# efficiently planing a bowed board flat



## yrob (May 26, 2008)

Hi,

I am relatively new to woodworking and up to now was mainly doing small projects with dimensional lumber. I recently got a planner in order to expand my possibilities. I am constructing bookcases out of eastern pine which is the so called "whitewood" stuff you can get inexpensively at the lowes. Of course, even when i spend some time sorting the best boards out of the pile, i still have boards that are cupped. Now, what is the most efficient way to plane them flat?

Do you put the bowed out face facing up and plane til you flatten that face, do you alternate ? I just did a board and finally got it flat but I went from the 3/4 inches to 10/16 " before I got it flat. Not sure if I did it the best possible way..


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

You begin with a jointer. If you don't have a jointer, then you make a sled for your board to run through the planer so as to preven it from flexing at all. Once you have that one side flat, then you can run it through and plane the other side (sans the sled).

As to your question, on the jointer, the concave side is usually down on the jointer so as to prevent the board from changing orientation through the course of the cut.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

To prep stock, you need 3 power tools (hand tools explained later if desired), Jointer, Thickness Planer and table saw.

Joint the board until one flace is flat. Square an edge on the jointer. Use the thickness planer to create correct thickness and ensure board is parallel to flat face. Rip to width on the table saw. I'm sure others will expand on this…


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

I joint the edges with my hand planes usually. I can see why you would want to flatten a face before you send them thru a jointer since you are referencing the flat face against the jointer fence. I do not see why you should not first plane the board before you worry about the edges? What am I missing there ?


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

I was just speaking to how you do this with machines (no hand planes in the picture). You establish a reference face then establish one side perfect 90 by running the referece face along the fence. Then you plane the other face to match the flat face and cut to width. Normally your working with a bunch of stock so you go from one machine to the next. E.g. joint 5 boards, then plane them, then cut them to width.


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

In a word "Flex". If you send a warped board through the planer, it will flex during the operation and you just end up with a 'prettier' warped board.

Joint 1st face, creating a starting reference. This also prevents the board from flexing during planing. 
Joint 1st edge square to jointed face (rather than come back to the jointer later and do it)
Plane 2nd face (getting to the thickness you desire)
Rip the 2nd edge using your table saw.
Then square both ends with your weapon of choice.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Also if you do not joint first, the planer will just duplicate the bow or other defect on the other side of the board. It just makes the two sides parallel.


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

Thank you for the clarification. That is what I had in mind. The first part where you flatten the face with the planer is where I was experiencing problems since that board was really cupped. I see now that I need to just run that face, concave side down until its flat. Then I joint the edge with a power jointer or by hand, then I do the other face, finally rip. Again thank for the help guys.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

I agree with Rance. I think we are typing at the same time….lol


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

If your using a power planer and hand planes, you would use your handplanes to plane one face flat and then run through the power planer to get it to correct thickness and ensure both faces are parallel. You can then handplane or cut the edges as you desire.


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

It happens Wayne. LOL.

"I see now that I need to just run that face, concave side down until its flat."

Using your stationary Jointer, of course.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

If you use hand planes and do not have a jointer or plainer, I would buy the jointer first. So joint the board, scribe the thickness, plane to the line to get thickness and then clean up with a smoothing plane. I'm positive others may have a different opinion.


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

Ah its clear now. Since I can not afford to buy a jointer that is wide enough to joint faces flat, I will just plane the first face by hand which is what I had been doing for a while anyway. The power jointer will save me time to bring it down to thickness and insure I create another face parallel to the first. Great!

I mainly use hand tools with the exception of preparing stock. I find it relaxing to work with hand tools after a day at work at the office.


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Actually, you got it wrong again. Wayne, maybe you can explain it better. However…...

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!!!!!!!!!!!! Nomenclature check here. 

yrob, do you use hand tools (specifically, hand planes) for squaring your lumber or are you a power tool guy(like me)? My comments above refer to stationary power tools. Once you start talking about handheld tools(hand planes and handheld power planer), then it goes something like "JOINT the first face using your PLANE.". How confusing is that? Just one more reason to NOT use hand tools. MWAAAAAHHHH!


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

If your mainly working with hand tools, check out this book.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Traditional-Woodworker-Tool-Skill/dp/1440304289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306534042&sr=1-1

Also, you might want to think about bandsaw to resaw your lumber in lieu of a power planer and stick to handplanes for the entire process.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

I added a couple of words to clarify the post above. This whole handplane / power planer discussion is tricky….lol


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

So trickey I change my tag line. LOL!


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Lol. I would never give up my Handplanes….


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## D_Allen (Oct 11, 2010)

Get yourself a 48" piece of melemine shelving, it's not that expensive, and a hot melt glue gun, it can be a cheap one.
Place the rough lumber at the center of the shelf with the cupped side up, if there is one. If there are one or more corners that do not touch the shelf, place small wood wedges under them and put some glue on each side. If the center of the stock does not touch the shelf, put wedges under there at multiple places and glue each side. It only takes a small amount of glue. Then run a short bead of glue at each end between the stock and shelf and maybe on the sides. What this does is sets and supports the stock on a flat surface with enough support so that when it is run through the planer, it planes the top side flat. Putting the wedges under the points that do not touch will keep it from flexing and duplicating a bow or warp. Then remove the stock and glue and use that flat side as a reference to do the other side. I do this all the time and end up with nice flat boards. I don't own a jointer and use my router table as an edge jointer. If the boards are too long for the shelf, get a longer shelf.


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

Great tip D_Allen. I will definitely try that to see how it goes.


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

What would you guys use for the floor ? This barn is sitting on joists that are on top of concrete pillars. On top of the joist, 1×6 were nailed. It is a little weak and most of them are buckled. Some of them split. The joists are in good shape and as far as i can tell have not sagged. I am thinking of ripping off the planks and putting a sub floor of construction grade plywood. Would that work or bow over time ?


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

oops i posted in the wrong thread. That was meant to go in the thread about my workshop.


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## yrob (May 26, 2008)

Ok so I tried various methods to see what was most efficient for me.

method 1) jointing one face with my jointer plane and then planing the other face with my new planer to bring everything to thickness

method 2) using a flat MDF board, glue and shim the cupped board on it and then run through planer until it is flat. Proceed without the jig for the other face.

The way I proceeded to do the jointing by hand is to first mark the crown and plane than along the board to remove most of it.

I then plane in diagonal across the board width marking with chalk until i erase all the chalk indicating i am level. I also regularly check with my straightedge. It is foolproof and quite fast. A little bit of a workout.

Turns out that for most boards I get from Lowes, I have to remove about 1/16 " before both faces are flat( I try to select the flatest boards from their bin) . So my 3/4 becomes 5/8.

It took me about 10 minutes to joint one face by hand on a 72 " board then 2 minutes to run it through planer to flatten the other face.

I did not gain much time shimming and glueing everything carefully on a flat mdf sheet, running it through planner and then removing the shims, cleaning up, etc.. and running through planner the other face.

so, I guess I will do one face by hand, the other by planer…


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## sigwood (Apr 25, 2013)

If *possible* rip the board in the center of the bow. This cuts down on the amount of wood that will have to be removed. 
I then use a sled made of plywood with a 1 in x 1/4" high ledge board glued (no metal fasteners) on top of the plywood at the rear.
I use shims at the height of the bow and spray the planer surface with silicone.
Good Luck.


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