Any woodworkers?

anyone around the Denton TX area who can plane down a small wood tabletop, 15" x 30" x 1.5"? i don't have a planer and this thing needs planing before finish. my girl wants it gloss black so I'm trying to do it right. just can't justify buying a big enough planer for this.

if you can recommend me a shop to do it that's even easier.

 

holy crap I'll be 65.

 

Can you cut the top in half, plane down on a small planer and then reglue? 15" is a pretty damn big planer for hobby use. A cabinet shop would probably have a big enough planer

 

Drum sander would be better if you ask me.

 

i don't have any tools to do it right.

 

What makes you think it needs to be planed? Is it cupped, warped, or otherwise not level? Is the surface rough?

 

cupped, inconsistent. i have small hand tools only so can't get it right, it needs a one pass treatment.

 

Ah gotcha...might need a bit more than just a planer. Depending on the thickness of the wood a planer isn't really the right tool to get rid of a cup or similar defect. The planner will just squeeze the wood flat and reduce the overall thickness. A joiner is technically the right tool but you'd have to make a jig to do it in a few passes cause a 15" joiner is massive. With harder thicker wood you can usually get away with a couple passes on the planer.

With limited tools my advice is taking the cup out with a handplane and then card scrapers to get rid of any marks from the plane. Then just go at with a hand sanding block, depending on how rough the wood is start with 100 or 120 grit and then work down to 220 grit. That'll give you a nice smooth surface free of defects. Since your painting it (or that's what it sounds like) you don't really have to worry about getting all the sandpaper marks out of the grain, just make sure you're sanding with the grain not across it.

 

got this night stand/end table all wrapped up and glued back up.

 

Nice!

 

Thanks, the live edge walnut desk you see in the background is next...turns out it was made by a pretty famous local woodworker about 40 years ago. I'll post some pics of it later. I already started scraping and sanding the drawers.

 

Powermatic, yes. Not sure about the model, it's all my dads machinery but I know that table saw is 15-20 years old. He also has a Powermatic 15 inch(?) planer and a huge Powermatic bandsaw. The shop is basically one big powermatic ad

 

Here’s some pics of the desk I’m working on now. Brace yourselves...







Solid walnut drawers, drawer boxes, and top. Drawers feature hand cut dovetail and mortise and tenon construction as well as hand carved finger pull thingys underneath the drawer. The top is attached to the drawer boxes by mortise and tenon as well. From what I can tell it was made using all hand tools (and an orbital sander). The top and drawer faces are not perfectly flat and have a lot of character to them. It was made by a pretty famous local craftsman and I reached out to him and he told me it was one of his earliest pieces, made about 40 years ago when he was in his 20s. He said the replacement cost is $55k

Its in pretty rough shape and Im slowly scraping and sanding all of it. I started the drawers already. Don’t know what I’m doing for finish/stain but I’m definitely keeping this desk.

 

That is awesome!! Can't wait for the final product.

 

Holy cow! $55k...I would sell it, unless it is sentimental for you. Everything has a price.

Kind of eager to see what it will look like when it’s finished.

 

Yeah my jaw dropped when I heard that too. I got it for free right before the previous owner was gonna put it up for sale, but I promised I would restore it and use it. So I gotta keep my word. I also really like the desk and have been drawn to it since the first time I saw it about 4 months ago. It truly is quite the dilemma and I have thought about it a lot...

plus $55k is the replacement value...i.e. if he were to have to remake it now at his current rates. There is no telling what the value is as it sits or when it’s refinished, but it certainly has some history. Might be worth getting an appraisal done afterwards.

 

Mocking up a template for a Charcuterie cutter...

 

Yup definitely going to add it to my policy when I move.