plane, electric and silverline no4, flatten pine boards

[simon1138]

Hello,
I am new here and want to learn more about flattening pine boards. I want to build a guitar and have some scrap pine as practice. I think that when I glued them I might have offset them slightly and it seems that one is slightly higher than the other. I have tried to flatten them on both sides using an electric plane (cheapo from screwfix). It seems that the centre is higher and as I try to plane this, many times with the planer at increasing depths, the centre still seems high. on the other side of the board, i think cupped is the wood, but no individual boards. I did not plane either board before gluing. I am not too sure how to use an electric plane. when I tried to flatten a board first time, I ended up cutting deeper closer to me and gouging the ends.
question 1, Do you put pressure on the plane through out the cut or just hold it on the wood? I heard somewhere that pressure causes gouges, I also have undulations in the woods for some reason.
question 2, Will the silverline be better at removing the problems I am experiencing with the electric plane.
I dont like the electric plane so much as it is really noisy and think that maybe some experience with a hand plane would be better. Sometimes with the electric plane it does not feel like it is planing at all, just going over the wood. I have watched a few videos on electric planing with no luck. I am sure it is a technique thing.
Any advice would be great
All the best
Simon

 

[Droogs]

Hi Simon and a very warm welcome. i think you have discovered power tools can be a little bit scary when new to them
Before you go too far with your first project you would definately benefit from reading the thread below about joining boards together written by one of the very experienced professional furniture makers who are members of the forum

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/how-to-edge-joint.112936/
This will give you an excellent starting point for your journey into working with wood

 

[AJB Temple]

As well as the above advice, take care with the electric plane. It will have a depth guide on it, probably mm. You really want be taking off very little material (say 0.1 mm or 0.2mm) as you deal with high spots on the cupped side and high crown on the other side.

Do not start the plane with it already pressed onto the wood. Get the wood held securely against a stop, start the plane with the toe resting on the plank and feed the plane smoothly over the wood.

You can plane across the grain or diagonally to get rid of high spots. Deep cuts lead to irreversible deep gouges.

Your number 4 is quite short for flattening. This is why many of us use a plane with a long base. Silverline is a brand at the very cost effective end of the market and may need a good deal of setting up to make it work.

Post some pictures of what you are trying to do and we will have a better idea.

Good luck, Adrian

 

[Ttrees]

Hello Simon
I suggest you get the principal of planing down with your silverline Bailey.
Leave the leccy screamer for boat building.

You can take off way too much with a hand plane,
its not a slow tool or impractical by any means!.
If you've been working with powered hand tools up to now , then
you might not have needed a decent bench until this point.
I.e a workmate will not suffice for hand planing.
When planing by hand there is lateral force so you would be tipping a workmate over, compared to a rotary tool that scoops into the timber in a downwards fashion.
So I hope you have a bench, if you don't then you won't get along with planes.

Either way a plane is a plane, and it will not plane into a hollow like what you might do with a belt sander.
The easiest way to learn planing is if you can copy the profile of something flat already.
This way you can see where your boards are in contact when placed against the flat thing.
This flat thing may be a straight edge, or easier again a flat bench top, or planing board.
(bear with me)
If you were to apply crayon on a flat surface and rub it against the work/rub the work against the flat thing, it would tell you where the only spots you should be taking shavings from.

If you think you can plane into a hollow, you might end up advancing your iron and running into the same problem with chipped irons and whatnot as on another thread.

Take shavings from the area that are in contact with the flat thing, until the hollow
is in the same plane as the area you've been taking shavings from.
Beware when your getting closer that the plane will have the tendency to nose dive off the end of your work, so you need to take stop shavings to counter this.
David should make this clear


Here's also another good source from Custard regarding hand planing
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/how-to-edge-joint.112936/
Good luck
Tom

 

[Bod]

Your guitar, will it be acoustic, or electric?
Gives us an idea of the thickness of wood you will be working with.
A photo of the wood, will be very helpful, as "pine" covers a lot of types, and grades.
Some are easy to work, others near impossible.

