I don't understand this

[Steve Maskery]

Am I being thick or what? Here is a very experienced woodworker doing something unconventional and claiming - indeed demonstrating - positive results. The problem is that I don't understand his logic, I don't understand how the machine is doing what he claims it is doing. I can see the end result, but I'm left thinking that the machine must have non-planar beds, as that's the only way I know of for making the kind of surface he's getting, only then, of course, it's undesirable.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/artic ... ints_video

Can someone please tell me what I'm missing here?

Cheers
Steve

 

[wizer]

Steve, this isn't the issue that comes out on April the 1st is it??

 

[Chippyjoe]

Steve,a bit confusing to say the least.
Seems to me that it would be easier to buy some extra clamps!

Mark.

 

[OllyK]

Interesting what he is saying about the thicknessing, while his board may be flat with parallel surfaces, it strikes me the edges will not be a 90 degree to the faces and so will require removal on the TS or similar to rectify. In otherwords, rather than a rectangular cross section you'll get a trapezoid.

 

[Doug B]

If he wants to achieve this cut, why bother slanting his blades, just lowering his out feed table a tad & using the same planing action would give the same results.
Then he could re-set his out feed table level with the blades for normal planing.

 

[cutting42]

Hi Steve

Well I am not as experienced a woodworker as either you or the demonstrator. From what I can see the slanted blade is kind of irrelevant to the spring creation, it is purely the methodology of where he places his hands and pressure while jointing.

Having the slanted blade just gives the opportunity of having different cut depth by moving forward or back on the tables. The downside being the cut is not a true 90 deg.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Gareth
No, I still don't get it. In your picture, how does the wood get into that position? If it is held flat on the infeed table and it comes out flat on the outfeed table, it will not be tilted as you show, it will still be level, just on two different levels, before and after the cut.

?
S

 

[cutting42]

As the hand is in the middle the tilt (exaggerated in my pic) is caused as you get to the centre of the board. Your point is correct if the outfeed was at the blade height but as it isn't (15 thou higher) the board will tilt up slightly as no pressure is applied to the front of the board. Then at centre the board levels and the reverse happens.

 

[OPJ]

Hang on! I've just watched the video again and re-read Gareth's explanation; I think I get it now... :wink:

Gareth's right; the tilted blades only control depth of cut across the width of the machine. As he says in the video, move the fence further away for longer boards that need 'straightening'. It's quicker to do the bulk of the work with a deeper depth of cut. You should finish with the blade set closer to you though, otherwise you'll get an excessive spring.

I'm still pretty sure you could do this without tilting the blades - it's all about where you keep your hands, surely? If you press down hard enough in the centre, it will form a concave edge.

I can't still see this leading to trouble gluing up boards without 90º edges, particularly when biscuits or splines aren't use.

 

[Woody Alan]

I think he is convinced that this a viable process and it does clearly work for him. However it relies on so many variables that on a day to day basis it too confusing and difficult to spread the wear on the blades. Basically he is setting the machine up badly on one side to create a cut that most of us would consider a problem and would be trying to resolve. When facing a whole board he is relying on the side of the planer that is correctly set to control the relationship of the board to the cutter on the badly set side. He might think he's getting good results but I don't think so. To joint edge to edge he must have to pass one board through one way and the other opposit so as to balance the angles he gets. Also you can see he has to lift the board when it hits the outfeed table to get it through.
Seems like a lot of agro when a couple of swipes with a hand plane to clean up will achieve the same.
It's a bit emperor's new clothes isn't it, given his position people don't like to challenge the sensibility of it.

Alan

 

[Steve Maskery]

Seems like a lot of agro when a couple of swipes with a hand plane to clean up will achieve the same.

Quite. I'm certainly not going to alter my swwetly-set machine to try it. I'm glad it's not just me.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Seems like a lot of agro when a couple of swipes with a hand plane to clean up will achieve the same.

Quite. I'm certainly not going to alter my swwetly-set machine to try it. I'm glad it's not just me.

Cheers
Steve

I'm with you here, after spending several hundred pounds and learning how to get a perfectly flat face the last thing I ever want to see is a dished or bowed piece of wood. :shock:

 

[TrimTheKing]

Seems like a lot of agro when a couple of swipes with a hand plane to clean up will achieve the same.

Quite. I'm certainly not going to alter my swwetly-set machine to try it. I'm glad it's not just me.

Cheers
Steve

I'm with you here, after spending several hundred pounds and learning how to get a perfectly flat face the last thing I ever want to see is a dished or bowed piece of wood. :shock:

Abolsutely! I have watched Mr Charlesworth's DVD, I can achieve precisely what that bloke has just done on that video with 4 or 5 stop shavings and a full pass, all with a handplane. No need to mess up my perfectly set tables or blades on the P/T.

I have seen a few of this blokes videos now and I definitely feel that he is paid to find different ways to do things, regardless of whether they are better or not!

Cheers

Mark

 

[Jake]

Should never be exerting pressure with the hand directly over the cutter block anyway - he's a fool.

 

[wizer]

I have seen a few of this blokes videos now and I definitely feel that he is paid to find different ways to do things, regardless of whether they are better or not!

Is this the chap that dreamt up the wacky idea of tapering table legs on the 'jointer'. :roll:

 

[TrimTheKing]

I have seen a few of this blokes videos now and I definitely feel that he is paid to find different ways to do things, regardless of whether they are better or not!

Is this the chap that dreamt up the wacky idea of tapering table legs on the 'jointer'. :roll:

Yep, one and the same.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Actually, that works pretty well.
S

 

[MikeG.]

It seems faintly ridiculous to me to have half of the width of the cutter below the level at which it could cut.............in other words, he is reducing the effective width of the planer by 50% (unless I'm missing something).

It also means that he can't put a truly square edge on any board, unless he leans the guide over by the same amount as he leans the blades........and how difficult would that be!

Mike