how to straighten and flatten boards

[stevek]

I consider myself a beginning woodworker. I have made the standard set of beginner projects, boxes, bookshelves, night stands, etc. My crowning achievement (so far) is the bed I made for my daughter. While I was extremely proud of it at the time, I look at it now and want to make firewood out of it and start over. I assume that most craftsmen feel that way about the early stuff. I guess I like to do a really good job and I know, in retrospect, that it could be better.

Which brings me to my main point. I have decided to not go too fancy on elaborate designs and stick with shaker and mission for a little while. I am doing this so I can hone more of my basic skills. The last woodtalk online helped me recognize this skill shortage. My wife has an endless supply of projects for me to practice on so no issue there. But I have learned that good straight boards are pretty darn important to a successful project. I do not own a planer, jointer or any hand planes.

Given that straight and flat boards are kind of important, how should I accomplish this? Should I purchase one or more of the above? Is there a better way? I do have a table saw, router, drill press, sander, and a pos band saw.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[mlehikoinen]

I've discovered the joy of hand planes myself. At first I thought that I would better spend my time building rather than dimensioning as my shop time can be rather limited and I'm a results kind of guy.

But the results that you can get with a little practice in hand planing pays off. Today at lunch I snuck out to my garage for some practice and took a smoother to a walnut board that I had already flattened. Was I ever amazed when I held it up to the light and could see the reflection of the brass bench dog in it (viewing at a very low angle)! I would never see that using sandpaper.

3 good quality hand planes (like Veritas) will run you around $600-700, but a decent planer and a jointer will cost more than $1000. Leaves you a few bucks to get some wood!

You could of course just get a planer and build jigs to take the place of a jointer. I did that for a while and hated all the setup required to make lumber true and square.

Then you could always start trolling craigslist for 2nd hand equipment, but if you don't know what to look for you could end up getting a machine needing a lot of TLC with no return policy.

Food for thought.

[Sac]

There are two ways that you can go about this, with your inner Neanderthal, or your inner Normite. If you want to get down to the basics with Roy Underhill, go get you some hand planes and start getting your workout. Or you can hop on C-list and find yourself a used jointer and planer and break out like Norm. It is really up to you and your budget. If you want to use hand tools, maybe think about joining Shannon Rogers, "Hand Tool School." If you get power tools, Check out Marcs video called, "Jointers Jumopin" Good luck.

[Pete Bennett]

For more than forty years I did this with scrub planes 30" try plane and a 27" jointer. Great practice and most of the time I would never change. Three years ago I obtained a thicknesser (planer in US I think) and to be perfectly honest I will never go back to the hard labour camp. Baring in mind I do this for a living. Having said that there is nothing, except sex maybe, that can compare with the feeling and the sound of a truly sharp plane peeling off micro slithers of prime timber. I do it now again just for the kick I get from hearing it. If you're in a hurry and don't mind the noise, the flying chips and the expense of a good planer and an even better and probably more expensive dust extractor get them. But, if you do this because you enjoy woodwork for it's own sake and don't need to meet impossible deadlines etc. Buy the best No7 you can afford and add the smaller planes as and when you can afford them. ENJOY

Pete

[Bob Rozaieski]

There are a number of ways you can go about it with any number of different tools. You can go full power, full hand tool, or a combination of both.

For the full power route, you need a jointer and a planer. Here's the problem though. The width of the stock you can flatten and straighten will be limited by the smaller capacity of these two machines. If you get a 6" jointer, you can flatten boards up to 6" wide. If you spend more money and go for an 8" jointer, you can flatten boards up to 8" wide. The planer is likely to have at least a 12½" capacity, so unless you spring for one of those aircraft carrier 16" jointers, or a European combination machine, the jointer is likely to be the width limiting machine.

To go the hand tool route, you need a plane. You can do it with only one if you really want to (I'd recommend the longer jointer plane if you do), but it's faster and easier with 2, a jack/fore plane and a try/jointer plane. You hog material with the jack plane, then finish the flattening job with the jointer. This can be a much less expensive way to go about it, but it will take you more time and require more manual labor. If this interests you, here's a podcast I did on the process.

A third option is to go a hybrid route. To do this you will need one hand plane and a power planer. You won't need the power jointer. The order of operations here is to use the hand plane (I recommend a try/jointer as you will be able to use it for edge jointing as well) to flatten and make coplaner the outer edges of the cupped face of the board. You just need to get the outside 1-2" on each side flat and coplaner. Then you use the power planer to flatten the humped side, using these two flat edges as the reference. Make light passes with the power planer until the humped side is flat, then flip the board over and flatten the remainder of the cupped side with the power planer. This method is much less manual labor than the full hand tool option, but avoids the width restriction imposed by the power jointer. It's also kind of between the full power and full hand tool options in cost.

