planing bench top
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30 December 2015 at 12:34 am #133492
I love all the videos, and decideded to pick up the hobby. I deal with enough machines. I decided to build the bench first. I think I ended up getting construction grade 2×4 at the local lumber yard. It clued me in when they tried to load my vw golf with a fork lift. So the wood has a lot of knots, grain going every direction. Armed with a new #4 Stanley and sharpening stones. I got to work. Getting very frustrated, I plane one direction and I get tearing plane another it tears 2 cm away. What should I do visit HD for better wood, seems like a waste, or improve my skills to match sounds better just don’t know how.
1 January 2016 at 2:12 am #133543Sebastian, there are a few other recent forum posts about this. Maybe do a quick search of this forum to see what you can find.
Typically, construction 2×4 lumber can be plane on one of the the two directions, but the grain will be tough and turn on you near knots. The best defense is to have a VERY sharp plane, set quite shallow. As you progress with your skills, you will get better at coming the other direction in just the small area around those knots.
You can make the bench with knotty wood and it might be frustrating at times. But you will gain skill. I’m finally getting to a point where I can finesse a plane, rather than bull-dogging it (as Paul says). It takes a while, but you’ll get there.
I tried to get better lumber for my bench (built in November/December) – kiln dried Douglas Fir. But it twisted pretty badly. The knots weren’t too bad, though.
Good luck to you.
I would get a piece of non-knotty wood about a foot long to tune the plane on first. After you are setup here with a very sharp blade taking very think shavings, go after the long knotty 2×4 again.
The only issue you will have with the construction grade stuff is flattening the knot areas. Once the bench is built, the hardness of the knots can work in your favor giving you a denser top to you work bench.
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