I am building a workbench and intend to flatten the top by hand. I have a Stanley #5. Will that get the job done (seems like a pretty long plane) or would it be worth it to hustle over to Ebay and start bidding on a #6 or #7??
Thanks for the advice. Woodpecker
the longer the better, though I have read where people use a smoothing plane which is shorter than the #5
As someone said sometime ago: If viewed in the spatial frequency domain planing is a low pass operation with the cut-off frequency being the inverse of the plane length (times some factor). In other words: With a short plane you leave all "waves" with a wavelength longer than (twice) the plane length in, because th plane will follow those wafes rather than smooth them out.
[...]
Why not use tha famous pattern lathe? If it's such a universal hypertool you could make workbenches by the dozen without having to lift a finger.
... sorry, probably wrong Woodpecker...
Yep. No connection.
Another option is to see if you have a cabinet shop around and see what they would charge you to run through their large sander.
Alan
Yes. No-one wants #6s, so they're pretty cheap and a #7 is useful for when you finally want a long jointer.
If you've made the top before it arrives, use the #5 anyway.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
This is a good suggestion. In MOST cases it will be $20 or less. While I like using a good plane as well as the next Neander, THis is one of those times when it makes a lot of sense to me to let the machines do it. Unless...of course...one's hobby is hand-planing a bench. In that case, have at it. As for the length of the plane...Got to remember that the LONGER the plane the flatter a surface one will get. Regards Dave Mundt
Just a word of warning. I did that this weekend. My workbench is made from Southern Yellow Pine and a few of the boards were a bit sappy. This clogged the sanding drum and made my buddy a bit unhappy :) We changed the paper aftwerwards, it wouldn't clean up.
#8, #7, #6, #5, #4, in that order... :)
I flattened mine with a #4 because it was the only plane I had. It's probably not dead flat, but it's close enough.
My No. 6 gets more use than almost any plane I have. Patrick Leach gives them a bad rap on his Web site but I find mine very useful. Paid $15 for it in Mount Dora, Florida.
Dick Durbin
Mine doesn't, but it gets more use than my #7. I often joint short things, rarely a long tabletop though. And I can't lift the #8, so I barely use it.
-- Information wants to be free. Data fancies being tied up and spanked by Troi.
the #7 sounds good, but a thicknessing sander sounds better.
$1 a minute at my lumber supplier. I rarely spend more than $5 at any one time. Get it close when you glue up, use the sander to clean it up.
You have to get a #7, probably a #6 and a #8 as well! What an opport, I mean necessity for a new tool. Really, a #5 won't flatten it very well, it's too short. A #7 is ALOT longer and will flatten much better, a #8 is best, but unless you are serious about beinga galoot and are fairly big, it's a heavy plane and hard to push after a while.
My two cents, Dave in Fairfax
On 18 Jan 2004 18:19:30 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@tfn.net (Dick Durbin) brought forth from the murky depths:
Do you use it for curls, or woodworking, Dick? ;) ^^^^^ My $15 #60-1/2 (with Hock blade installed + the orig iron) is my most-used plane, followed by the Knight smoother.
- Every day above ground is a Good Day(tm). -----------
cabinet shop around and see
through their large sander.
This is pretty good advice, but you should take into consideration that this is likely to leave sanding grit embedded in your top, which is something you may not want. Among other potential problems, if you ever wanted to tune the top up with a plane in the future, that grit wouldn't be good for the sole or the edge of the iron.
The degree of flatness needed of your work surface depends on the work you're going to do on it. The bench top surface is your reference. If your work requires no more accuracy than what is provided by your #5, then your reference surface probably doesn't require more accuracy than your #5 will provide. Consider that it would be fine to use a jack on work referenced to a surface flattened with a joiner, but when using a joiner on work referenced to a surface flattened with a jack, the accuracy of your work is going to be limited by the accuracy of your reference surface. Most folks that put a lot of sweat into hand planing will set up a jack with a significant crown to the place and set it to take a relatively deep cut. This results in a surface that is not only marginal in its flatness, but is also not very smooth. You can improve the flatness and smoothness by grinding the iron relatively flat and using a fine set. However, my preferred method would be to use the jack to rough the surface out and then use a finely set joiner to do the flattening. You can then tune up the surface with a smoother or scraper. Good luck and have fun.
to flatten the top by hand. I have a
(seems like a pretty long plane) or
Ebay and start bidding on a #6 or
Thanks to all that replyed. I'm off to Ebay for a #7. I'll wait for it to arrive before proceeding with bench top. Will have the additional fun/satisfaction of restoring and tuning an old tool.
Woodpecker
Regardless of utility, they do seem to be priced pretty low relative to #7s.
Case and point. :-)
Cheers, Mike
Do tell more, I'm trying to pick up a 60 1/2 now off Ebay for the Hock Iron I won off Ebay 2 weeks ago. I was surprised at how usefull a even newer junk low angle (20) block plan was with a sharp iron. It did not cause tearout on the purpleheart I was working on like the #4 and #5 did.
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