Will hand planes work for this?


mfran12345

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Hi, new to the forum and to wood working with hand tools. I'll try to keep this short. I'm building a table top. I plan to join 8" wide boards together along their edges and then to smooth the top. Problem is the side I'm using as the top, the edges are cut at a 45 degree at the top so when placed together there are "valleys" between the boards about 1/4 to 3/8" deep. Is there a way to plane the tops to removed enoigh thickness to get below the valleys so the top is smooth and continuous all the way across? Is it possible to do with the right hand plane or would it get stuck in the valleys? Would it be better to plane each board individually before joining together? My grandfather has a large collection of hand planes but I have never used them or know which ones do what and unfortunately he recently passed away. If smoothing the top would be possible what plane would I look for to use? Thanks in advance. 

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12 minutes ago, mfran12345 said:

Which plane is best for edge planing? The board is about 2.5" thick. 

a ) the sharpest one

b ) the longest one

c ) the best maintained one

d ) all of the above.

Personally I use two planes for this - a #5 set for a coarse cut to shift the bulk of the waste, then switch to a #7 with a fairly fine cut to bring it right down flat to the line.

Look up "match planing" for how to joint the edges of adjacent boards to glue up into a flat panel.

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Yeah,  Henry pretty much got it. Sharp and long for the edges being glued together to give a jointing edge. 

I'm not so sure match planning will help being 2.5" thick pieces.  That would give 5" of thickness so the plane wouldn't be able to make both cuts at the same time giving a complementary angle as this operation is meant to. 

If you haven't messed with hand planes much, before you kick off,  go visit youtube,  check out the Renaissance wood worker and Paul sellers pages.  One or both will have a video on planning edges square and flat.  

Have fun and let's see that beast when it's done. 

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Just throwing this out there...if you're trying to use flooring to build a table with, don't do it.  If for no other reason, it's gonna be too thin unless you're making nightstands or little end tables.  Go get some lumber at the lumberyard and leave the flooring for floors.

If it's not flooring, I'm curious what kind of lumber you have that came with chamfered edges?

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Just throwing this out there...if you're trying to use flooring to build a table with, don't do it.  If for no other reason, it's gonna be too thin unless you're making nightstands or little end tables.  Go get some lumber at the lumberyard and leave the flooring for floors.

If it's not flooring, I'm curious what kind of lumber you have that came with chamfered edges?

He says the boards are 8" wide and 2 1/2" thick. Pretty sure that's not flooring.

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Well I'm sure you all will think I'm crazy and tell me no way but this is what I wanted to use. Is there boards glued together (I don't see any nails or screws) to make a tou ge and groove type of setup. I know it's not ideal and I know there's a heck of s lot of easier things to do. But the hand planing and using this wood would have a lot of sentimental value to me. I tried planing the top of a scrap piece of it lastnight and it seemed to plane pretty easy so it's a softer wood. 

I think I might be in over my head right now and need to do some more thinking or just get new wood. 

 

Thanks again for for all the replies I really appreciate it. 

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Go to the tablesaw and get rid of those tongue and groove joints. Then chop the ends flush. You'll get a much better result than trying to tackle this with hand planes for the first time. And you'll end up with wood that's ready to work with and you still get to incorporate the sentimentality into the project. Good luck!

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5 minutes ago, mkrusen said:

Go to the tablesaw and get rid of those tongue and groove joints. Then chop the ends flush. You'll get a much better result than trying to tackle this with hand planes for the first time. And you'll end up with wood that's ready to work with and you still get to incorporate the sentimentality into the project. Good luck!

Thanks. I'll see what I can do with the table saw. 

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If I had wood like that I'd make the top like a floor. Make a sub frame and fix it to it like flooring. I might belt sand the top like it was flooring too with the whole project looking quite "rustic"

If I were making a table and wanted a cheap top I'd find some 2 x pine, untreated and use that.

 

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54 minutes ago, G S Haydon said:

If I had wood like that I'd make the top like a floor. Make a sub frame and fix it to it like flooring. I might belt sand the top like it was flooring too with the whole project looking quite "rustic"

If I were making a table and wanted a cheap top I'd find some 2 x pine, untreated and use that.

 

What do you mean about attaching to a  sub frame like flooring? I was worried about leaving it as on the top because of the "valleys" in the tabletop then. 

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If it's a sentimental thing, but all means, look for the longest plane your grandfather had and have at it.  It'll be a daunting task, but sentiments are sentiments.

I don't see any tongue and grooves?  Just the roundover/chamfer.  I'd still rip it on the table saw, then you could do some cleanup with the handplanes if it's needed.

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If it's a sentimental thing, but all means, look for the longest plane your grandfather had and have at it.  It'll be a daunting task, but sentiments are sentiments.

I don't see any tongue and grooves?  Just the roundover/chamfer.  I'd still rip it on the table saw, then you could do some cleanup with the handplanes if it's needed.

You dont see a tongue on the left and a groove on the right?

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2 minutes ago, bleedinblue said:

If it's a sentimental thing, but all means, look for the longest plane your grandfather had and have at it.  It'll be a daunting task, but sentiments are sentiments.

I don't see any tongue and grooves?  Just the roundover/chamfer.  I'd still rip it on the table saw, then you could do some cleanup with the handplanes if it's needed.

The three boards are glued together as one unit. The offsets form a tongue and groove. 

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Just now, bleedinblue said:

Ha.  I thought those were three boards stacked together.  I mis-read it, didn't realize they were glued.

What in the world was that used for?

Good question. Im pretty sure at 2.5" thick it wouldn't be flooring. Maybe @jack English machine knows, he restores old houses like a champ. 

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12 minutes ago, bleedinblue said:

Ha.  I thought those were three boards stacked together.  I mis-read it, didn't realize they were glued.

What in the world was that used for?

You're guess is a good as mine. I found them at my grandparents house. He used to do construction and brought all kinds of stuff home from jobs sites, mostly schools. They're about 8 feet long with no nails or holes in them. Who knows. I wish I could seperate the three pieces. 

 

I would guessing decking or roofing maybe?

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2 hours ago, shaneymack said:

Good question. Im pretty sure at 2.5" thick it wouldn't be flooring. Maybe @jack English machine knows, he restores old houses like a champ. 

That's right shane that is flooring but for Joists  on 36 inch centres.   Lots of factories used  this , Was  also used in Barns  for the tractor to drive on  and load the Hay.  They were Milled  on a machine called  matcher which was basically a 4 sided  moulder planer. 

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That's right shane that is flooring but for Joists  on 36 inch centres.   Lots of factories used  this , Was  also used in Barns  for the tractor to drive on  and load the Hay.  They were Milled  on a machine called  matcher which was basically a 4 sided  moulder planer. 

Very interesting. Thanks for the info Jack !

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