Electric tools for flattening joined boards

[HonkyLips]

I often join DAR boards together into larger panels... this seems to be one of the most fundamental skills of woodworking and getting the glued boards flat seems to be a fundamental problem for me. I generally join different types of timber together for a decorative effect and in addition to the different boards being dressed to slightly different thicknesses, my joining skills are always a bit dodgy...

I've just glued up a larger panel than normal, almost 2m x 1m of jarrah and tassie oak strips (20mm)... some of the joins are as much as 2mm different. Although I've used a hand plane before I'm not keen on getting such a large (and hard) panel flat by hand, and my orbital sander doesn't make an impression on the jarrah.

I was prepared to buy a budget electric planer, assuming that an electric planer would do the same job as a hand plane, but after searching this site and asking friends I haven't read anything good about them and even the guy at Bunnings talked me out of buying one.

He suggested that a belt sander would be more suited to flattening poorly joined boards, and as the price of a budget belt sander is basically the same as a budget planer I'm prepared to buy one, as long as it's the best tool (I can afford) for the job...

So any suggestions on the best electric tool for flattening poorly joined boards would be appreciated, and I'd like to know if you agree that a belt sander is a better option than an electric planer.

Thanks in advance....

[Bob Willson]

Electric planers are cr@p. Do not even waste your time thinking of them.

I assume that you are making table tops from these items? If so, then it is really only the top of the table that must be plane. I would suggest that you invest in a biscuit joiner. This will referrence itself from the top edge and allow you to achieve significantly closer matching in your table tops.

From there, ask Derek or a large number of others how to go about flattening any (minor) discrepancies with a hand plane.

See other threads on this BB that cover the same topic ad nauseaum.

[bitingmidge]

Agree with Bob. (I do)

A belt sander will certainly remove the high spots, but even if you are VERY skilled you will get a wavy surface rather than a flat one.

For jobs like that, I used to knock off the high bits by hand (with the only plane I owned -a Stanley #4) and take it to a local joinery with a wide belt sander. For a quite small fee, they were happy to run them through for me after hours.

That may be the easiest course of action for you too.

Now (I haven't done one since I have accumulated all my stuff), I would use biscuits, build it in three pieces, flatten it with stuff I have, join the three pieces, and end for end it through the belt sander.

Then, and only then, I MIGHT consider finishing it with a hand plane IF I had one of suitable dimensions (which thankfully, I don't!)

YET

:D

P

[PJP]

gooday "honkylips?"


forget the electric planner as well as the belt sander. Perhaps when your glueing and clamping your doing it in one dimensions instead of two.
I love sash clamps and get great results but dont forget to clamp down onto the clamp.
The way I read your post is that your using 20mm strips as laminate for table tops etc. I have done this a few times on both small and medium projects
depending on what the sweetheart wants.Try using a dowling jig and puting a 1/4 inch or so threaded rod through and dowl or biscuit the two end strips. you'll be suprised on your results. As always dont forget your face side and clamp down on your clamps. I've always had a problem sanding tassie oak
and jarrah when in small strips, how do you go?

[Jack E]

You said you had some parts out by 2mm.
If you can get the electric plane to only come into contact with the raised parts and not cut into the lower parts you can achieve pretty quick removal. Then use your sander to finish it off.
The problem you can have with an electric plane is that you cut all pieces at once and are constantly chasing your tail, if you can achieve a cut only on the high parts you shouldn't have to many problems.
Don't expect a high quality finish though, all you will do with the electric plane is remove your clamping errors.