I am in the process of building seats for two chairs. They will look like this ...
There has been some shaping on the upper side, and the first seat is mostly done ...
The second seat needs to have a 1/4" removed from the bottom before shaping can continue on the upper side. However, these blanks start out as 2" thick solid Hard Maple, and planing off a 1/4" is a lot of work with a hand plane. This is one time I would have liked a hand power plane, but do not own one.
I have been using an Arbortech power plane to remove waste prior to shaping with hand tools ...
Using a travisher to refine the curves ...
It occurred to me that this was an opportunity to try out the planing module that comes with the Arbortech. It has a depth gauge to limit how much waste can be removed and maintains a flat surface. Also, dust collection is repported to be excellent.
Well, it did a great job. Dust collection was excellent - hardly any chips around. Pretty flat and even. Just a little to remove to level up ...
Now it was very little work to finish off with a LA Jointer ...
Interesting.
Regards from Perth
Derek