[Noek]

I believe most of these (dewalt, makita) have around a 12-13" feeder opening. If you are making a table for example, do you run 12" pieces through the planar, then glue them up, the use a hand plane on the glued up pieces? So for instance to make a 36" wide table, you would have 3 glued up sections but do you have to hand plane them after?

 

[ryan50hrl]

I take mine to a place with a wide belt sander. Many hardwood suppliers, cabinet shops, or door makers will have one that they will sand your table top for a fee.

Last time I went and got 3 26x28 tops and one 40x 18 top sanded it was 15 bucks.

 

[ryan50hrl]

By the way, you'll likely have a better product with less future warping if you glue up pieces narrower than 12 inches. I'd rip that board down into 3 inch pieces, and then reglue with the end grain alternating....then the expansion/contraction will be more uniform.

 

[caliwoodmastergv]

Depending on the tops support structure then I agree with the above posts. If the top is getting secured to a beefy apron base or a cabinet then the 12" sections will work. If it's a Chippendale or similar style with only a center support then I'd use smaller rips.

 

[Noek]

Ok so take my 3 12" pieces, rip them down to about 3" sections, then glue them back up? I'm kind of new so I'm not certain what end grain alternating is, I'm still trying to learn all the jargon

 

[ryan50hrl]

Look at the end of a board....(end grain). See the rings in one direction....you want those ring directions to be random....or at least alternating. The top in my opinion will look better, but more importantly as the wood warps (and it all does), the top will remain fairly flat. At least fare more so than if all three boards go the same way.

 

[Noek]

Ok makes sense. Then after everything is glued up, it still needs to be either planed or sanded. So I could essentially keep my pieces under 12" and run it through a planer, then glue those pieces up and have them sanded. Is that process correct? I guess I am likening it to say a butcher block project.

 

[ryan50hrl]

I wouldn't run the 12 inch sections through the planer. I'd glue it up....and let the sander do the work.

 

[jharris2]

I wouldn't run the 12 inch sections through the planer. I'd glue it up....and let the sander do the work.

Why?

 

[Steve Neul]

You can glue up wood for a table top and sand it with a hand held belt sander. The problem is the hand held sander tends to make little dents in the wood that are almost impossible to see. The top would have to be thoroughly sanded with a random orbital sander after belt sanding to be sure it was free of these dents. It is good to surface the wood first to make it a uniform thickness so you can glue it flatter.

 

[ryan50hrl]

Why?

So you glue up 4 3 inch pieces into a 12 inch wide piece...let's say you do 3 of these at 1 inch thick.

Now let's say you plane 1/16 the off each side...you now have 7/8. Now ya glue up the 3 12 inch pieces....anwd you sand 1/16 off each side....your down to 3/4.



If you do it all in one step...and sand off 1/16 (provided you were careful with alignment....you have 7/8 at the end.

I've glued up dozens if not hundreds I panels...and for what ever reason I've always ended up with a thicker panel by waiting to surface to one thickness at the end.