Shopsmith Forums

I use a level or straight edge ,longer then the stock as a reference,the level seems to be best do to its thickness , we have one from the big box that is very light weight and you can see where the board needs corrected ,mark,sand and or shave the edges with a small plane or the disc sander on the SS until they are flat, the smaller hand planes seem much more user friendly if you dont have a fence for your plane ,longer boards would be easier with a longer plane , mark all of the edges where they will be fit together and make any corrections , trying ,to select the grain patterns that seem to match up together cn be challenging at times . alternating the end grain will help with bowing later on . we have made glue panels over 5ft wide and over 3ft long with no more then biscuits and glue and boarder board with a rabbit / or dado .long panels may require a 1/8 inch all thread running vertically through the center to keep the border boards from bowing , in that case a router pass down the center board in the rear side and counter sinking the nuts or drilling a blind hole in the top to bottom for the nuts , a large flat surface or glue table will help , we use a full sheet of plywood clamped to a set of horses shimmed and screwed down in the middle to other wooden saw horses to make a flat surface .a 6 ft level will help in setting up the table so it is flat, some times it takes longer to set up then it does to do the job.in a small shop large tables may not be practical ,the plywood , shims and saw horses can be stored away with little storage requirements. I was too late to help but it sounds like you had some great advice .

Success! Took the panel out of the clamps and sanded off the glue with my ROS finish sander. The result is a panel that is close enough to perfectly flat for my purposes. Pictures will be posted when the project is done.

Thanks for all the advice!