jointing/planing a glue up

[Dave Norris]

Hi,
I have to make a "laminated" board by gluing four 1" x 1" pices together about 7 feet long. When I'm done with the glue up, I'll need to true it up. Normally I would joint it and plane it, but I've always been told that jointing or planing a glue joint will wreak havoc on blades.

Any suggestions on how to accomplish this without blade damage? I've thought about using polyurethane glue, as it seems it should joint ok, but I'd prefer not to if it can be avoided.

Any thoughts?

[Myk Rian]

I've jointed and planed glue ups. Nothing ever jumped out at me as being a problem.
I scrape all excess glue off first.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Try to locate someone with a belt sander to help you. Run it through like a raised panel door.

[John Coloccia]

Carbide cutters are great if you do a lot of glue lines. The glue line absolutely will dull your blade quickly. I haven't had it actually break blades, but it definitely dulls them. No biggie, anyhow...they can be sharpened.

[harry strasil]

straight edge, with carbide pattern bit in router, then flip over and use carbide flush trimming bit using first pass for bearing.
I jointed the oak planks for my oak workbench this way, 5 ft long 1 7/8 thick for glue up.

[Henry Ambrose]

Hi,
I have to make a "laminated" board by gluing four 1" x 1" pices together about 7 feet long. When I'm done with the glue up, I'll need to true it up. Normally I would joint it and plane it, but I've always been told that jointing or planing a glue joint will wreak havoc on blades.

Any suggestions on how to accomplish this without blade damage? I've thought about using polyurethane glue, as it seems it should joint ok, but I'd prefer not to if it can be avoided.

Any thoughts?

Scrape the glue squeeze-out off with a hand scraper or a chisel, then joint and plane. Glue lines won't hurt the knives.

[Frank Drew]

I'm with Myk and Henry; you might have introduced a slight amount of warp or twist in the gluing up, so face jointing then surface planing the cured assembly is, IMO, the best method to ensure a flat panel. I've never nicked a jointer or planer blade doing this but I don't doubt that glue lines are harder on HSS than most woods (unless you run a lot of teak through your machinery!)

[Dave Norris]

Glue, scrape, joint and plane it is then. Thanks.

I always appreciate the help and feedback I get from the Creek.

Thanks!

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Dave - the only issue I can think of is if you alternated grain direction on adjacent boards, for strength or whatever reasons. This would cause you to always have a board going through the planer "backwards" - possibly leading to tear-out...

[Richard McComas]

Scrape the glue squeeze-out off with a hand scraper or a chisel, then joint and plane. Glue lines won't hurt the knives.

What he said, I do it all the time.

[Rod Sheridan]

Dave - the only issue I can think of is if you alternated grain direction on adjacent boards, for strength or whatever reasons. This would cause you to always have a board going through the planer "backwards" - possibly leading to tear-out...

Last week I had some poplar to run through the planer, and my daughter wanted to help.

Due to confusion over which way the pencil mark went, she planed it all backwards.

Interestingly, the result was great, no tear out, and the first two passes were 2mm deep.

I was surprised as I'm normally anal retentive over grain direction.....Regards, Rod.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Yellow glue is fine. Scrape the squeeze out and allow the board to completely cure. 1 day... but two days is better. After that, process the board(s) as you normally would.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

some glues are rough on carbon steel blades because it's some what abrasive.
Excess glue is another issue because it gums up and builds up heat.

I plane glue ups frequently enough that I'm unconvinced there is any issue when using titebond or epoxy if you remove the squeeze out .

[Josiah Bartlett]

I save a nicked set of planer knives for things like this and then sand out the knicks. If you offset the knicks slightly in the cutter head and take multiple passes without adjusting the height you can reduce the number of surface problems leftover.

[Peter Quinn]

I do it daily, never a problem with yellow glue. No issues with epoxy either. And pl glue is super soft so no issue there. I do try to scrape excess glue, but thats more to keep from riding on glue ridges than sparing the knives.