Help planing some 200mm blackwood - Heathmont

[PaulL]

Is there someone in the Heathmont/Bayswater/Ringwood area that could help me with planing some wide Tasmanian Blackwood? My current project is a pedestal table with extension. The boards are 200mm wide but my 6 inch Carbatec planer/jointer is not going to do the job. Too many to hand plane (about 10 metres) and it seems a waste to rip them just to fit the planer. My small thicknesser can handle the wide boards so any suggestions or help with planing the face would be appreciated.

And please don't ask why I didn't order the wood in 150mm widths .

Paul L

[orraloon]

Paul,
If you cant find a friend with the right machine there are still a few ways to flatten wide boards. As your thicknesser can handle your boards all you need is a reasonably flat face on one side to put through the thicknesser. The following link shows a couple of methods. Plenty other info on line too.


Regards
John


http://www.americanwoodworker.com/bl...de-boards.aspx

[auscab]

If you cant find some one.
like John says there are other ways of getting around that problem . Before I got larger machines I used to do all my work on a 6" planer and a 12" thicknesser . As long as the boards were not over 12" wide I could get good results off those two machines , any wider and its onto the hand held planer . I still do the same for boards or tops over 500 wide now.

With the 6" planer you have to take the guard off and do half the board at a time. Just so long as your confident and stick to a safe way of doing it . set your fence so you can only take 105 mm off , just past half way . Get it as straight as possible and remove any twist, then thickness and flip and thickness again.

Rob

[PaulL]

Thanks John and Rob for your good suggestions. Several of the boards are quite well dressed on one side so the thicknesser approach should work there. I am pretty confident with the 6 inch planer so will give the two pass approach a try.
Paul L

[orraloon]

My very old Ezycut jointer is a tad less than 5'' wide so I often have to resort to geting a flat enough face to start with before going in the thicknesser. I find if it sits flat on a flat surface without rocking or showing gaps underneath then that is good enough. The bench top needs to be checked for reasonably flat for this to work. Short lengths can be checked on the table saw top.
Regards
John

[elanjacobs]

If you're happy to come out to Moorabbin I can do it

[PaulL]

If you're happy to come out to Moorabbin I can do it

Thank you.

I will see how I go with the suggested approaches first and get back to you if I'm still having problems.

Paul L