The method you choose is up to you based on how much manual labor you are comfortable doing, and the size of your budget. The planes I used in the video posted to above cost me about $10 each. If you already have the means to sharpen them, they're all you need (you make the winding sticks). A lunchbox planer would run you about $300-400, and a 6" jointer would run about $400-500. If you go with premium planes like Lee Valley or Lie-Nielsen, the cost outlay will be more equal between the all power and all hand options. Vintage Bailey style planes will cost you about $25-$75 each depending on the model, condition, age and collectibility. Whatever your choice, have fun!

[Darrian Newell]

I'm limited to hand planes right now but thats just fine with me. If you're really passionate about woodworking you might want to start with just some hand planes, and like Bob said they dont necessarily have to cost as much as a house payment lol go to flea market and look for some planes without to many defects and you can make it look and perform like a champ. If you subscribe to fine woodworking, theres an article on restoring old baileys in the annual tools and shops issue.

If you dont want to take that much time flattening boards then a jointer and a planer are very much worth it. Grizzly has some good quality machines at decent prices.

[Thumper]

All fine replies to your question. One thing to remember that all tools are junk unless they are sharp, especially the hand planes. I am at the stage where getting boards straight and flat is still a bit of a challenge. Bought a delta 6 in jointer but the blades are so hard to adjust and sharpen that I bought a carbide shelix head for it, now it works good. Bought the low angle jointer plane from veritas and it works real good also but had to buy a water stone set to keep it razor sharp. Also had to get the toothed blade for it cause it is easy to get tearout on hard boards even when the blade is very sharp. Bottom line is it probably cost me 1500 bucks just to flatten out boards.

[jhl.verona]

Steve - great question. Gentlemen - great replies. I really enjoyed Bob's video. I'll be looking out for a #5 and #7 over the next few months - and I'll be cancelling my subscription to the local gym. Now if someone knows how to store rough cut timber/lumber in an apartment...

John

[harderd]

I don’t have a specific article to point to at this time but you can search and find one quick. You can accomplish what you want to do with the tools you have on hand. The board can be jointed and planed with a router, the correct bit and a fixture. Do a little searching on the wood sites; I believe I saw this in one of the magazines like Wood, or Fine Woodworking. Good Luck!

[stevek]

Lots of great advice here. Thank you. Given what everyone has stated and given my available time it makes sense that I look into getting both a jointer and a planer. I may still get some hand planes as it looks like they have some good uses even if the initial milling is done with machines. However as I thought more about this process, another question came up.

If you had a 1 x 6 board, you could surface 2 sides (the 1 and the 6) with a 6" or 8" jointer (I have seem videos where you joint both sides to ensure they are flat and square, so I assume this is the standard). However if a board is 1 x 10, how would you go about jointing the 2 faces? Would it need to be cut in half? Is that what typically happens on boards which are wider the 6" or 8"?

I saw this combo and thought it might be a mid-range choice.

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-8BT-8-Inch-Jointer-Planer/dp/B001O0D6NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291255340&sr=8-1

I still want to get a couple of hand planes however as I am positive that regardless of the quality of the machining, hand planes will add a refinement which cannot be matched otherwise. I was looking at the WoodRiver V3 series - they seem to be a good mid-range - above most but below LN and Veritas.

[Pete Bennett]

Steve - great question. Gentlemen - great replies. I really enjoyed Bob's video. I'll be looking out for a #5 and #7 over the next few months - and I'll be cancelling my subscription to the local gym. Now if someone knows how to store rough cut timber/lumber in an apartment...

John

Hi John. I got to admit it was before I got married but I used to have a rack about eight feet long and sticking out from the wall about 18" five shelves I seem to remember. I used to store my timber on these and I had a very fancy curtain hanging in front. I once had a very nosey girlfriend who found it, she didn't last long. I don't ever remember anyone else having a clue that it was there. Kept the timber nice and dry as well.

Pete

[jhl.verona]

Pete, I've got to admit that I'm tempted...

Hi John. I got to admit it was before I got married but I used to have a rack about eight feet long and sticking out from the wall about 18" five shelves I seem to remember. I used to store my timber on these and I had a very fancy curtain hanging in front. I once had a very nosey girlfriend who found it, she didn't last long. I don't ever remember anyone else having a clue that it was there. Kept the timber nice and dry as well.

Pete

You certainly lead an interesting life. When I was single I could more or less get away with this type of behaviour too. Now that I am married, of course, I have been shown the error of my ways - many times - so it might be me that doesn't last long if I do that...

Doesn't the rough cut wood smell a bit? All right I know it's a perfume, but none the less, I think it'll be safer (for me and my marriage) to use the cellar. It's a bit damp, but better than nothing. "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day"

John

P.S: sorry for taking the thread OT - it's becoming my speciality...