Reducing wood thickness

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  • noho
    23 September 2015 at 10:53 am #130776

    Hello,

    After a quite long search, I finally found a sawmill quite close to my place (south of Sweden).
    I bought few planks of ash wood, with the idea of doing the jointer tool chest presented by Paul.

    The thickness of the book is 25 mm, which is i think way to much for a tool chest. I would like to reduce it to 15 mm, which i believe would be good.

    How would you proceed to reduce the thickness, using of course only hand tools 🙂

    I think saw a 700 mm long plank of hardwood isn’t the best idea !

    I was considering planning it with a Jack plane (which i should receive this week).

    What are you thoughts about it ?

    Thanks !
    Christophe

    Alien8
    23 September 2015 at 11:46 am #130778

    Hi Christophe

    If I get your problem you’d like to remove about 10 MM of wood, that will be a lot of shavings.

    I’d probably resaw it if I really had to. Preferably cross and ripcut the parts to near final dimensions and then resaw those smaller parts.
    A good sharp straight saw and frequently sawing from opposite side should do it. That and quite some time and some fast acting sugar sources 🙂

    If you insist on planing, I’d start with my scrub plane, that thing can remove about 1 mm shavings if I wanted it to, but it would take an enormous amount of effort… still if ever you feel very frustrating…
    So I’d take less thick shavings, that way I can keep it up for a long enough time.

    Either method : plane to near inteded width and let it do it’s stupid wood tricks, you’ll be surprised how much it moves.

    Let us know how you fare

    Diego

    operry
    23 September 2015 at 12:02 pm #130779

    In Paul’s first video of the joiners tool chest series, he details using a scrub plane to reduce the thickness of wood. Take care.

    noho
    23 September 2015 at 9:45 pm #130786

    Thanks guys for your feed back !

    Well, it seems that I need to invest in a scrub plane then !

    at the moment, I have only a block plane, and a number 4 and 5 are on their way (ordered 2 months ago…) Hope to have them by the week end.

    I gave a try at planning a bit some rough wood with the block plane. Of course it is not intended to plane a lot, but I must say it is quite a good exercise and definitely a great way to relax after a very bad day at work !

    I will have a look at the scrub planes and might get one. Not that comfy with the saw idea, as the ash is pretty hard, and i would need to resaw a 70 cm long plank…
    But next time I go to the sawmill, I will specify a correct thickness..

    Lesson learned !

    Cheers,
    Christophe

    Matt McGrane
    24 September 2015 at 3:44 am #130799

    Maybe the sawmill has a bandsaw and you could ask them to resaw your board to the proper thickness.

    noho
    27 September 2015 at 12:04 pm #130845

    So, some update..

    I finally found by chance a wooden plane at the DIY store, that i changed to a scrub plane. Man, that is removing wood !!
    I have been using it to remove some cup and twist, and it is working rather well. I also received on friday a Nr 4 and a Nr 5 (rider, from axminster). And they are working great !

    However, I have decided to change the plans regarding the project i wanted to do with the ash. I wanted to do a tool chest, but the main issue now is to get those 70 cm planks to the right width. I have spent couple of hours yesterday to rip saw one board (on each side to remove the bark area).
    And to be honest, sawing 70 cm long by 2,5 mm thick of ash is kinda removing the fun of woodworking.

    So I will use this ash to do a shelf for the workshop, and will get some pine from the sawmill, this time very close to the final dimensions.

    At least, lesson learned…

    Ed
    27 September 2015 at 1:18 pm #130863

    Isn’t ash an easily split wood? If so, splitting may get you within 1/4 to 1/2″ of your width, then your scrub plane will rapidly take off that 1/4 to 1/2″ along the edge. Alternatively, if you are ripping off the last inch of the width (or any amount you’re willing to call waste) you can treat this like shaping, cross cut down to your width-line, and again use a chisel to split to close to your line, then use your planes to get to width. No saw required.

    I’ve not worked with ash, so let us know how it goes if you try this.

    das0521
    27 September 2015 at 2:26 pm #130866

    Chris Schwarz of Popular Woodworking has a great video on this subject. He prefers to use a No5 scrub for this task. I agree with this because of the longer sole plate.

    You DO NOT need another plane simply buy another plane iron, shape it properly, and substitute it as needed.

    Still a lot of effort.

    Robin Childs
    30 September 2015 at 2:59 pm #130948

    ReSaw to thickness required and if you are careful the piece left will be available to make the storage tills for inside the tool box.
    Thats how I am proceeding. Yes it is hard work and will take some time, but with a good handsaw it is possible.Why wast nearly 10mm of wood by planning.

    noho
    1 October 2015 at 10:40 am #130965

    Thanks all for your inputs 🙂

    So, been trying to figure out how to reduce the width and what has worked the best is the stop-cut process, as stated by Ed, and shown in one of Paul’s video.

    At fist I was using a Panel saw (the one I used to rip down the board) and I think this saw is definitely not good enough. Bought it at the DIY store, and after checking on the website (bahco is the brand) I couldn’t figure out if it is a rip or a crosscut saw…

    Anyway, after a while I decided to use a small japanese saw, and this one is working great !! cutting ash like butter. Lost few teeth on some pine-knots, so not sure it will live long, but at least it’s cutting fast !!
    And after doing those cross cuts, I use a chisel to remove the waste, the scrub plane to have something kinda flat and finally a Nr 5 plane to flat it down.

    I received my 2 planes from Axminster, and I must say I love this Nr 5 ! quite heavy, so after a while it starts to be painful to use, but it is a pleasure to use !
    Had a bit of trouble with the Nr 4, due to sharpening issues probably. Will resharpen the blade today and see how it goes.

    Hope to be able to finish the shelf by the end of the week end and share some pics with you !

    Cheers,
    Chris.

    noho
    14 October 2015 at 6:38 pm #131323

    So, finally, few pictures of the project ! first project, not a big success, but at least completed !

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    noho
    14 October 2015 at 6:42 pm #131328

    second part

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    jude
    15 October 2015 at 1:09 am #131339

    Nicely done!

    That looks like it was a lot of work.

    Matt McGrane
    15 October 2015 at 2:24 am #131345

    Congratulations Noho. It’s a great feeling making something with your own two hands and a few tools. Then putting it to use is even sweeter.

    Frank Joseph
    15 October 2015 at 5:29 am #131350

    You have done very well with what tools and skill you have, keep at it you will find it very rewarding as you learn.
    Look for old used tools there are a lot around just rusting. And they can be the best you can get.
    Good luck and welcome to the wood world
    Frankj

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