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  #31  
Old 11-20-2016, 07:38 PM
LouieAtienza LouieAtienza is offline
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Along with a plane, you should make yourself a jig to check plate thickness at any point on the board. One can easily be made with a dial indicator micrometer you can buy cheaply at Harbor Freight and an elongated C shaped piece of plywood, deep enough to get to the center of the board, to hold the indicator.
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  #32  
Old 11-22-2016, 09:58 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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As a newbie myself I don't have much to add other than I gave it a try the second time around and found it informative but I'm still too inexperienced to even evaluate the results. Here's what my setup looks like:



The soundboard pictured was Carpathian spruce which I would not recommend experimenting with. I certainly wouldn't recommend starting with western red cedar as I did with my first either. I'd recommend looking around for "student grade" Sitka instead and buying several sets in order to practice and get "a feel" for it. From what I've been told, the goal isn't so much achieving a certain thickness of the material inasmuch as knowing when to stop before it becomes floppy.

As for the plane pictured, I bought it from Harbor Freight. I wouldn't say it's the best but as I said I'm a newbie myself and so the process for building also involved learning how to set up the tool. About the best thing I can say is that I haven't cut myself using the tools.

OTOH I have also had access to a friend's small belt sander and I find that tool to be even more difficult to work with - especially with regards to installing the sanding belt.
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  #33  
Old 12-12-2016, 03:58 PM
sgabalski sgabalski is offline
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Thank you for this thread! I have been orbital sanding my sides for my first build. I started sanding because I started tearing out with my new hand plane. Read this thread and pulled out my great grandfathers 5 1/4 Stanley, and went to town. Huge pile of curls and sides and back are down to thickness.
The diy drum sander is in the file for another day.

Thanks again!
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  #34  
Old 12-13-2016, 06:22 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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Planes are something that can become addictive, so watch out. The no. 9 1/2 stanley is a great choice http://www.ebay.com/bhp/stanley-9-1-2-plane because it has an adjustable mouth (the knob at the front adjusts the sole of the plane in front of the blade). I use a high angle toothed blade veneer plane that is around 150 years old for a lot of thicknessing. It's small enough to be handy, big enough to get things very flat, and the toothed blade lets you ignore grain direction with no tearout. It's intended purpose is to smooth veneer off the saw, in the days when veneer was sawn and not peeled.

Tutorial on toothed blade veneer planes. https://anthonyhaycabinetmaker.wordp...l-of-our-time/

Being an archtop maker I use planes more than any other tool, carving tops and backs.
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  #35  
Old 01-12-2017, 11:41 PM
Boardhoarder86 Boardhoarder86 is offline
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Default Skinny on Handplanes

BUY GOOD QUALITY! I've been woodworking for 7 years now and because of a cross-country move i sold all my old tools and bought shiny new ones. Here's the deal the first planes I bought were from a guy who's dad was a cabinet maker. They were stanley bailey's number 3,4,5,6,7 (more about the numbers later) it took me 30+ hours in a community college machine shop to tune them up to get them to cut properly. The next christmas my mother bought me a Veritas low angle smoothing plane (Stanley #4 kind of) and now all I own are Veritas planes. I currently have the wide low angle smoother, low angle jack plane (stanley #5, the workhorse), low angle jointer (stanley #7), low angle block plane, two shoulder planes, plow plane and router plane. They are all fantastic tools. even after spending 30 hours in a machine shop with the stanley's they still didn't cut half as good as the veritas planes do right out of the box. Currently i'm building my first acoustic guitar and my body is closed so everything is planed and you can definitely get away with just a low angle smoother. I used my jack plane often because it makes parts 'flatter' but i could have done everything with just my smoother especially for thicknessing top/back/sides. Do some research but feel free to ask me any questions you might have.
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  #36  
Old 01-13-2017, 06:23 AM
Neonzapper Neonzapper is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer View Post
I built my first fifty or so instruments with hand tools, using a 9 1/2 plane for nearly all dimensioning. This is where having minimal run out really makes sense; being able to plane in either direction. Really hard and knarly woods can usually be hand planed at 60 degrees to their fiber direction, and then a cabinet scraper removes any tear out. Two big problems with hand sanding to thickness are health because of the dust generated, and the fact that controlling the actual thickness of the plate would be very challenging; sandpaper is very inexact. It in my belief than even thickness in the plates is of crucial importance to both tone and balance, more specifically the distribution of the tone across the spectrum of pitches, which is actually what I call balance.
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  #37  
Old 01-13-2017, 07:38 AM
Ned Milburn Ned Milburn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowManSnow View Post
What is the best way to thickness a soundboard? Planer ?
Any particular type I need to start working with for this job?


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Plane and scraper. I wouldn't use sandpaper for this task. A plane will make quick work of the job. A scraper is your friend, too. You NEED to be able to put a proper scraping burr onto the edge, however, otherwise it is a useless tool.
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  #38  
Old 01-13-2017, 07:41 AM
Ned Milburn Ned Milburn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boardhoarder86 View Post
BUY GOOD QUALITY! I've been woodworking for 7 years now and because of a cross-country move i sold all my old tools and bought shiny new ones. Here's the deal the first planes I bought were from a guy who's dad was a cabinet maker. They were stanley bailey's number 3,4,5,6,7 (more about the numbers later) it took me 30+ hours in a community college machine shop to tune them up to get them to cut properly. The next christmas my mother bought me a Veritas low angle smoothing plane (Stanley #4 kind of) and now all I own are Veritas planes. I currently have the wide low angle smoother, low angle jack plane (stanley #5, the workhorse), low angle jointer (stanley #7), low angle block plane, two shoulder planes, plow plane and router plane. They are all fantastic tools. even after spending 30 hours in a machine shop with the stanley's they still didn't cut half as good as the veritas planes do right out of the box. Currently i'm building my first acoustic guitar and my body is closed so everything is planed and you can definitely get away with just a low angle smoother. I used my jack plane often because it makes parts 'flatter' but i could have done everything with just my smoother especially for thicknessing top/back/sides. Do some research but feel free to ask me any questions you might have.
Yes. The veritas planes usually work well right out of the box without extra honing and/or lapping. Plus, easy and accurate to adjust. A cheap plane will do the same thing (and I built my first few with a 40 dollar plane), but can drive you nuts and waste 1/2 your time in adjusting the blade to precise setting.
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  #39  
Old 01-14-2017, 10:33 AM
M Hayden M Hayden is offline
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As others have said, old Stanley planes are good when set up properly. The sole has to be flattened properly, the blade should be flat, et cetera. Garrett Hack and David Charlesworth have both published excellent material regarding plane setup; it's worth reading.

The backbone planes from Stanley are #5 jack planes, but the real stars are the Stanley Bed Rock 604 and 605. They use a slightly different, better bedded, method of attaching the frog to the sole, and they're rock solid. They're useful when working with difficult woods like burls or figured maple or eucalyptus.

I sharpen with a Makita 9820 which I got secondhand. The 1000 grit stone makes blades quite sharp, though for some purposes like figured woods the 8000 stone provides a better, more refined edge.

Oh, experience helps too. Even a good plane will shudder until it's used with proper technique, which just takes patience.
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  #40  
Old 01-14-2017, 06:36 PM
Truckjohn Truckjohn is offline
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Check EBay for a used sheet metal micrometer. These have a very deep throat (10-12") but read 0-1" which is what you need for guitar plates.

I got mine for $11 + shipping used. While it's no Starrett - it's plenty good enough for my work.
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