Workbench top build/Electric hand planer Question

[JoeC724]

Situation: Workbench top laminations shifted 1/8”-1/4” up/down during glue up (each glue up is six boards 8ft long, ~5” wide, 1 1/4” thick)

Have been trying to hand plane it to flattish, but geez the time, energy, and re-squaring and flattening is taking a lifetime. There has to be a better way outside of buying a freestanding jointer and don’t have a vehicle appropriate for lugging them over to NCstate wood studio.

I bought a wen electric planer, but the bed/shoe (or whatever its called) is out of alignment when set at zero w/no obvious way to readjust.

Very open to ideas.

Much appreciated!

 

[creasman]

You're probably doing this, but plane across the grain to flatten until you get the high spots removed. Also, camber the iron in your plane so it functions like a scrub plane.

 

[JoeC724]

Thanks Jim…Does the camber make a significant difference?

At the start, I bought a stanley low angle jack, which has been helping, but only put a micro bevel on it and didn’t grind a camber into it yet.

 

[creasman]

I should qualify my statement. Scrub plans have a very curved edge. This allows them to work like a scoop, and remove wood very efficiently when cutting across they grain. I don't recommend modifying your iron in this way unless you intend to keep the plane for scrub work. A second iron is good to have for this purpose. In my case I have a #3c that I frequently use in this way. I have two irons -- one with regular edge and another that was intended to be modified to a curved edge (heavy camber). However, before I modified it I found an actual scrub plane and now use this instead.

Definitely don't modify your low angle jack plane in this way. The camber won't make much difference there and you'll have changed your plane from the work for which it was intended. Scrub planes are short bodied, so a #3 or #4, even a #5, with an open throat works. If you can find one of these -- even an off-brand that is usable -- I believe you will have better results.

Another approach is to make a router sled. This will take some setup and patience to use, but you can get absolute flat results without all the elbow grease. If you already have a router and a 3/4" dado bit then you have all the tools you need. The rest is just making a sled.

 

[ggoss]

Camber makes a huge difference. I setup a cheap No 4 as a dedicated scrub plane a couple of years ago wondering the same, and it quickly became one of my most frequently used hand planes. 5 minutes of work and it'll look like a beaver built a dam around your ankles.

I can't remember the exact camber radius I used (maybe 3"?), but you'll want a generous camber and a wide open mouth to remove material quickly, so I wouldn't recommend modifying your low angle jack for the purpose. You can take a thicker chip (they aren't really shavings at that point) than you'd expect, and you won't need to sharpen often at all. A scrub plane is meant to hog away material quickly, so you don't need precision, and even a cheapie harbor freight plane could probably be setup to work well. And definitely start across the grain like Jim recommended. Best of luck!

 

[JoeC724]

Thanks for this.
I do have a spare cheapy blade for my smoothing plane that i could grind down.
I wasn’t sure it would make a difference but tbh just taking any extra would be a help because it is taking hours and hours.

Thank you both for helping me out.

 

[Graywolf]

Thanks for this.
I do have a spare cheapy blade for my smoothing plane that i could grind down.
I wasn’t sure it would make a difference but tbh just taking any extra would be a help because it is taking hours and hours.

Thank you both for helping me out.

On a 2” wide blade, use an 8” radius. I personally used a Stanley #5 to use as a scrub. Your friend here is a straight edge and a pair of winding sticks. Yes it is an exercise, physical and mental. It always takes longer when it’s the first time you are doing this. But, I say you can accomplish this. Watch what the blade and the wood is telling you with each pass, is the grain reversed here, I’ll knock down this high spot and see what the straight edge shows me. There is something to learn from every move you make in this task. I suggest you set aside the thought of time and look at what you can learn from this exercise. My first time doing this type of task, similar to you I was thinking what have I gotten myself into. Then I changed my focus to what am I seeing, learning, and feeling. I had to set aside the need (want) to have this task completed yesterday. The knowledge that with practice every task becomes easier, more efficient and faster Is what I grasp for when doing these things for the first time.

 

[Gofor]

I do the same as Graywolf. A #5 with an 8" radius on the blade will give you fast material removal without tearing up your shoulder trying to push it. When working with a scrub plane, work from the edge nearest you, and flip the board around when you are nearing the far side. Otherwise you will get a lot of tearout on the far side edge. A while back i bought a Lee Valley scrub plane, but much prefer the #5 set up. IMHO, the Lee Valley is too narrow with too much camber, and the depth adjustment is more difficult. The #5 I use was bought on E-bay for about $8, because it was in poor shape and had no camber adjustment. However, being able to adjust the frog back and adjust the depth is all you really need for a scrubber.

 

[Rwe2156]

May I ask how old are you? Have you every flattened anything remotely that big with hand planes? You can rough it with a #5 cambered iron, but you'll need a 7 or 8 to get it flat.

Regardless, with that amount of material to remove I wouldn't take this on with a hand plane.

My suggestion is make a router sled and get a 1 1/2" planer bit. You'll need at least a 2 1/4HP router. Take it easy/1/16 - 1/8" passes/monitor heat build up in motor. If you don't have a router this big, now is the time to get one. Cheaper than a jointer plane!!

In an hour or so you'll have one side flat, your 1/2 way done, it will be perfectly flat while The guy with the hand planes still sweatin' to the oldies and going crazy with winding sticks......

 

[JoeC724]

I'm 40y and good shape, but I understand what you're getting at. I haven't flattened anything that big or long yet (the reason i substantially underestimated the task). I hadn't thought of the router sled you both suggested and is something i'm going to look into.
I'm going to find some router sled plans and consider the time and cost on setting that up compared to hand tool route (using the time/ %completed so far as a benchmark for the remaining).
Thanks

 

[spitzerone]

I was rebuilding my shop table and I started the flattening process with planes and it was wearing me out. So I used a flattening sled that I built for flattening live edge and larger pieces like table tops too wide for my planer. Easy peasy.

 

[Craptastic]

I've used a version of this guy's sled before and it works great for being so simple to make.

 

[JoeC724]

Thanks. Was just starting to look some of these up.

 

[tvrgeek]

Router sleds work. For my benches, I just got them close with a scrub and finished with a #7. I have a WEB hand held planer and it is pretty good, but it can be too aggressive if you don't watch what you are doing. 40 grit on a belt sander works too. A good scrub is surprisingly easy and I am "old enough to vote" as my Grandmother once said. After my #7, I use a length of board with 60 grit paper. More than flat enough for me. I don't need a bench in the thousands.

The advantage of the sled is now you have it and easy to get one side of rough lumber ready for the planer.

 

[JoeC724]

Follow up: I’ve done one of the glue ups with the router sled from the youtube Matt linked to and it worked great. Top and bottom took a little over an hour.
As seen in the pics, the sled and setup is very basic but all that was needed, plus a couple shims, to square things up to keep moving forward
Depending how the final glue ups go, i imagine setting up a cambered blade will probably be in the future as well.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Mission accomplished.

 

[awldune]

I've used a version of this guy's sled before and it works great for being so simple to make.

That's a brilliant design with the angle iron