Scrub plane for trueing stock

[SMALMALEKI]

Hi all experienced woodworkers

I am pretty new to wood working. My first project was my work bench. It was an amazing experience.

Now I have the first bunch of my stock arrived. I wanted to prepare them by hand ( learning on the job). My planks are 1000 mm by 320 mm by 53 mm.
There is some cupping (8mm).

1- what amounts of cupping is too much for hand plaining? Most of instructional video clips I have seen seem to have a small cupping which is corrected with one pass of plane.

2- I have a Silverline no 4 plane which I was thinking of converting to scrub plane. Is there anybody in Derby with a bench top grinder who can help me to grind the cutting iron?

I really appreciate your advice.

Saeid

 

[Trevanion]

Are you going to be ripping the components to any form of smaller width at some point? I'm only saying because if you're planning to get 2 150mm boards out of the 320mm board it's worth ripping it first so you don't have to deal with such a large cup. I tend to cut things to rough length and width first and then plane them up.

I'm not much of a hand tool woodworker so I won't comment on how to convert your plane into a scrubber but it shouldn't take too long with an oil stone or even a bit of sandpaper to give a decent radius edge to the iron.

 

[dzj]

"Most of instructional video clips I have seen seem to have a small cupping which is corrected with one pass of plane. "

Don't worry about it. 8mm isn't something a scrub plane can't manage.

"I have a Silverline no 4 plane which I was thinking of converting to scrub plane."

You can do this, but a Silvereline is one of those entry level planes that can be made to work with a bit of effort as a smoothing plane.
I'd use a beat up wooden Jack plane or something similar for the scrub plane conversion.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Are you going to be ripping the components to any form of smaller width at some point? I'm only saying because if you're planning to get 2 150mm boards out of the 320mm board it's worth ripping it first so you don't have to deal with such a large cup. I tend to cut things to rough length and width first and then plane them up.

I'm not much of a hand tool woodworker so I won't comment on how to convert your plane into a scrubber but it shouldn't take too long with an oil stone or even a bit of sandpaper to give a decent radius edge to the iron.

The planks are for hardboard of a bed. So I am going to rip them down to 30 cm and edge join them.

I tried a 80 grit sand papers but ripped the paper with less the 0.5 mm taken off the cutting iron edge.

 

[lurker]

Old wood planes make excellent scrub planes.
I have a few that need a bit of work but would do the job
You can have one if you collect it.
If you have your heart set on modifying that silver line I have bench grinders too.

Am 30 - 40 minutes away depending on where you are in Derby.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

"Most of instructional video clips I have seen seem to have a small cupping which is corrected with one pass of plane. "

Don't worry about it. 8mm isn't something a scrub plane can't manage.

"I have a Silverline no 4 plane which I was thinking of converting to scrub plane."

You can do this, but a Silvereline is one of those entry level planes that can be made to work with a bit of effort as a smoothing plane.
I'd use a beat up wooden Jack plane or something similar for the scrub plane conversion.

I managed to flatten three of planks and take the twist out. I have a true face and both edges are square but it was a time consuming task.
Online clips are 30 minutes and I was expecting to do in 60-90 minutes but it took much longer for each board. And I still have to get them down to the final thickness.

I used my number 5 plane to transverse them. I moved the frog back to give me a better mouth opening. But perhaps a scrub plane would have been faster.

The Silverline is the cheapest one I can experiment with and not feel sorry of it is unsuccessful.

 

[custard]

Unless you have a specific project with a specific cutting list then I'd leave your boards alone. As Trevanion said, taking the cupping out of a 320mm wide board is a complete waste of time (and timber) if you subsequently need 150mm wide boards.

Newbies fall in love with scrub planes, but they only really make sense if you'll be dimensioning a great deal of rough sawn timber by hand.I spent the first seven or eight months of a cabinet making apprenticeship working entirely with hand tools and dimensioning everything by hand. The only plane I used was one bailey style bench plane, but I had a couple of different irons one of which had a fairly aggressive camber. I never felt the need for anything else.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Old wood planes make excellent scrub planes.
I have a few that need a bit of work but would do the job
You can have one if you collect it.
If you have your heart set on modifying that silver line I have bench grinders too.

Am 30 - 40 minutes away depending on where you are in Derby.

Thank you for your generous offer. I will take one of those planes off your hand. I live on Ashbourne road.

