Flattening a white oak board

[Steve Voigt]

I've never made a video before. But in Kees "Elbows" thread, I was critical of Mr. Charlesworth's video, and I figure it's a bit unfair to criticize someone else without offering them the same opportunity. So, here's a video:



Warning: it's a bit long! Move on if you have something better to do with 17 minutes of your life!

I started a new thread because I'm not that interested in talking about just the mechanics of planing, out of context. At any rate, it was pretty well covered in the previous thread. I'd rather talk about actually doing something: flattening, thicknessing, tapering, whatever.

Feel free to criticize or whatever. I probably won't make a lot of changes in my approach, though. I did notice some things that could be improved, for example I tend to stand a little too far to the back of the board, but that's because most of my planing is done on shorter pieces, where that approach makes more sense.

At any rate, as Kees said, it is very helpful to videotape and watch yourself. It's also a huge pain in the ass, but nonetheless I'll probably try to do a few more.

Last, sorry for the quality, the stupid comments, and the compressed frame--like I said, it's my first try.

EDIT: just one pre-emptive comment. Towards the end of the video, if it looks like there are giant gaps under the closest winding stick--there aren't! That's just some worn-away spots on the face of the stick that are lighter in color than the rest. I promise.

[Kees Heiden]

Nice punch in your planing technique, like Luke just explained in the "how to plane" thread.

[Brian Holcombe]

Looks good Steve, I like the look of your shop as well.

You capture the essence of handtool woodworking....stopping for tea mid-procedure.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I had not thought about using shims. I usually put the other side down to start when I am dealing with a cup.

Nick

[Steve Voigt]

Thanks, Kees and Brian.

I uploaded another video, on jointing an edge:



This one is a little ridiculous. I made the videos twice (I thought) but they both disappeared into the cell phone Bermuda triangle. Which was too bad, because I really wanted to show jointing a rough edge, as opposed to one that was tablesawn or power jointed. So I messed up the edge on the bandsaw (I should've used a drawknife, but I didn't think of that), made it way worse than a typical handsawn edge. That was effective for demonstrating heavy stock removal, but it's longer than it needs to be. Oh well. At least this time the cell phone is turned the right way.

[Brian Holcombe]

That looks pretty good, thats similar to how I joint wide edges. Here's a fun one, I blasted 1/4" off of this thin stock. This is something I run into all the time when working up small pieces.

Hope you dont mind me posting up here, it's in a similar...kinda...vein.



The shavings are thicker than commercial veneer.

[Steve Voigt]

Brian,
Of course I don't mind! I hope more videos will be posted. The only thing I'm hoping for is that we move off of pure mechanics and look at planing in context of actually doing something. Your vid is a great reminder that there are lots of different contexts in which we plane. The part I really like is after you back off the depth of cut, the plane stops cutting in the middle because the work is no longer flexing in the middle under the pressure of a heavy cut. It also appears to me that you are deliberately trying to take pressure off the middle as you push through the cut. Which is the opposite of what we do in "normal" planing. Subtle variations of pressure, direction, and skew are what make it possible to achieve good results in difficult situations.

[Mike Holbrook]

I am trying to figure out how you guys are taking these videos? Phones have become so good at taking pictures, I use mine for most of my pictures. There are also all sorts of small sports/helmet cams people use these days. I agree that watching a video helps one see what one is really doing instead of what we think we are doing. I have reason to want to photograph other peoples and animals form during another physical activity as well.

Steve, in the context of actually doing work, I am wondering what kind of camber, if any, you have on the plane(s) you are using? I am all about learning to do the work faster. I think I hear you saying that your issue with David's video was the slow speed he was working at in terms of actually getting work done. I can see you are making more strokes in less time. How else do you think the speed of the work can be increased? Am I missing other pointers in the video?

Brian, I have been watching your videos on YouTube, thanks for putting them up. I have been clamping the boards I have been jointing much like you do in the video above. I still plan to practice until I can make reliable working edges like Steve illustrates, ultimately I imagine it will make me faster regardless of whether I use the jig or not?

I have been clamping my pieces to a Festool table top I built as a saw/glue up station, which is pretty easy/fast to clamp to. If I can saw, work edges and do glue ups all in the same place, I think I will work faster. I am still working board surfaces at my bench in the tail vise. Sawing, clamping/gluing, and working edges seems to work well at a little higher work surface. My new "saw table" is higher than my bench.

I also added a folding table top to the back of my Festool work surface ( not in the picture below), so I have a place to stack wood being worked without having it in the way of the work.

Miter saw table.jpg

I am wondering how others "stage" their work, as this seems a good way to speed up the work.

[Kees Heiden]

And now for some thicknessing Steve!

[Kees Heiden]

When dealing with a widish board, like you are in the first video Steve, and the board is cupped, then another strategy is traversing. The well known Chris Schwarz is advocating this strategy, and he got it from Moxon. I completely bought into this theory, and indeed, planing across the grain is easier. The wood gives up easier then planing along the grain, it is as if you only need to shovel up the wood fibers.

