What's the best way to orient boards for glued up panel for hand planing?

[ScoFF]

I’m planing on cross-cutting a single narrow maple board into multiple pieces and glue them side by side to make a wider piece and I plan on using a handplane to to a final smoothing. After my maple workbench flattening I’d really like to learn what not to do in terms of alternating grain pattern !

Here is a poorly drawn picture of what I'm seeing in terms of grain pattern.

If I look at the edge of the board the grain looks like what I've drawn, diagonal lines, you'll see this sometimes when you have cathedral patterns on the face but in this case I have none.

If I were handplaning this I'd want to plane in the direction I drew the arrow. Is that correct?

Now if I were to like one face over another and I flipped the board over face down and had the other face up and glued them edgewise the pattern would now be different. Diagonal lines going different directions on each piece. Does that mean alternating grain patterns = bad for handplane?

I've read it's good to flip every 2nd pice over to help against cupping - isn't this a bad idea for grain direction?

[ScoFF]

I have another spin on this, what if our jointed edges are a hair off ie. 89.95 degrees. This isn't something to worry about but if we're glueing up 10 pieces side by side this error will multiply into a big cupped piece too wide for any planer.

What if we flipped the boards in a way to compliment the error? We just flipped the grain pattern?

I've drawn another image where the sides are marked as before but the 89.95 side is colored orange, the other side (possibly 90?) is blue. We flipped lengthwise, then flipped over face side to get the two oranges to match up.

[flairwoodworks]

You're confusing me, Bob.

I don't worry about which way the growth rings on the end grain point. I do focus on how the boards look together and which way the face grain points if it will be planed.

Cancelling out mis-jointed edges by flipping them is an old trick used when jointing by hand especially. Joint the two boards with the mating edges down and the top (or bottom) faces facing opposite directions.

[ScoFF]

You're confusing me, Bob.

I don't worry about which way the growth rings on the end grain point. I do focus on how the boards look together and which way the face grain points if it will be planed.

Cancelling out mis-jointed edges by flipping them is an old trick used when jointing by hand especially. Joint the two boards with the mating edges down and the top (or bottom) faces facing opposite directions.

But if you do flip them so they cancel out the "possible" jointing error you'd be creating mismatched grain direction right?

I also don't worry too much about end grain pattern, more about edge grain pattern but in the case of this maple sitting on my workbench, it's all white, I have no idea what's going on until I start planing and I don't want to take a gouge out of it at this point. Before I crosscut the single board into multiple pieces I did label it this side up on each piece so I know. But my question is what if i wanted to start flipping it, either face over or flipping it lengthwise (necessary in the case if I wanted to put mating edges if there were jointing error). I can't visially tell what the grain is doing (white maple). So I need to understand what typically happens to grain direction when you A ) flip it over B ) flip it end for end. I will buy an "Understanding Wood" book I have on my wishlist but I have these pieces waiting to be glued up.

[flairwoodworks]

But if you do flip them so they cancel out the "possible" jointing error you'd be creating mismatched grain direction right?

Right.

I also don't worry too much about end grain pattern, more about edge grain pattern but in the case of this maple sitting on my workbench, it's all white, I have no idea what's going on until I start planing and I don't want to take a gouge out of it at this point. Before I crosscut the single board into multiple pieces I did label it this side up on each piece so I know. But my question is what if i wanted to start flipping it, either face over or flipping it lengthwise (necessary in the case if I wanted to put mating edges if there were jointing error). I can't visially tell what the grain is doing (white maple). So I need to understand what typically happens to grain direction when you A) flip it over flip it end for end. I will buy an "Understanding Wood" book I have on my wishlist but I have these pieces waiting to be glued up.

Set your hand plane to take a shallow cut and plane the face of each board to determine which way the grain runs. Then mark each board with an arrow showing you which way to plane. I use chalk; you could use masking tape and marker or pencil or something else. Just make sure they all point the same way when you do your glue-up.

[ScoFF]

I wonder how often flipping the face causes and issue, like when bookmatching.

[jhl.verona]

Keep it up, guys. I'm following along with notepad in hand...

Set your hand plane to take a shallow cut and plane the face of each board to determine which way the grain runs. Then mark each board with an arrow showing you which way to plane. I use chalk; you could use masking tape and marker or pencil or something else. Just make sure they all point the same way when you do your glue-up.

This is what I find to be the most effective. Sometimes I can't read the grain easily. I thought it was a little 'unprofessional' to be honest, but it does work! Thanks for the confirmation, Chris.

John

[bois]

I made a post that started to go down this path on a design thread a few weeks back. You can see that response here:

The bottom line is that if you are going to be hand planing a laminated board, you're better off orienting the grain properly and sorting through more stock to get the right match. If you go purely on the best match (which you sometimes do if you have limited stock) and you don't have a drum sander, you're going to be making a lot of extra work for yourself. Now as to the issue of the jointed edge being not perfectly 90 degrees, that is not a problem. Lay out our board orientation with the grain all running in the right direction (the chalk arrow method is a good one) and in the proper sequence. Then alternate which the board faces against the fence on your jointer (assuming you are using a power jointer). You may have to break the rule about running an edge through the jointer against the grain, but these faces will be glued up and any small tear-out won't weaken the joint. You end up with perfect glue joints, a flat lamination, and grain running the same direction to hit with your smoother or jack plane. The old adage about alternating grain direction to avoid cupping or warping is, I suspect, one of the many old wives tales in woodworking. It makes sense in theory, but if you're using stable well dried and acclimated stock, and espeically if you will be cleating the top down to a strong carcass, this should never be an issue. At least it will be much less of an issue than massive tear out.

[ediazf]

in my very little humble experience (not monter shop with no jointer xD), I will always just go for 90 degrees with a router, straight edge and pattern bit. I dont worry too much about the end grain direction, I have never glued up to many boards anyway maybe 2 or 3. I always smooth my lamination with a hand plane and then some sanding with fine grit random orbit sander just for finishing and thats why I never never altern the direction on my boards, becuase then when u go with ur hand plane you will have a never ending problem in the intersecction when one board you are going the right way and the other the wrong way and it will cause problem. I tell you by experience and one time the chip out when going against the grain was so bad I have to do another replacement panel xD it was too much to sand.

second humble opinion, when working on a important piece, I don't care how I left my hand plane iron, I would always hone it again with the ruler trick and just touch the so called micro bevel.

sory for my english, I am from chile, so, yo hablo español hahaha