 

[lurker]

Pm me and I will send you my address .
Then we can sort a day and time.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Unless you have a specific project with a specific cutting list then I'd leave your boards alone. As Trevanion said, taking the cupping out of a 320mm wide board is a complete waste of time (and timber) if you subsequently need 150mm wide boards.

Newbies fall in love with scrub planes, but they only really make sense if you'll be dimensioning a great deal of rough sawn timber by hand.I spent the first seven or eight months of a cabinet making apprenticeship working entirely with hand tools and dimensioning everything by hand. The only plane I used was one bailey style bench plane, but I had a couple of different irons one of which had a fairly aggressive camber. I never felt the need for anything else.

I am making a headboard for the bed. Need to edge join them ASAP.
It’s the first hand dimensioning for me. Although it was a challenge but I enjoyed it. I might make a camber on the cutting iron and get a spare cutting iron for smoothening.

 

[Just4Fun]

2- I have a Silverline no 4 plane which I was thinking of converting to scrub plane. Is there anybody in Derby with a bench top grinder who can help me to grind the cutting iron?

I have a couple of Silverline No 4s. I use one as a smoother and one as a scrub. I ground the radius on the scrub iron using abrasive paper. It didn't take too long. Both of the planes work well.

I have a wooden plane that I thought of using as a scrub but I don't really get on with it. It is strange because I like longer wooden planes but I don't like shorter wooden planes.

 

[Bm101]

I'm just a weekender, but i have a theory.

(hammer)

If you are truing any proper rough stock up by hand then yeh, maybe you do need a scrub.
But how many people do?
How many need to have an aggressive camber to really sort out timber these days?
Genuine question.
Maybe a longer plane is a solution.
This beech is fairly rough but not Farmer Chainsaw rough.

Number 6, sharp, cap iron not set too close. Takes the ridges off. A shorter plane will ride up and down the ridges and not help really tbh,

Last two photos are just to show a close mouth and the number 6 mating dance.

Reset the cap iron as you reduce the bumps to take a finer set shave.
Jobs a good un.

I freely admit I'm dancing in the dark most of the time but mostly, at this level, it's not rocket science. That's five minutes.

 

[MikeG.]

Don't forget sighting, winding sticks, and checking for square regularly.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

I have photo of the only remaining slab. It is truly cupped. I done the rest with my no 5 plane but it was plugging up regularly.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

I'm just a weekender, but i have a theory.

(hammer)

If you are truing any proper rough stock up by hand then yeh, maybe you do need a scrub.
But how many people do?
How many need to have an aggressive camber to really sort out timber these days?
Genuine question.
Maybe a longer plane is a solution.
This beech is fairly rough but not Farmer Chainsaw rough.

Number 6, sharp, cap iron not set too close. Takes the ridges off. A shorter plane will ride up and down the ridges and not help really tbh,

Last two photos are just to show a close mouth and the number 6 mating dance.

Reset the cap iron as you reduce the bumps to take a finer set shave.
Jobs a good un.

I freely admit I'm dancing in the dark most of the time but mostly, at this level, it's not rocket science. That's five minutes.

Did you traverse with no 6 or just plained with grains?

 

[Bm101]

Not sure what you mean by transverse? This was all planed with the grain. It's beech so fairly undemanding. Each piece of wood you plane will need to be approached individually.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Not sure what you mean by transverse? This was all planed with the grain. It's beech so fairly undemanding. Each piece of wood you plane will need to be approached individually.

Please somebody correct me if I am wrong.

My understanding is that to take cupping out one has to plain cross the grains on the cupped side. The cross grain plaining is called traversing.

Here is my winding sticks test.

 

[lanemaux]

My own view is that as long as it is roughly board-shaped one of my many #5's will do the job. While not as aggressive as a dedicated scrub , they have the advantage of ... not being as aggressive as a scrub. Scrubs can yank a fair swath of wood with a pass. If you are anywhere near as clutsy as me , making small changes in a thickness will keep you from dimensioning to nothingness or thereabouts. :lol:

 

[SMALMALEKI]

That’s exactly the reason. Shaving 8 mm on each face of the wood needs some aggression.

 

[Just4Fun]

If you are truing any proper rough stock up by hand then yeh, maybe you do need a scrub.
But how many people do?

That is a good point. I suspect many people these days use machinery for this work. I have access to machinery at my weekly woodworking class so I try to do the heavy work there but it isn't always convenient.

I buy my timber as rough sawn straight from the local sawmill and it can have significant issues that need to be fixed. For this work I am happy I have a scrub plane, but I am even happier when I don't need to use it!