Planing a laminated top with opposing grain directions
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- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 12 months ago by kenhamilton.
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Novice question for you:
Are there any tricks to avoid nasty tear out when planing a wide, laminated table top where the individual boards have their grain running in opposite directions? I don’t own a cabinet scraper, but even if I did, this piece is pretty huge. I imagine scraping would take me forever.
Planing the laminated pieces individually doesn’t seem doable, and going against the grain I can’t seem to avoid unacceptable tear out by any cap iron adjustment.
Any ideas?
Thanks a lot for any input!
Eivind9 March 2017 at 8:11 pm #309991My best idea (except for taking the lamination apart) is to sharpen the blade best you can and plane with a very shallow setting. you can also try to tilt the plane as much as possible, to reduce the width of the cut. That might enable you to do the rougher planing on the individual boards.
Good luck anyway!
Dieter
10 March 2017 at 7:51 pm #310026By the way, I have seen people making arrows on their boards to mark the grain direction, not just for joining, but all the time. It might be good practise, but I keep forgetting it, until it is too late. All the time is a great idea, because it means, that you probably don’t forget the marking, when it is really important 😉
Dieter
4 April 2017 at 4:30 am #310855A cabinet scraper really is your best bet, and it doesn’t take really any longer than planing.
But if you must use a plane,
Set the iron very close to the cap iron, like a 32nd of an inch; set the mouth very narrow, and take very thin shavings.
Paul tackles tough grain with what he calls a “York pitch”. I think he shows this technique in the tool chest series.
Good luck
Kevin.
8 May 2017 at 2:51 pm #311791What I try and do is before laminating, I test plane each piece and ensure the grain is running in the same direction and even at that sometimes you have reverse grain. I know this doesn’t help you with this particular piece, just something to keep in mind for future laminated tops.
As for this piece you have.. you can always plane it just on the joints, maybe cross grain at first and as a another poster has suggested with a sharp plane set at a minimum. -
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