leveling a broad glueup

5208 Views 36 Replies 15 Participants Last post by Stick486, Jun 25, 2020

smitty10101

Discussion Starter · Jun 19, 2020

4

Subject is a 27" wide by 24" long glue up "doughboard".

https://www.routerforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=388999&thumb=1

https://www.routerforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=389001&thumb=1

Glue up was done individually into 2 sub assemblies, odd # together and then even #.
https://www.routerforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=389003&thumb=1
https://www.routerforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=389005&thumb=1

The problem: Sticks #1 & #3 (cherry) when glued to board #0 were "off" by about 1/64 to 1/32". Being higher,thicker, than board #0 (soft maple). Boards #3 &4 are black limba. The rest of the boards are purple heart, cherry, walnut & zebrawood.

Before anyone goes crazy---I do as I'm told! She wanted those species. Period.

So---how you you deal with the unevenness?
I wound up sanding the heck out of the intersection of the woods.This resulted in the black limba having a detectable depression. Not by sight but by feel.
But on reflection I think I could have:
a) used a hand plane
b) probably used a cabinet scraper
c) sanded the crap out of it.

So again how do you deal with it??

thks
smitty

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Stick486

· #2 · Jun 19, 2020 (Edited)

spline the joints for flush control...
smoothing plane..
scraper...
sanding...
finishing

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JOAT

· #3 · Jun 19, 2020

Damn computer, just deleted what I had typed.

Not sure how long it has been since I did anything like this. What I did was put some water down on a guaranteed flat surface (unknown table top), sandpaper that was held in place by the water, then pushed the piece across the sandpaper. Worked like a . This is what "I" did, not telling you to do it that way. But if do, experiment first.

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smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 19, 2020

BTW I forgot to mention I used a ROS.
Probably why it left a depression.

I don't currently have access to a large dedicated sanding machine.

Hopefully sometime soon--when lock down is over.

smitty

Stick486

· #5 · Jun 19, 2020

smitty10101 said:
BTW I forgot to mention I used a ROS.
Probably why it left a depression.

smitty

ran the ROS tipped up didn't ya???

smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 19, 2020

JOAT said:
sandpaper that was held in place by the water, then pushed the piece across the sandpaper.

Sorta out of the question. I spent considerable amount of time using the ROS.
Doing it by hand and trying to get the board to even move over the sandpaper.

thks tho

smitty

Reactions: 2

DaninVan

· #7 · Jun 19, 2020

Probably not much help at this point, but I prefer my belt sander for large areas, and more even sanding. My ROS I save for the 120 and 220 grits.
For shaping the wood I use my angle grinder with 36 grit.

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Cherryville Chuck

· #8 · Jun 19, 2020

Build a router sled or put a router on skis and flatten with one of those. Shim to keep it relatively flat or if needed to make it stable.

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smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 19, 2020

DaninVan said:
but I prefer my belt sander for large areas, and more even sanding. My ROS I save for the 120 and 220 grits.
/QUOTE]

The joint in question was only a sliver of material running the length of the joint. I massaged the joint with a chisel but wasn't really able to get into the body of the board.
Maybe time to buy a crank neck chisel?

I do have a belt sander although I've never mastered the knack of removing only a minute amount with it.
I figured that I would create more problems than solve one.
But --- maybe it's time to learn!?!?

Reactions: 2

smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 19, 2020

Cherryville Chuck said:
Build a router sled or put a router on skis and flatten with one of those.

True--but--
where do you store something like something that size?
Or do you build one, knock it down, & build a new one when the need arises?

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Nickp

· #11 · Jun 19, 2020

It sounds like at this point you would have to bring down the rest of the boards..."no matter how many times I cut it, it's still too short"

A plane or belt sander sounds like the best thing since you don't have a planer.

If you can get your hands on an electric hand planer that might speed things up depending on how deep the depression is. (not my first choice)

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smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jun 19, 2020

Stick486 said:
ran the ROS tipped up didn't ya???

Nope! flat on the board but probably just over sanded the damn thing trying to get the cherry down.

FFR (for future reference), if someone stumbles onto this thread,

If you're doing heavy or a lot of sanding be cognizant of the density of the adjoining boards. In this case all the boards were hardwood but some were softer (less dense) than others resulting in excess removal of material.

Lesson learned.

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smitty10101

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jun 19, 2020

Nickp said:
A plane or belt sander sounds like the best thing since you don't have a planer.

