WWA Info Exchange

OK,
so I hope this is not such a dumb question. Even though I am a pretty accomplished woodworker I still don't know the answer to this; Lately I have been making some pretty fancy end grain cutting boards [make great gifts]. Once out of the clamps the end grain purple heart and hickory blocks are mighty hard to sand [even with my drum sander]. So I was wondering if I could run the block assemblies through the thickness planer [of course taking a very very light cut]. Why haven't I tried this? well, by the time I am ready for this move there is already a lot of work in the project. In fear of wrecking a whole glue up-I thought maybe someone out there had actually planed end grain with a thickness planer.

Thanks...for any hints,
Jim in Folsom, CA

I have run end grain cutting boards through my thickness planer but it is a Powermatic with a true Byrd head in it which I am convinced makes a huge difference. Even with the super-smooth cutting action of the Byrd head, I got some blow-out on the trailing edge but it was rather shallow and easily cleaned up when I trimmed the cutting board while squaring it up.

I have a story on that cutting board with a video that shows the blow out at the link below.
http://www.newwoodworker.com/bldendgrncutbrds.html

_________________
Tom Hintz
www.newwoodworker.com

I tried it once, the planer is finicky about what is flat. Chipped out a nice sized corner.
Never again,,,,,

_________________
Sean

Countin' flowers on the wall,
that don't bother me at all,
smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo,
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do.

Second recipient of the D'oh Award. 4-13-08

Those cutting boards are probably at or near the minimum length for the planer, which increases the chance of snipe as well as chip on the trailing edge.

I'd recommend gross leveling be done with a mortising bit or endmill and a router fixture, though your drillpress might have enough speed to do it as well. The old standby Saf-T-Planer works as well. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Plane ... laner.html

After that, my low-angle smoother, though they made a tool especially for that job called a block plane.

All I can think of after looking up the Saf-T-Planer is the old Uniplane. What a device!

I asked about this a while back and most people suggested not doing it. A few said they have done it with shallow passes. I think someone else said they glued sacrificial ends on the boards so they could cut the blowouts off after the fact. I ended up not trying it.

Hi Ya'll,
thanks for all yor tips and suggestions.
Based on your answers-I am going to pass [not take a pass] but just plain [not plane] pass on the thickness planer idea.
It's back to my home made drum sander [which does a great job-just slow]. The other reason for not trying the planer is that this Dewalt dual speed 13" is not the great helper my last smaller Dewalt was. The knives on this model get dull if you just look at them wrong! And Dewalt is painfully aware of this weak spot.
thanks again for your help....
Jim in Folsom, CA

I remember when a kid tried the same thing with a chessboard glue-up in high school shop class. Granted it was thinner than a cutting board and he was probably taking too heavy a cut. About half way thru it made a sound that can only be described as an explosion followed by miscellaneous chunks clattering thru the central vac system. That's always stuck with me and I've never been tempted to try it.

What about heavier grit in your drum sander?

Hey Jim,

If you can get a hold of a toothing plane you can do this pretty easily. A toothing plane blade has dozens of little teeth ground into the blade and it cuts as many fine grooves in the surface of the wood. The resulting ridges are easily scraped off, or planed off with a smoothing plane. Toothing planes are great for squirrelly grain or end grain.

I made my own on a Saturday.




Tom

_________________
"There is no path to peace, peace is the path."
Mohandas K. Ghandi

LV and L-N both make bevel up smoothers and jacks, if you want to drop the bucks. They both also sell toothed blades for them. I've the LN 164, and it's an awesome smoother. The tooth option is just a bonus on a splendid tool.

Pictures and words. http://www.youtube.com/user/LieNielsen% ... pxKo1vjOwA

I have successfully plained end grain boards with my Dewalt 735. The boards where 11 1/2" X 11 1/2" The key is smoothing the boards a bit with a hand plane and or cabinet scraper and rounding over the edges at the router table. This will eliminate blow out at the edges. Then very very light passes with a new or newly sharpened set of plainer knives. The end results where spectacular and the boards are dead flat. Read more in my how to article Here

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my projects

That's not a goof...It's a design feature.
Dewayne

I used my planer on my end grain cutting boards a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if I got lucky or my blades were just incredibly sharp but I got away with it. After seeing the results of others' attempts and knowing the other options available (as Tom and others have mentioned, a hand plane seems the way to go for my $$)

I'll also mention this- you may want to try to plane the surface before the glue completely cures. Glue- especially Titebond III, gets VERY hard after it cures and will damage both planer and handplane irons/blades. If you can find the happy medium between when the glue has hardened enought that the pieces are fixed together but not so long that the squeezeout is like a rock you may be save yourself some sharpening time.

Good luck, we'd love to see pics
Lawrence

I did not have good results in my thickness planer on an end grain cutting board. So I won't do it again. I thought the planer was coming apart. Luck that it didn't.

I have all my planed cleaned and sharpened and will use those and my belt sander and palm sander to finish my cutting boards when I start building them again.

That is after I get the shop cleaned, and set up. working on my plane till and then a cabinet for some tools, and a clamp station, and last but not least ; finish the vanity I started to restore. OH, one more project is to refinish the top of GG's antique dining room table. So maybe in about six months I can get to some projects to sell.

Wayne

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WW'ers I have met.
Guroo
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Wooder
Paul, (brother,)
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Gene and his friend George

Use a router and a jig for the router