Name Aromatic Red Cedar
Location North America
Texture/Grain Coarse/N/A
Specific Gravity 0.47
Hardness Medium
Strength Very Weak
T/R Stability 5.2/3.3%

 

Guide

Woodworking
Know-How

Woodworking
Techniques

 Up     

Jointing & Planing
(You are here.)

1. Selecting Lumber
 for Surfacing

2. Jointing Know-How

3. Planing Know-How

4. Using a Hand Plane

5. Truing Lumber

6. Jointing &
Planing Resouces

        

Looking for
something?

Try these navigation aids:

  Site Map

Site Index

Search the
Workshop Companion

        
Something to share?
Please:

Contact Us!

lefore you can build anything from wood, you must prepare your materials. Plane and joint the lumber true, making all the surfaces straight, flat, and square to one another. This is a critical step in any project, and although it sounds simple enough, it requires careful planning. 

Think about what you’re doing for a moment. You must take a material that grows naturally in rough, crooked, tapered cylinders (trunks and limbs) and transform it into smooth, straight rectangles (boards). As you do this, the material tends to move with every change in the weather. To accomplish this task, you must understand the nature of wood and remember its special properties.

Contents
bullet

Selecting Lumber
bullet

Rough or Surfaced?

bullet

Shop Drying

bullet

Jointing Know-How
bullet

Check the Setup

bullet

Check the Stock

bullet

Good Technique

bullet

Push Shoe with a Pop-Down Heel (Jig)

bullet

Planing Know-How
bullet

Check the Setup

bullet

Check the Stock

bullet

Good Technique

bullet

Router Planing Jig (Jig)

bullet

Using a Hand Plane
bullet

Tuning a Plane

bullet

Planing at a Skew

bullet

Roughing and Smoothing

bullet

Precision Planing

bullet

Checking Your Work

bullet

Truing Lumber
bullet

Busting Down Boards

bullet

Truing Boards

bullet

Squaring Stock

bullet

Troubleshooting Jointing and Planing Problems

bullet

Jointing and Planing Resources

 
To keep this elegant Shaker Lap Desk as light as possible, the wood has been planed to between 3⁄16 inch and 3⁄8 inch thick. To make it strong, the corners are joined with through dovetails that were fitted to within 1⁄64 inch. To work such thin wood to such close tolerances, you must properly prepare the materials beforehand.

SPECS: 61⁄8” high, 19-3⁄8” wide, 13” deep
MATERIALS: Hard maple
CRAFTSMAN: David T. Smith, Morrow, OH

Back to the top
 

 "Abundant to all the needs of man, how poor the world would be without wood."
Eric Sloane in Reverence for Wood

 

Woodworking Techniques/Jointing and Planing, part of  the Workshop Companion,
essential information about wood, woodwork, and woodworking
necessary to woodworkers and practitioners of the wood arts
to become competent craftsmen.
By Nick Engler.

Copyright © 2009 Bookworks, Inc.