Thread: Dimensioning Wood Using a Jack Plane

No one else has answered you, so.....Sharpen the plane
Plane one face
The plane length you have is good for straightening.
Sight down the board and decide if to plane more from the middle or from both ends
With a 400mm long plane when you get a continuous shaving you are good


But you need to check for twist along the way,two short lengths of straight wood resting on each end of the board, sight along the lengths, are they parallel?
Plane , if needed, one corner or two to get rid of the twist (or wind)
With one face straight and flat you can do the edges, you need a good square, then the other face. To do the other face use a marking gauge set to the desired thickness. You plane the face to the mark from the marking gauge.
Simple hey.......

Hi mrmoon,

Thanks for the reply. If possible could I ask a follow-up question?

You said to sight down the board and decide whether wood needs to be removed from the middle or the ends, right?

So, if I decide that the board needs to be planed more from the middle (that is, it has a slight hump), how do I do this? Do I plane the wood at a skewed angle, or even plane at 90 degrees to the grain? How about if the board is "dished", like a waterstone that needs flattening?

Cheers

Have a look at this thread ... I started looking for videos ... and it has them already

I really like Guiliano's video ... he's on the forums here ... and of course the Super-sized one is great too ...

Cheers,
Paul

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/f...-board-159298/

also Flattening and Squaring a Board on 6 Sides with a Hand Plane | The Renaissance Woodworker

Cheers Paul,

I tried searching "dimensioning" on the search function but didn't find what I was looking for. I'll start reading up on the links you gave me.

I have no real experience to speak from. But if you very lightly draw lines across the board with a pencil you can track where and how much you have planed off the surface and where.

Hi Russell

Before you plane anything, look carefully at the board and decide where the high spots are. Those are the areas to flatten first.

The aim is to flatten and joint one side of the board, then use a marking gauge to score a line around the board to the required depth, and plane away the excess.

A jack plane is to remove waste fast. Only use it in those spots, otherwise the deep lines will take more effort to plane away.

The direction you plane depends on what you want to remove and the nature of the wood. Planing straight across the board is usually a good way to avoid tearout. You need to plane across the board as well as down the board at some stage.

It is essential that you determine whether there is twist in the board to remove these high stops. To do this you need Winding Sticks. Google on them. Look for a DVD by Rob Cosman, "Rough to Ready": Rob Cosman DVDs - Techniques Series

Regards from Perth

Derek

L

Thanks Derek.

I'll look into getting that DVD - I think a visual guide would be useful. There's probably stuff on YouTube related to dimensioning, but it's still blocked here in China

As for winding sticks, I made some from two pieces of equally dimensioned and square pine. I may paint one of them red so that the any twist is easier to spot.

Can you see the video on this site?

RWW 30: Thicknessing Stock the Old Fashioned Way | The Renaissance Woodworker

Hi Paul

Not a great choice.

He has a flat board - or near to dammit - and he wants now to "flatten it" (take out the 1/16" twist) using a scrub plane! Don't do this! All he needed to do was use his jointer plane.

He does use winding sticks, but only at the far ends. He does not check through the length of the board.

Then he pulls out his jack plane (as he now has highs and lows) - and instead of just planing the sections which are high, he planes it all. That would not change the now undulating surface into a flat one.

I stopped at that point.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I was wondering if Russell would be able to view a non-Youtube video.
What about Vimeo Russ?

Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by Russell Cook

Thanks Derek.

I'll look into getting that DVD - I think a visual guide would be useful. There's probably stuff on YouTube related to dimensioning, but it's still blocked here in China

As for winding sticks, I made some from two pieces of equally dimensioned and square pine. I may paint one of them red so that the any twist is easier to spot.

Can you access a google drive ?

Thanks for the ideas guys.

I just tried vimeo, no luck this time. I'll do some research into a Google drive, that's the first I've heard of it! (I'm a bit of a behind with this kind of thing...)

Tomorrow I want to plane a piece of wood 300mm long and 85mm wide. The middle is very slightly higher than ends. Using my 400mm plane, how would I best go about flattening it? Unfortunately I have no jointer at the moment.

I'm especially interested in HOW to target the high points. I had previously thought planing was just pushing the plane the whole length of the board every time! Efforts to come at the wood across the grain have caused bad tear-out.

I also tried what I would call "taking gentle swipes" at the high points, traveling along the grain, which did manage to help get one board flat.

Any thoughts/tips would be great, crude and refined both welcome

The guys have given you pretty good written descriptions, and videos are out, ... so pictures it is

A couple of pics here that might help ... Preview - Plane Both Faces Equally When Thicknessing by Hand - Fine Woodworking Question & Answer

This is a machine approach but might help convey the ideas ... Stephan Woodworking - Flattening and Straightening Boards

again not talking hand-tools but same ideas ... Flattening wide boards

Flatten Wide Boards Despite Your Narrow Jointer
You can see in this picture from that article that the centre areas have been planed because they were higher.
The thicknesser marks still exist over the rest of the board ...

You can scribble all over your board with pencil or pen to get the same effect before addressing the higher areas.

Planing 90 degrees across removes material fast ... but leaves a rough surface for you to smooth with lengthwise strokes later. 45 degrees should be a little slower and less aggressive.