Simple woodworking question
 

I suspect I know the answer, but I want to check.

If you had 2 1"x12" pine boards glued together to give you a thicker board, and then you were going to glue another 2"x1" board to the long edge of the boards.

If the 2 boards weren't perfectly straight before gluing so that after gluing, the long edge is not quite perfect, what would you do to the edge to get the edge to be flat as if it was a single 1.5" thick board, sand, hand plane, something else?

And by hand planer, I meant the old fashioned kind, but I now see that there are power units available. I recently discovered that there's a Harbor Freight store about 3 miles from the house. I've been looking for an excuse to go. A small hand-held power planer for $50 sounds like it might be a decent option.

I would run it thru a jointer. You could also use a table saw.

2.






No wait it's 288!

run it over a jointer a few times, the edge will be flat as a pancake. If you want to thin the board down some, use a planer.

The table saw will leave marks that will have to be sanded out whereas the jointer should leave you a nice finish with little sanding. Beware of cheap planers, they leave chatter marks and are difficult to adjust to make a straight edge from a banana.

Use what you have at your disposal. For instance, I would readily invest in a top quality saw blade for a decent table saw before I would buy a cheap planer.

Thanks for the laugh!

Wish I had a jointer.

I was originally talking about something like...

http://ww.toncan.com/img/woodwork/hand-planer.jpg

I assume when you talk about jointer and planer, you're talking about

http://wheelinhuntms.com/wp-content/...-Functions.jpg
http://www.wisegeek.org/images/how-i...oodworking.jpg

I think this kind of planer looks like a good option at a lower price point
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...6a17cf_400.jpg

Herr Oberst (hope I got the spelling right), thanks for your response too, even though it has disappeared now.

Thanks Zeke/Milt. I've got a very inexpensive contractor's table saw with a very moderate fence. I don't think I could do a good job due to my lack of skill and the tool's lack of precision. I do have decent blades for it, I have learned that much from you guys here over the years. Any time I buy a cutting tool, I always buy better quality blades to go with it.

I've been using a quick square clamped to the board and a circular saw to barely shave the ends.

Here's a trick: when you set your fence, bump the far end over a tiny amount so that when the board is fed through, only the front part of the blade cuts and the back part is just missing the work. You won't get those back swirls on the face of the cut and no burn marks either.
Easy to sand out.

Thanks, didn't see your response the first time through.

Thanks, is there a trick to feeding 8' of board through straight? That's where I usually have the most trouble is on a long cut.

How far off is it? How much material do you need to remove?

Zeke, your giving away the farm, telling all the little secrets of the trade.

Wise words, also, never buy cheap equipment, never worth it in the end. There are plenty available used equipment around pre China days when equipment was good.

About 10 yrs ago I picked up a old Rockwell cabinet table saw was missing the square, bfd, for 300 bucks. My jointer is also a Rockwell, both are about 60's vintage. Craig's list has good stuff all the time.

When working in the field had a nice old delta table saw, 8" blade, cuts like a Hamilton watch keeps time, gave it to my daughter. Still have my grandpa's Hamilton pocket watch vintage 1890's, still keeps time like a good watch, just wind it everyday.

easy way to feed 8-10- 12-14' boards thru a table saw is have a table catching the board as it goes thru, better than having another person on the other end, you are controlling the feed. Same way with plywood. Wide table top with extensions and large table is the ticket for happy cutting and a good straight edge guide like a bessimer.

plasma cutter

How much material do you need to remove?[/QUOTE]

Not much, in spots maybe as much as 1/16" or 3/32, but usually much less

I figure the more true I get the edge the better the facing will look, and I'll have to use less filler

Listen to Milt. Table saw. Might not even need to buy a blade.

I agree... table saw. Cant the fence.

As mentioned, an outfeed table or roller. You need to be smooth feeding the work through the saw pressing it against the fence. A lot of production work is done by auto feeders.

Take a dry run with the saw turned off to get your footing and hand movements worked out.

The hand plane is like a mini jointer. You just have to take more time and use your eyes more.

Why not just buy a 2 x 12 plus a 2 x 2 and rip the 2 x 12 into three (reversing the grains) and laminate them all together, and cut down to size? It's what we'd do.