hand plain

[steamboat]

Hello all please can I have your advice.
I have been trying to join some 8 foot boards of oak to make into a book shelf, though its not going as smoothly as planned.
I have tried finishing the edges with a router and straight edge and on the table saw though neither is perfect. The next technique I will try is with a hand plain, so these are my questions:
What type of plain should I get? I would like it to be able to square up the edges as well as flatten the face of boards, would a no 6 be OK?
What make, I like the look of the Clifton and such like but they are too expensive, is there an acceptable alternative such as record and Stanley?
Any help would be welcome

 

[Ironballs]

Hi, it may be worth re-posting this in the handtools section and also having a search through the threads as this kind of question comes up every now and then.

You are right, Cliftons and the like are wonderful tools and do a fine job but they are expensive. You're best choices are either a decent old tool dealer near you or ebay. You should be able to get your hands on an old Record No6 for a good price that with a bit of sorting and sharpening will do a fine job. You may even find a good No7 but there are less of them and they go for a little more cash.

Just out of interest, you say you're trying to join some 8ft boards to make a bookshelf, those are very long boards and I'm trying to picture it. What thickness are they and have you run the dimensions through a sagulator?

Cheers, Damian

 

[Paul Chapman]

How thick are the boards? If they are not too thick, I think the best way to joint boards (although not everyone agrees but I can't understand why) is to put them together and plane the joining edges together. The reason for doing it this way is that when you put the two planed edges together, any deviation from 90 degrees on one board will be cancelled out by the other. It's foolproof in my experience and far easier than trying to plane the boards separately.

For boards 8' long you really need a long plane - I would suggest a #7.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[John. B]

I wondered why you wanted an alternative to record and/or stanley.
I don't think there is much wrong with either of those, particularly when you consider their price.

John. B

 

[catface]

hello steamboat
you say in your post that youve got a tablesaw, so you could straight edge a pair of boards ready for glue up edge jointing by putting the pair through the tablesaw in one pass. You need t o screw a piece of flat scrap across both ends, and leave the ends a few inches longer than the finished length needed (so you can cut off the screw holes once finished). Screw the boards together with the centre line (where the join is) pressed together as evenly as possible ie. make any gaps as even as possible over the length of the joint when screwing it together eg. 2mm at one end and 2mm at the other, not 3mm gap at one end and 1 mm at the other. Once prepared, pass the pair through the TS together. Any slight deviation in your feeding into the saw won't matter, as it is reflected equally on both of the surfaces to be glued together. The only must is that the sawblade kerf must be greater or equal to the gap at its largest point eg 4mm kerf and 4mm gap, OK ; 4mm kerf and 5mm gap, no go (do 1st pass then rescrew & do it again).

It sounds more complicated than it is, you can see it in my last post jointing 7 foot long pieces of oak for shelves :

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... ht=catface

Its a lot less work than hand planing, and if hand planing then you've got to develop a much higher planing level of skill to joint pieces over such a long length as you are doing. So I'd try doing it with the TS. Hope this helps, regards, Catface

 

[steamboat]

Thanks everyone. Sorry I meant book case, so the sides will be 8ft long, not the shelf’s, I love the sagulator, never come across it before, almost as comical as some of the modern Welsh words that have recently been invented like sboncen (table tennis), sounds very funny spoken.
Thanks catface for the link, I tried your method and I can see why it would work unfortunately it didn’t for me, probably because I don’t have adequate out feed support. My boards are rapidly becoming very very long match sticks.
I will try the hand plain option, and I know it will take a bit of practice, but practice makes perfect and perfection is what I am after, though I don’t think perfection can ever be obtained, its just something us mortals strive for.
:shock:
All the best