Evening the thickness of jointed boards

Jul 28, 2003 1 Replies
D

I have some glue-ups of four pieces 3/4 x 8 cherry stock. The thickness of each board varies by about 1/32 between boards so there is some smoothing to be done. The last time I encountered this problem I used a No. 5 Stanley plane to smooth the jointed boards to a uniform thickness. However, I had some diffuculty smoothing the grooves left by the edges of the plane blade.



Should I bevel the edges of the plane blade to correct this or would I be better off using a scraper to smooth the glued-up stock?



Thanks, Dave


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G

Sure, round the corners of the iron a tad and take small bites with the iron firmly held against the throat. Second time the marks appear, bag it go to the scraper. Takes more time, but it's a safer approach.

BTW, one reason some of the "I got the smiles and frowns alternating" school of glue-ups run into problems is that they are following the wrong gluing principle. Better to have sap to sap, heart to heartwood, or flat to flat and quarter to quarter sawn edges. Not to mention it avoids some truly disconcerting visual transitions.

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