If you can get your hands on an electric hand planer that might speed things up depending on how deep the depression is. (not my first choice)

Have all 3, belt sander, plane & electric hand planer.

Have only managed to DESTROY anything that I've tried to use the electric hand planer on. Ripped the snot out of the board ( even on a light setting) and could never get the edge square to the sides. Did manage to put chips all over everything.

The glue up was too big to fit into the planer after the glue up. Planer only will take 12 1/2" width & the glue up was 27" wide. Guess I could have run it through twice? :laugh2::lol:

thks

smitty

Reactions: 2

Nickp

· #14 · Jun 19, 2020

LOL...every problem has a solution, Smitty...

Agreed on the electric planer...like I said, not my first choice. Then you have to deal with the ridges and right back where you started.

If you have a sharp smoothing plane that would be my first choice, belt sander second (with the grain).

How deep is the depression...? And what are you planning for a finish...? If it's not a glossy finish or not too deep, sometimes "doing nothing" is an option...it might not be visible...

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Herb Stoops

· #15 · Jun 19, 2020

I have used the belt sander at an angle to the joint to flatten then parrellel to the grain to remove the sanding marks. At this stage 100g might work better than 8og to flatten the board and then go to 120 to take out any sander marks.
HErb

Reactions: 3

Cherryville Chuck

· #16 · Jun 19, 2020

smitty10101 said:
Nope! flat on the board but probably just over sanded the damn thing trying to get the cherry down.

FFR (for future reference), if someone stumbles onto this thread,

If you're doing heavy or a lot of sanding be cognizant of the density of the adjoining boards. In this case all the boards were hardwood but some were softer (less dense) than others resulting in excess removal of material.

Lesson learned.

I've had the same thing happen trying to sand down Rock Hard wood filler on pine. The Rock Hard is harder than the pine is so it wants to leave a hump. You get a little better results by using a piece of wood with sandpaper wrapped around it. The pads on most sanders are soft enough to deform a bit over humps so they just keep sanding the softer wood lower.

Reactions: 5

DaninVan

· #17 · Jun 19, 2020

What Herb said. Try the bright red belts, Diablo, or 3M, I can't remember, but man what an improvement in sanding belts for wood!
You also need a neoprene sanding belt cleaner. They do an amazing job of restoring the cutting ability of the belt when it gets a bit clogged with dust and resins.
https://www.diablotools.com/products/DCB321120S02G

Reactions: 1

JFPNCM

· #18 · Jun 20, 2020 (Edited by Moderator)

For what it's worth, when I glue up pieces like that is place them on a piece of mdf covered with clear packing tape and then cross the piece with similar pieces to keep everything flat as shown below. Unfortunately, this is not a guaranteed approach unless each piece is of equal thickness. I then use a router sled to smooth the final piece.

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DesertRatTom

· #19 · Jun 20, 2020

Use stick's sequence. Use the longest hand plane you can find, at minimum a #4, hand plane to produce a new, flat surface on the existing board. It will be a little thinner, but juices won't pool and you won't notice it every time the thing gets used. I am very fond of the scraper. Gives such a clean surface, better than lots of sanding.

Use a sanding block, a nice flat one, that's fairly large for the sanding. Do it by hand. The plane will knock the height down. I don't use more than 220 grit and get great results. I've dumped most of my paper sandpaper and gone to 3Ms flexible sanding medium. Expensive but outlasts paper 5-6 to one. Very aggressive grit, even in the finer grits, so you don't have to sand forever to get a good finish. Flex the medium and the sawdust falls out, voila, sands like new.

With all those species of wood, you might find sandpaper will dig deeper in softer woods than really hard woods, so planing and scraping would be my main tools. Sanding would be very light only.

Look forward to seeing the results. Sounds colorful. Hope there's no poisonus varieties in there.

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Herb Stoops

· #20 · Jun 20, 2020

DaninVan said:
What Herb said. Try the bright red belts, Diablo, or 3M, I can't remember, but man what an improvement in sanding belts for wood!
You also need a neoprene sanding belt cleaner. They do an amazing job of restoring the cutting ability of the belt when it gets a bit clogged with dust and resins.
https://www.diablotools.com/products/DCB321120S02G

Thanks,Dan, I have not used a belt sander for several years and not seen those belts. Since I got the drum sander I have not had occasion to use the portable.
Herb

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