Planing curly cherry, plus a new jointer and a stupid first attempt at planing

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 1:34 pm

I picked up a new (used) jointer of CL for $75, basically perfect shape - so much better than the one I bought off ebay and had to return when "excellent condition" and "hardly used condition" meant missing lots of pieces and large portions of the tables rusted away (but polished, no rust here! Nothing to see, move along!). Clearly seller was counting on the buyer not wanting to pay return shipping - luckily ebay stuck him with that as well so he was out an extra $100 total for round trip shipping. Maybe he'll learn.

New jointer works fantastically!

First thing I made with it was a jig to sharpen my planer blades. They were in almost good shape until I honed them lightly by hand to really sharp and promptly installed them backwards and, well, dulled them again! LOUD. Luckily I was creeping up on the cut. It was a soft piece of bandsawed firewood, no chips or anything beyond wearing the edges on the back.

So, now to the heart of my post: I'm (obviously) new to the planer. I've got a silly choice for the first project to use it on, but so be it: curly cherry - I'll plane other stuff to familiarize myself with it first.

I've ordered the manuals for the planer and jointer but they are going to take a while to ship. In the mean time, can you give me any advice on planer setup for such wood? I've read machining cherry can be tough since it burns very easily, so use moderate or faster feed rates, yet I would assume I'd want a slow feed rate to cope with the figure. I assume I should take very light passes. What feed rate and what headstock speed (Mk V mounted planer with 1 1/8 HP headstock) ?

What about a back bevel on the knives? I've read a lot of suggestions to do that for figured wood. I will use this on hardwoods only, and most likely will use it for cherry, walnut, hard maple - some highly figured/some not - and some really amazingly figured mahogany. With only one set of knives and other things to buy before a second pair, can I get away with just a back beveled pair, including for non-figured woods? I know it makes the motor work harder, any issue there?

And, of course, any and all advice I don't know to ask for.

Thanks, sorry for the long questions. I've only just made the jump to power tools from hand tools only.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 1:48 pm

Please explain 'back bevel' as you are describing. I do not understand what a second bevel would provide on a planer/jointer blade, especially one 'on the back'.

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:08 pm

OK, so I didn't have the knives backward. I had the whole machine on the wrong side! I assumed you'd feed it from the same side as the speed control - opposite the side you'd put the jointer, bandsaw and jigsaw - and probably the rest, too! Luckily I noticed the blades looked completely wrong when I tried putting them in the other way and figured it out. That's now embarrassing in TWO ways!

Angles:
I've read references to honing a small bevel on the side opposite the normal bevel - you're right, that's not a back bevel. It's actually a face bevel. Anyhow, increasing the cutting angle a bit so it is more scraper than with original bevel. I'm curious if anyone has tried it with shopsmith planers - though with any straight knife planer it should have similar results, I'd think.

I should probably stick to: any advice for surfacing curly cherry? If needs be I'll make a scraper plane or other high angle hand plane but I'd like to see how close the planer can handle getting it. I had no tear out with standard angles using the jointer but did have alternating areas that felt lightly fuzzy.

Any suggestions?

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:19 pm

I see NO REASON for that back bevel. Any advantage will be gone in less than 5 seconds of cutting.
As for as suggestions, take a 1/32nd" cut or less. Read the grain direction, which may be difficult with curly cherry. What's the measurements on the curly cherry?

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:46 pm

I have no experience with curly cherry, but think very thin cuts and very slow feed are required. Also very sharp blades. You do not want the blade to 'dig in' to the board.

Same issues as against the grain.

Depending upon the size, the conical sanding disk may be good for the 'final' pass.

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:39 pm

edit: I didn't realize I'd overtyped the first paragraph:
Thanks for the replies. I'm very eager to get a conical disk for a number of reasons but have to wait a while yet. It won't help on some parts for this project but there is so much it would be nice for. What about gluing some wood on a flat disk and turning it down to a cone? I've got one disk that is a little bent so it isn't great as a normal disk. Still balanced, of course, just has a wobble. If I epoxied wood on it and turned that down, might that work? Perhaps it would be too compressible. I could use MDF (just have to be extra careful about breathing as I turned it).

The current project is an old time, mountain style fretless banjo from Foxfire 3, 1973 or so*

That means I've got to end up with three circles around 11 inches diameter, and another few pieces to laminate the neck out of, a couple inches wide by about 26 inches long. I'm starting with 4/4 stock. Two of the circles will be about 1/2 inch thick so I'll resaw one of the circles into two, while the other will be full thickness - whatever that turns out to be after planing. Most dimensions are not particularly critical.

Luckily I got a piece that is much larger than needed for one banjo.

*I gobbled those books up as a kid, my grandma had them and they summed up the magic I felt spending summers with her in the mountains of NC, as the rest of the year I was a Bay Area kid from California. She'd take me to craft fairs or I'd sit on the porch with her and her neighbors as they whittled and I tried. Managed not to lose a finger but didn't make much more than pointy sticks at that age. She, on the other hand, was quite the whittler. Simple stuff, but it is almost certainly what turned me on to woodworking. My grandpa died long before I was born but she still had his woodworking shop set up in the basement. Big wooden leg vise - I was fascinated. I thought it was all gone decades ago - she died when I was around 10 or 12 - but last year on Thanksgiving at my mom's house I was looking for old tools of mine in the garage and found two of his old planes, a no. 4 and a no. 5, along with his Unimat SL! More like Christmas than Thanksgiving!

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:52 pm

fitzhugh wrote:The current project is an old time, mountain style fretless banjo from Foxfire 3, 1973 or so*

That means I've got to end up with three circles around 11 inches diameter, and another few pieces to laminate the neck out of, a couple inches wide by about 26 inches long. I'm starting with 4/4 stock. Two of the circles will be about 1/2 inch thick so I'll resaw one of the circles into two, while the other will be full thickness - whatever that turns out to be after planing. Most dimensions are not particularly critical.

Luckily I got a piece that is much larger than needed for one banjo.

*I gobbled those books up as a kid, my grandma had them and they summed up the magic I felt spending summers with her in the mountains of NC, as the rest of the year I was a Bay Area kid from California. She'd take me to craft fairs or I'd sit on the porch with her and her neighbors as they whittled and I tried. Managed not to lose a finger but didn't make much more than pointy sticks at that age. She, on the other hand, was quite the whittler. Simple stuff, but it is almost certainly what turned me on to woodworking. My grandpa died long before I was born but she still had his woodworking shop set up in the basement. Big wooden leg vise - I was fascinated. I thought it was all gone decades ago - she died when I was around 10 or 12 - but last year on Thanksgiving at my mom's house I was looking for old tools of mine in the garage and found two of his old planes, a no. 4 and a no. 5, along with his Unimat SL! More like Christmas than Thanksgiving!

The Wagner safety planer is popular among the guitar makers. Unfortunately it is out of production. They like wild grain. Google it, there are other makers.

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:59 pm

I've been kicking myself for assuming I'd always be able to get one.
I've seen the copy for sale. Have you heard any reports about it? I only found a comment from an owner of the original that said it didn't look as well made.

I really should have picked up a bunch of the original ones... Apparently they get quite a price now.

Thanks for the suggestion though, as I didn't know they were good with highly figured woods, only that they let one plane with a drill press etc. I lusted after one and planned to get one as soon as I got a drill press... The do turned out to be a Shopsmith and it came with a planer, but I still thought it would be nice to get a wagner safe-t-planer and found they were no more.