Can I jack plane 2x4 studs flat?

Oct 18, 2003 24 Replies

UPDATE: he's posting through random hosts in the ICG netblock. presumably a dial-up-connection.

The following nFilter magic will catch all the ICG hosts You *WILL* need to have 'enable regular expressions' selected in the configuration panel.

rec.woodworking drop nntp-posting-host:.*206\.216\.[456]

For those who care, the 'general form' of an nFilter incantation is:

newsgroup_name action header:matchstring

The usual 'action' is 'drop', you can also 'flag', or 'score' see the manual 'header' is the header you want to filter on, and 'matchstring' is the 'regular expression' you want to match,

a 'regular expression' can be a literal string, that requires an exact match, or can contain 'patterns' that match any of a number things -- e.g. the '[456]' in the nFilter rule above is a pattern that matches "either a 4, or a 5, or a 6".

NOTE: '.' has a special meaning in a regular expression (i.e. 'match _any_ character'), so when you want to match *only* a '.', you have to precede it with a '', to indicate you mean the 'literal character .', not the 'match any' symbol. Caveat: the first '.' must -not- be 'escaped' that way, because it *is* being used as 'match any character'. a 'reading' of the rule is match the string 'nntp-posting-host' (*WITHOUT* regard to case), followed by a ':', followed by 'any character' (indicated by the '.') occurring ZERO OR MORE TIMES (indicated by the '*' following the '.') followed by the string '206', followed by a literal '.', followed by the string '216' followed by a literal '.', followed by one of the characters '4', '5', or '6'

Thanks for that great advice. I ran a couple scrap pieces through that I brad nailed to a small piece of craft wood I had and it looks great. I glued them together to see how it was and WOW. That will save me a ton of time with a planer. Now I just need to get a board that is straight and 72" long to use with the full size 2x4s that I have. I'll also have to work out a way to put a 2x4 'sideways' on it to get 2 sides squared. Perhaps a jig?

I'm gonna scrap the pieces that I've glued up so far... after seeing the results this way I think that the time I'll save will be worth it if I have a to buy a few more 2x's. I'm not as cheap as I sound... I'm just being careful with this hobby as I have been in and out of many expensive hobbies in my lifetime with little but a few expensive toys to show for it. I want to work my way into it.

Thanks again! Mike W.

Thanks for that great advice. I ran a couple scrap pieces through that I brad nailed to a small piece of craft wood I had and it looks great. I glued them together to see how it was and WOW. That will save me a ton of time with a planer. Now I just need to get a board that is straight and 72" long to use with the full size 2x4s that I have. I'll also have to work out a way to put a 2x4 'sideways' on it to get 2 sides squared. Perhaps a jig?

I'm gonna scrap the pieces that I've glued up so far... after seeing the results this way I think that the time I'll save will be worth it if I have a to buy a few more 2x's. I'm not as cheap as I sound... I'm just being careful with this hobby as I have been in and out of many expensive hobbies in my lifetime with little but a few expensive toys to show for it. I want to work my way into it.

Thanks again! Mike W.

I've done alot of planing of the top and I *thought* it was almost flat. I had some time this morning to do some work on it and I noticed that I still have a ways to go as one end is sort of cupped.

I didn't do anything to the lumber before glue up other than wipe off loose dust. In hindsight, I should have been more careful checking the boards for defects but it's not too bad and it's finally starting to look like a real bench.

I'm building my bench because I don't have a jointer and planer and a bench will make life easier for preparing stock by hand. I think the major benefit of the "bench by Borg" is that you can slap it together with a relatively low cash outlay without worrying about it being perfect. When all is said and done, all you really need is a flat stable surface. The rest is aesthetics (but I will want one of those purdy benches some day).

Well, there are alot of wreckers with *way* more knowledge than me on this topic but, for your bench project, I'd start by getting a decent jack plane. Old Stanley/Baileys (#5) are a pretty safe bet and won't set you back too far financially. You should not have to pay more than $40 total (i.e. price + shipping) and that's at the high end (okay, maybe a bit more if you're looking for a sweet Type 11, but it's not really necessary). Depending on where you live, you might be able to pick one up much cheaper. Depending on how unflat (is that a word?) the top is, a scrub plane may be helpful. And a jointer plane (#7 or #8 in the Bailey variety) will make life easier to get the top as flat as possible.

Cheers, Mike

glad to help! ;)

Doesn't have to be a jig -- reel or hornpipe, or even a waltz, foxtrot, or tango; whatever works *FOR*YOU*

Seriously, a jig cum carrier sounds like a viable approach. something a bit longer than your longest pieces, with a couple of protruding sections, one on each end, at 'just the right distance apart'. brad-nail through them, into the ends of the 'target' material, and run the whole mess through the saw. sorta like this:

(fixed-pitch font -- e.g. 'system', assumed for viewing:

" " " " v =====| +---+ | + + | + + | + + | + + | + + | + + | + + | + + | +---+ | =====| ^

This is just a standard 'taper jig', bing used for a 'zero taper'.

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