coud switch earlier to the jack plane.

My current procedure is to directly start with the fore / jack plane (no 6). With some of the boards the high spots are so much you have to balance the plane in the high spot tyo get effective shavings. And eventhen it takes many many passes to get a bump of a about cm (some board had more (they where split from a log, which can leave huge bumps at knots / branch locations)) removed.

I've tried the electric handplaner on one of the board that gave me lots of trouble with the hand plane. About the biggest mistake ever. Not onyl huge amounts of fine dust everwhere, byut the machine over heated in only a few minutes and 2 blades are completely blunt. This beech piece is best described as stone beach.

These pieces are about 3 1/4" by the way.

Not meaning to hijack you hread pompon44.

 

[pompon44]

No problem for the hijack ;-)

BTW, I do have a scrub, and find it a bit difficult to use on faces of boards (as it's either too agressive and get lots of tearout, even diagonally, at least on fir, or a bit too narrow cutting if the blade is retracted to avoid massive tearout).

On edges they do miracles though.

Regards,

 

[Wiley Horne]

Hello Pompon,

A practical approach in my experience is to flatten one side of the board by hand, then run the other side through the benchtop thicknesser. It's best done in repeated passes, because the board is likely to 'move' after the initial wood removal. Get it close, let it acclimate, then go to final thickness the day you are ready to do the jointing.

Wiley....who is in favor of getting to the fore plane as soon as practical when doing stock preparation

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Pompon,

I do all my preparation by hand and, while it does take a lot longer than by machine, you can speed up the work by using the right type of plane. I use these three

A #7, #5 1/2 and #2. They have their blades honed to a steep camber and the longer ones are used along the grain. I don't have much trouble with tear out and the stock removal is very fast. I tend to use the #7 most. Once the work is roughly to size I move on to my Cliftons with normally honed blades.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Digit]

I'm honest with myself and admit that I am very unlikely to get as even a thickness by hand as I do with a decent thicknesser, so, like some of the others here I compromise.
Thickness by machine and finish by hand.

Roy.

 

[Philly]

Pompon
It is worth experimenting with the radius of the curve of your scrub iron - it completely changes the feel of the plane. A tight radius is almost gouge-like in its use and as the radius becomes larger it changes over to what I would call "Jack" style.
I spent a few hours grinding and playing with an iron and was amazed how much it changed the cutting action - have a go!
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[Joe]

With regards to doing it all by hand you might find Chris Schwarz's "Coarse, Medium & Fine" DVD encouraging/helpful if you haven't already seen it. Whichever way you look at it though it requires a lot of stamina!

Joel

 

[Paul Chapman]

Chris Schwarz, in his Blog, did a piece about grinding and honing a #6 plane for this type of work http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blo ... Plane.aspx The sort of camber he has on his blade is about the same as I aim for in the planes I pictured above. As Philly suggested, it's worth experimenting with different cambers. I'd also suggest using a scrub/jack-type plane along the grain rather than across it when preparing sawn wood. With the right sort of camber and right length plane it can work really well.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[pompon44]

Hum, yes, I guess I should play with the amount of camber of that scrub blade...

Thanks for the Schwarz's link, I did not know this one (seen his scrub sharpening though, and one by Derek Cohen also). Lots of good material on the net to show how to do it... but I've postponed that so far because I'm not that confident with my grinder... Looks like I should try again and practise a bit. (so far I used my DMT to kind of "maintain" the original camber that was there on my vintage Stanley scrub).

I do have Chris Schwarz's DVD, as well as Rob Cosman's Rough to Ready, and each time I look at those it give me back the will to do it ;-)

Maybe I should continue by hand a little while, before pulling the trigger on a noisy power planer. Have to think about it...

Thanks for all the answers so far. Do not hesitate to continue answering ;-)

Regards,

 

[tnimble]

Also thank from me for all the advise given.

Still a question if I may. What would be getting a scrub or getting a blade for the no 6 to turn it into a pseudo scrub?



I've seen the Christopher Swartz DVD and know his articles and blog a bit. I find them very excelent. A personal copy is currently on its way. Havn't seen Rob Cosman's might source that as well.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Pompon,

I think the bottom line is this: doing all timber preparation by hand is technically not difficult once you have learnt how to do it and have your planes set up properly. It is also quite satisfying. However, it is physically demanding and will mean that your output is quite low.

I do all mine by hand but that's because, at the moment, I can't afford to buy a planer/thicknesser.

If I had the choice I would buy a planer/thicknesser and use my hand planes for finishing.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[pompon44]

Hi Paul,

I think we agree. If I had the cash, I'd already have a planer/thicknesser in my workshop (a small one though because of space) :wink:

Meanwhile I just have to learn to do it by hand. Properly.

Regards,