After being re-sawn and thickness planed, most of the panel material stayed flat but I did have a few pieces that bowed or twisted. I re jointed the miscreants and ran everything through the planer again to bring it all to the same thickness. Now it is ready to be jointed and glued up.
To prepare the edges for joining I gang each pair of boards up with the show sides facing each other and clamp them in a vise. That way, if the edges are not planed perfectly square they should conform to each others bevel in the book match configuration. I usually am able to make the edges very square with the face though. I use a small square to make the edges even and to see if the edges are out of square with the face.
To prepare the edges for joining I gang each pair of boards up with the show sides facing each other and clamp them in a vise. That way, if the edges are not planed perfectly square they should conform to each others bevel in the book match configuration. I usually am able to make the edges very square with the face though. I use a small square to make the edges even and to see if the edges are out of square with the face.
I use 2 planes for this.A #4 1/2 Veritas smoothing plane and an H.M.T. Gordon wooden smoothing plane.
I start with the #4 1/2,
Check progress along the way,
And then a few passes with the Gordon plane to finish.
The Gordon plane is set for a very fine shaving and I use it for final smoothing after I have the edge nicely square. When I think I am done I check the fit by hand and then, if that looks good, with some clamp pressure. I don't want to force anything together. A small hollow in the middle of the joint is considered desirable, the theory being that the ends will shrink a bit more than the middle of a board due to the exposed end grain. This is probably more important with longer material but, if I have a slight gap (1/32" or less) in the center of an edge joint I don't worry about it as long as I can close it with hand pressure. On the other hand, if the joint is fat in the middle or if I have to apply a lot of pressure to close the joint then I need to make it fit better.
Finally, I check across the joint for flatness while the boards are under a bit of clamp pressure. I want this perfectly flat.
There are ten panels in this project so I repeat this 9 more times. It really goes pretty quick with material that has been properly machined. Next it's glue up.
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