Bod.

 

[Just4Fun]

I have 2 Silverline No 4 planes. They are excellent value for money and do a decent job - I don't see any real difference in practise between the Silverlines and my Stanleys. I use one Silverline as a scrub plane, to deal with rough-sawn timber and get it somewhere in the right ball park. I use the other as a smoother to put the final finish on. In between I use a No 5 or No 6 to get boards flat. The No 4 is a bit short to be ideal for that, but if that is what you have you can get a result with it.

 

[simon1138]

Hello,
Thanks for the response, there is a lot there to digest. I have this pine, cheap stuff from a building site. I have ordered a no 5 plane and now looking into setting them up. I would prefer the hand plane as it is cheaper, quieter and a skill to practice. The wood is a body blank for an electric guitar. Practice piece really before spending loads on a decent tone wood. I did try making a guitar from an old Oak worktop and the only thing I learnt from that is, dont use oak! the grain filling was a nightmare. I am really struggling to get the surface flat without the grain showing. Anyway, I need to move forward and this pine body is the new project.
Thanks for the help,
All the best
Simon

 

[Ttrees]

Have you got a metal detector Simon?
It looks like iron staining on that timber, aswell as some sort of filler.
That will instantly blunt your iron if it is.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Before you start practicing, be aware that the plane will not be sharp out of the box. Look at Paul Sellers videos on how to sharpen a plane and set it up. There are others out there who are good, but some tend to complicate things too much.

Paul sellers also has, in his many videos, one on reading the grain. The plank on the right in your pictures has a lovely knot which will tear on one side and plane smoothly on the other. Look at the direction of the grain, around the knot. You will see that it rises up to the knot from either side. You plane with the rising grain, not into it. Go past, and the grain will tear as the plane blade digs in. Richard Maguire, (The English Woodworker), explains this in one of his blog videos.

As Tom said, beware of nails.

Nigel.

 

[simon1138]

Have you got a metal detector Simon?
It looks like iron staining on that timber, aswell as some sort of filler.
That will instantly blunt your iron if it is.

I did put some fill in there after gluing and down the centre as the edges were rounded off. I am guessing that is a no no. I don't think there are any nails in the wood but I will check again.

 

[Bod]

With regret, I don't think any plane will work on that wood.
Cut your losses, get better wood, without knots, or at least only where they will cut off eventually.
With better wood, learning how to use the plane will be a pleasure, not an impossibility.

Bod

 

[Ttrees]

If/when tearout is needed to be eliminated then don't listen to anyone else regarding plane setup for your Bailey.
David Weaver has the best information on youtube out there.
He has a blog on woodcentral that explains this thoroughly.
If his advice is followed, you can plane anything under the sun, in the same fashion as it would be with straight grain stock.
You'll find him in the hand tools section of this forum.

But for Simon's case with the filler situation, it might not be a salvageable piece if the filler is too deep, depending if its also in the glue joint.
I doesn't appear to be actually for a guitar though, just a practice run it seems.



But there is need to understand flat first, that's why Charlesworth's video I mentioned, especially if Simon wants to make a fretboard.
Charlesworth does not mislead, like I see in so many videos with deflecting work and no close ups to see, cut to the next shot kind of thing.

Thin material deflects and needs a flat surface, be it even a small planing board for
guitar bodies.
A good bench is a necessary to use hand planes well.
It will be an exercise in frustration otherwise.
Good luck
Tom



.

 

[AJB Temple]

For an electric guitar, "tone wood" is a bit of a myth. By which I mean total myth. Pickups and amp are 99% of it if the body is reasonably dense.

Depending in style, aim for Ash, Maple or some variant of Mahogany. For pretty add a figured arch top. Lots of fun. If the body is flat the glued on top of say figured maple (flame or birds eye) only needs to be half and inch thick and can easily be shaped by hand.

Keep us posted!