If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

wrote:
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

A cheap electric plane is much faster, but make sure you back-up the
"exit edge" when working on the bottom or the grain may split
(alternatively work towards the centre).

Dave

wrote in message
ps.com...
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

There must be a technique, when planing the top or bottom of a door, for
removing the same amount from the side members (across the grain) as from
the top or bottom components (with the grain), but I haven't discovered it.

Gave up years ago and now use an electric planer for that job (and most
others). When planing the top or bottom start the cut off at each side of
the door and finish somewhere in the middle or else you'll spall off the
wood on the surface of the side pieces.

Sorry about the lack of knowledge of the technical terms for the components
of a door, I'm sure you will follow what I mean.

On 26 Oct, 15:19, NoSpam wrote:
wrote:
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

A cheap electric plane is much faster, but make sure you back-up the
"exit edge" when working on the bottom or the grain may split
(alternatively work towards the centre).

Dave

I've never understood how to plane to the center - surley you are
going to end up either missing bits, or planing the same bit twice?

Mark.

wrote:
On 26 Oct, 15:19, NoSpam wrote:
wrote:
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?
Mark.
A cheap electric plane is much faster, but make sure you back-up the
"exit edge" when working on the bottom or the grain may split
(alternatively work towards the centre).

Dave

I've never understood how to plane to the center - surley you are
going to end up either missing bits, or planing the same bit twice?

Mark.


Agreed that it's not the best way, but draw a line first and just plane
down to it.
.... and don't call me Shirley ;-)

Dave

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
wrote:

If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

The longer the better. A No.4 is just about ok, but longer is better.

You'll struggle with a hand plane on the end-grain at the top and bottom - a
power planer is far better. But a hand plane gives better control on the
vertical edges.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
wrote:

On 26 Oct, 15:19, NoSpam wrote:
wrote:
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a
frame, can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane,
or should I invest in a #5?

Mark.

A cheap electric plane is much faster, but make sure you back-up the
"exit edge" when working on the bottom or the grain may split
(alternatively work towards the centre).

Dave

I've never understood how to plane to the center - surley you are
going to end up either missing bits, or planing the same bit twice?

Mark.

You need to 'feather' it - by lifting the plane slightly as you approach the
overlap area in the middle. Or, having seen off the end grain with a power
plane, you're probably better off doing the centre section with a hand
plane.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

In article .com,
writes:
A cheap electric plane is much faster, but make sure you back-up the
"exit edge" when working on the bottom or the grain may split
(alternatively work towards the centre).

I've never understood how to plane to the center - surley you are
going to end up either missing bits, or planing the same bit twice?

That might not work well with an electric plane as you need to switch
direction so the timber is planed in both directions roughly an
equal number of times. This is to prevent microscopic error in
the parallelism of the rotor axis and sole plate accumulating and
creating a bevel. Planing into the centre means timber (at any one
point) is always planed in same direction. You should use scrap
pieces against the exit edges (both of them).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

wrote:
If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

For top and bottom of a door, I just use a circular saw and a clamped
batten. You can take of fractions of a saw kerf this way if you want and
don't get any of the splintering problems. I then just use a powered
plane for taking sharp corners off, and shooting in the sides if
required. (although I often find wedging the frame a better way to fix
uneven gaps)

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?...Hanging_a_door

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

For top and bottom of a door, I just use a circular saw and a clamped
batten.

Any other method amounts to masochism

Stuart Noble wrote:
For top and bottom of a door, I just use a circular saw and a clamped
batten.

Any other method amounts to masochism

Agreed - the only way to go. Sawboard even better, stops the top edge
splintering.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:05:51 -0700, wrote:

If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

I use an electric plane for this purpose but I've never understood
what all the different types of hand plane are. What is a #5, #4, etc?

TIA

On 26 Oct, 14:19, "Rambelt" wrote:
wrote in message

ps.com... If I am going to plane the bottom and sides of a door to fit a frame,
can I get away with using my current "smoothing" #4 plane, or should I
invest in a #5?

Mark.

There must be a technique, when planing the top or bottom of a door, for
removing the same amount from the side members (across the grain) as from
the top or bottom components (with the grain), but I haven't discovered it.

Gave up years ago and now use an electric planer for that job (and most
others). When planing the top or bottom start the cut off at each side of
the door and finish somewhere in the middle or else you'll spall off the
wood on the surface of the side pieces.

Sorry about the lack of knowledge of the technical terms for the components
of a door, I'm sure you will follow what I mean.

The top and bottom parts of the door (the horizontal elements) are the
rails. The side parts (vertical) are called stiles. The central
vertical dividing parts are called muntins, but you'll not be
bothering them with your plane.

Edward

I use an electric plane for this purpose but I've never understood
what all the different types of hand plane are. What is a #5, #4, etc?

The numbers refer to the old Stanley model numbers. The No.4 is 2.5"
wide and No.5 is 3" wide (and 9.5" and 10.5" long respectively).
They're known as smoothing planes. No's 6, 7, 8 are longer versions of
the No.5 (and known as jack, fore and jointing planes respectively -
although my memory may be faulty on that).

The very long planes are really for edge jointing long boards where a
long and very flat side is required. Most jobs can be done with a No.
4. It's weight is reasonable, and handle big enough to be comfortable.
There are also No's 3, 2, 1 going down in size, but they're much less
common (or useful).

I'd agree for trimming doors, circular saw and guide batten is the way
to go - it's not a job that requires fraction of a mm precision. But
nothing produces a beautiful wood surface like a hand plane - not
saws, not thicknessers, not power planes. There's also lot's of spots
where it's easier and produces better results to use a hand plane.

Hand planes can also do precise fitting (and shooting-in) that only a
router can equal (though they can also do lots of other stuff) - and
do it without all the set-up. The downside is of course the skill
required both to sharpen and set up a hand plane well and to use it
well. A hand plane will always be slower as well, but you can cross-
plane can get wood off quickly.

I'm not saying hand tools are best, and there's a substantial learning
curve to skilled hand plane usage - but in some jobs it still has no
equal.