Truing a plank

[t8hants]

Phase two of my return to woodwork, and I have just bought the material for my bench. Budget restrictions have meant that I visited the local salvage yard and returned with a £7 10 1'2"x3"x7' rafter from a building that was a 130 years old. I need to plane one face and one edge, I cannot do the other edge as that comes with forty plus free, Victorian, rusted in cut nails. The board is almost without wind, and very slightly warped, about 3/32" across and is rough cut.

My Newbie question is, do I plane down the crown of the warp, or the two raised edges, is there any preference, or a reason to do one rather than the other? I do have to get another jack plane, as I have just remembered that I gave mine to my sister, and am too proud to ask for it back. Look out e-thing here I come!

Gareth

 

[Digit]

Never given any thought to that myself, but with hindsight I realise that, planing by hand I plane the crown and on a machine I plane the the edges.
In both instances it's simply to prevent the board rocking.
Hope that helps.

Roy.

 

[srp]

I'd lay it down so the raised 'crown' is uppermost - it will then be resting on the two edges and be more stable. When you've planed the worst of the hump off it, draw a wiggly squiggle all the way down it with chalk or pencil, sharpen and adjust the plane for a finer cut and aim to get the board nice and flat - use a pair of winding sticks.
When it's fairly flat, true up the good edge using a square to get a right angle.
To be honest, you really need to get the cut nails out if you can. Not easy if all the heads have been knocked off or hammered flat (which is what they normally do at Ryde Demolition - is that where it came from? Just a stab in the dark....)

Edit - you don't need to completely plane the underside. Just true up the spots where it is going to rest on or join with the framework/legs or whatever. Maybe a couple of parallel sawcuts and a bit of paring with a sharp chisel. Something like this:

 

[t8hants]

Yes it came from that purveyor of old wood. The cut nails are at least 45mm into the timber, and have rusted away, they didn't have to knock them off. I should with luck be able to glue on a cover strip and it will the edge away from sight forming part of the tool well.

Thanks also for the advise.

Gareth

 

[ByronBlack]

You'll definitely find it easier and quicker to plane the hump as opposed to the two high edges - the biggest problem doing it the other way around would be to wedge it so that it doesn't rock when you try and plane it.

With the high edges down you should get a solid platform from which to take out the hump - and with pencil marks, it'll be easy to gauge your progess - use a no.7 or no.8 if you have one.

 

[squib]

I have always planed the concave side on a jointer as i think it is the only way to true it up and i usually hand plane this side too, normally working on the ends from the middle.