HappyMonkey/HMD WOODSHOP

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

That's actually a challange to me. You need the edges of each plank to be very straight, otherwise they won't fit tightly and the glue joint will not be strong. Sometimes you can get away with an edge left by a table saw or that is already on the board when you buy it, but often you have to plane one edge of each board until they are nice and straight. You can then just glue them together.

A joiner (power tool) can make a good edge, but my dad uses a hand plane and a straight edge. Use a long straight edge to find bumps and valleys, and plane them down.

Or if you want the joint to be extra strong, you can cut a slot into each edge and fit a long thin strip of wood called a spline into that slot to support things a little more. And glue them together.

Here's a cross section example.

For me, the challange is when you are trying to put together a whole table top, because you have multiple pieces, and the glue starts to dry on you before you can get them all together properly.

You just have to get it all ready before starting to apply the glue. Or you can do one joint at a time.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nice work, glatt.

stick a little football shaped disk into those slots when you glue it up.

The "footballs" are beech, I think. They're pressed and dried so they expand to hold tight when they come in contact with the glue.

How do you put two planks together to make one big plank?

If you clamp them up with an overlap then saw down the length, through the overlap, the pieces will match. Same as matching wallpaper without a pattern.

i have to leave after only 10-15 minutes because i just can't understand how they do what they do.

They do it one step at a time. To understand how, you have to break it down into those steps. To understand why, you have to do it wrong at least once.

but my dad uses a hand plane and a straight edge. Use a long straight edge to find bumps and valleys, and plane them down.

Your Dad is extrordinary. Most people would spend years developing that skill and some could never get it right. Knowing exactly what your hand and that plane are going to do before they do it, on every stroke, is damn near witchcraft.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Your Dad is extrordinary. Most people would spend years developing that skill and some could never get it right. Knowing exactly what your hand and that plane are going to do before they do it, on every stroke, is damn near witchcraft.

Tell me about it. I never got the hang of hand planing. Whenever I try, I get chips and skitters everywhere. I put it down to some combination of two factors: 1) I'm left handed while many planes are right handed, and 2) I never practice.