But it is also slow. On each stroke, chock-chock, you remove two small bites of wood. While with a long grain stroke directed at the high sides of the cup, swoooooosh, you remove a lot of wood in one go.

Much later on in my cabinet build I will have to deal with the top and there will be some thicknessing because I suspect the boards will be too fat to look good. That is an Instance where I think cross grain planing with a scrub is a usefull strategy.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Kees

I tend to do quite a good bit of traversing. One reason is that this is important when flattening panels hat have already been glued up. In these cases, the shavings will be relatively fine. Another reason is when working with interlocked grain as this direction is less likely to lead to tearout. In such cases, speed is not as important as the final finish.

For this type of work I prefer a low angle plane (LV LA Jack with a slight camber, or the Veritas Custom #7 with the 40 degree frog).

I would not use a scrub plane for this direction (90 degrees to the edge) as it will be too destructive to the surface as the grain is hit edge-on with a plane designed for deep work. Instead I would plane at 45 degrees if I wanted to remove waste fast.

Your mileage may vary, but this is my experience with hard, brittle woods.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

Which shows that there is indeed a wide variety of planing processes. All needing a little different approach.

[Brian Holcombe]

Brian,
Of course I don't mind! I hope more videos will be posted. The only thing I'm hoping for is that we move off of pure mechanics and look at planing in context of actually doing something. Your vid is a great reminder that there are lots of different contexts in which we plane. The part I really like is after you back off the depth of cut, the plane stops cutting in the middle because the work is no longer flexing in the middle under the pressure of a heavy cut. It also appears to me that you are deliberately trying to take pressure off the middle as you push through the cut. Which is the opposite of what we do in "normal" planing. Subtle variations of pressure, direction, and skew are what make it possible to achieve good results in difficult situations.

Thanks Steve! Yes, exactly I'm attempting to lighten up on pressure in the middle of the cut. I actually switch to another plane toward the end of that, switching from a jack to a jointer set for a light cut and something closer to a smooth finish.

I am trying to figure out how you guys are taking these videos? Phones have become so good at taking pictures, I use mine for most of my pictures. There are also all sorts of small sports/helmet cams people use these days. I agree that watching a video helps one see what one is really doing instead of what we think we are doing. I have reason to want to photograph other peoples and animals form during another physical activity as well.

Steve, in the context of actually doing work, I am wondering what kind of camber, if any, you have on the plane(s) you are using? I am all about learning to do the work faster. I think I hear you saying that your issue with David's video was the slow speed he was working at in terms of actually getting work done. I can see you are making more strokes in less time. How else do you think the speed of the work can be increased? Am I missing other pointers in the video?

Brian, I have been watching your videos on YouTube, thanks for putting them up. I have been clamping the boards I have been jointing much like you do in the video above. I still plan to practice until I can make reliable working edges like Steve illustrates, ultimately I imagine it will make me faster regardless of whether I use the jig or not?

I have been clamping my pieces to a Festool table top I built as a saw/glue up station, which is pretty easy/fast to clamp to. If I can saw, work edges and do glue ups all in the same place, I think I will work faster. I am still working board surfaces at my bench in the tail vise. Sawing, clamping/gluing, and working edges seems to work well at a little higher work surface. My new "saw table" is higher than my bench.

I also added a folding table top to the back of my Festool work surface ( not in the picture below), so I have a place to stack wood being worked without having it in the way of the work.

Miter saw table.jpg

I am wondering how others "stage" their work, as this seems a good way to speed up the work.

Mike, not really an either/or approach in my opinion. I like clamping sideways to the bench for thinner stock because it's more reliable for me than dancing on the edge. For heavy stock I rather do exactly as Steve is doing in his video. So they're both just tools for how to use your tools.

In fact David's video is equally useful as that is an excellent approach to taking those last few smoother shavings on something you've flattened.

Like a surgeon working on a patient, you chose which tool, setting, and approach depending on the particulars.

[Stewie Simpson]

Proper technique; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m231_HKCOWs

[Mike Holbrook]

Right Brian. I was thinking that learning to do thick stock like Steve illustrates teaches a set of physical skills that will help with all the work, even when working with the jig you show. Sometimes I can get a fairly narrow piece level by simply clamping it in a vise like Steve shows and having at it with my plane. Sometimes, however, I just establish another edge that is still not 90 to my side. Someone somewhere, maybe Warren, suggested that learning/practicing that skill set so that you can do it with just a vise and plane is worth doing.

I think that David's video was done to illustrate physically "safe" techniques to new woodworkers more than trying to illustrate how to get real work done expeditiously. I understand Steve's point too though, sometimes David's pace can be excruciatingly slow, even if there is a reason to go that slow to be clear. As you say David's video might be more applicable to final strokes as well.

Good analogy Brian, we are in fact "operating" on wood at several levels and the tools and methods certainly vary for a myriad of reasons.

Stewie, looks like Sellers even resorted to pulling vs pushing his Stanely plane, like it was a Japanese plane, after he got physically tired. When one set of muscles fags out use another less fatigued set. Which is the other reason to use lower angle planes transversing the work, like Derek mentions above, or switching to Japanese planes like Brian sometimes does.