Planing against the grain?

[Mac]

Hi all, I am making a 24" diameter cherry globe and I need some advice. After making 18 piece segmented rings, I need to sand them flat. I don't have a planer and couldn't find anyone with one big enough. So...I've been sanding them by hand. For a better explanation (with pics) please go to:

Suddenly on the fifth set of rings, I ran into a large jump in difficulty. The amount of sanding required to flatten the rings doubled, and the amount of sanding for the bevel at least doubled. My question is this: now that the rings are under 20" dia, could I plane them to make them flat without tearing out the grain? No matter how I feed the ring, the leading and trailing sides are going to be planed against the grain. I don't mind a sore back but man...now my wrists, elbows, and shoulders, and neck are hurting. Thanks much,

-Mac

[tom]

Yes, you certainly don't want it exploding inside the planer. Especially a friends planer. Maybe try a "safety planer" that mounts on your drill press? I feel your pain. Tom

[David]

Is the resultant globe going to be perfectly smooth(round) or faceted?

Dave

[Mac]

Tom, A safety planer for my DP? I might have to look this up. David, In theory, perfectly smooth. I have a template cut from cardboard I will use for the final sanding. After gluing all the rings together, I'll use a soft pad on my orbital sander to take off the peaks at the seems (between rings). It really doesn't have to be perfectly round as I'm going to carve into the sphere, around the continents, for the oceans. I might even get a map of the worlds ocean currents and carve the oceans following that chart.

-Mac

[tom]

Tom

[Battleax]

Why not take a belt sander to it? Can't imagine doing this by hand.

[Mac]

Tom, You rock!! The Safe-t-planer was just the ticket. Thanks man,

-Mac

[Dave Mundt]

Well, while I am behind the curve here (got distracted from the newsgroups by the chaos of life), another really good alternative is a drum sander. I am building a 36" one just now, and if I can get out to the shop will get the last 30% finished. However...as I was saying...very easy to use, and does a great job with things like this as there is no real stress on the piece. Many cabinet shops have them and often will run stock through for a few cents a board foot (or a six pack). If you do a lot, actually purchasing one might be worthwhile. Regards Dave Mundt