Hi Dave,

You're thinking of the Veritas low-angle SMOOTHING plane, right? (not the
block plane as you've referred to in a few other posts in this thread).
That's a big difference in how you would use the plane. Neither one of
these is meant to be used to joint board edges, at least not ideally.

The best use for the low-angle smoothing plane, IMO, would be to finish
smooth the FACES of particularly difficult (i.e. highly figured) pieces.
Using the smoothing plane on a board edge is fine, if what you want is a
smooth edge. If you start out with a square, flat edge, you should end up
with a square, flat and smooth edge. Technique is critical, though.

So, if you were going to edge glue several boards into a panel, there
wouldn't be much reason to smooth the edges and the power jointer should do
perefectly well at this operation. If you have a door edge, say, that will
be visible and you want to give it a final treatment before finishing, then
a swipe with the smoothing plane might make sense.

I'm no expert mind, you, but that's how I see it.

Mike

--

There are no stupid questions.
There are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.


"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
m...
so there is no point to getting a low angle block plane to take a swipe
or two across the edge of a power jointed board to get that sucker dead
on flat and smooth? I've read articles stating that the author will
power joint a board and then run a plane over it to make the edge even
better than what came off the jointer. Does that require a long
jointing plane. No other plane will suffice?

If that IS the case, what use will I get out of a $160 Veritas plane?

thanks.

DAVE

Hitch wrote:

Bay Area Dave wrote in
m:


I was thinking about the difference between a jointer (powered) and a
plane. A jointer has the outfeed table level with the blade so that
as the work passes over the blade and onto the outfeed table, if the
operator uses good technique to keep the board flat on the outfeed
table, the board pretty much has to come out FLAT.

A hand plane on the other hand isn't built that way. It has a
projecting blade. So unless the sole of the plane is extraordinarily
long, how can you get a perfectly machined straight board? Just for
grins, I was using a tiny hand plane to plane the edge of a board and
found that no matter how hard I tried, the small plane "unflattened"
the straight edge I started with. The more passes, the worse it got.
How long of a plane do you need to get a perfectly flat result on say
a 2' board? a 6' board? Is it MOSTLY technique, or do you have to
have a reference straight edge and keep checking your work constantly
as you plane? OR do you just take a few light passes over an
essentially flat board to start with, and know that it is flat? In
other words, when I use the jointer, I KNOW it's flat. I don't have
to check it. Can I do the same thing with a plane, or do you have to
stop, eyeball it with a reference straight-edge, and then touch it up
an little here, a little there?

Lay it on me, WW gods!

dave



Read the sources listed below, but short of that:

- jointer planes run 22" to 24" long, generally;

- you can make nice, flat surfaces for joining with them and lots of
practice;

- you can use the edge of the plane as your straightedge while planing;

- there are some tricks to creating joinable board edges (e.g., jointing
both boards at once to remove one variable in the process).