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Jim, if you set the chipbreaker on your #7 VERY CLOSE to the iron's cutting edge, you can reduce tearout dramatically, even when planing against the grain. By VERY CLOSE, I'm talking about something like 1/32" or less. You might try initially plaining at an angle across the width of your bench, first in one direction followed by an angled pass in the other direction. Then, with the chipbreaker set VERY CLOSE to the cutting edge, finish plaining along the length of your bench top. As I and others have mentioned, red oak is notoriously hard to plane, so you may get some tearout anyway, but this plane setup and pattern for plaining should get the job done.
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(12-10-2020, 09:14 AM)Halfathumb Wrote: I've discovered another reason I might be having trouble planning the top. When I built the workbench I of course stood the boards on their sides and I just looked closer the see that not all of the grain goes in one direction. Therefore, on some boards I'm trying to plain against the grain. So I guess I'll have to reply on sanding instead of plaining. Argh!
Jim
The status of grain alignment was my followup question. I know this to be an issue, because I built my benchtop out of recycled bowling alley hard maple. The bowling alley builders didn't care much about grain direction, so I'm stuck with reversing grain in many places in my benchtop. My only good option is to use a scraper; attempts to plane it always result in tearout. I should say that I haven't explored more extreme options like high angle frogs; my scraper planes are so immediately ready to use that I default to them.
Mark
Mark in Sugar Land, TX
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Mark, as Hank mention, set the chipbreaker close. Reversing grain becomes a non-issue. If still uncertain, a finer cut takes this up a notch.
Regards from Perth
Derek
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12-10-2020, 07:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-10-2020, 07:51 PM by adamcherubini.)
And grain reversal isn’t Omni directional. This is the exact scenario for planing cross grain. Not 90 degrees. Try 45 degrees with the plane skewed such that it’s toe is 30 degrees to the long edge. So you are basically pushing the plane sideways.
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Derek and Hank
Thanks for the responses. I was beginning to wonder if what I learned was no longer valid. We differed only by initial baseline assumptions.
Thanks, Curt
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"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
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