Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm wondering if any of you have a point of view on any advantages of planing (hand plane) tops. It's obviously faster (and more precise, with my planing technique ) to use the drum sander, but are there any advantages to using the plane? On those rare occasions when the plane was going just fine and shaving a fine curl fromthe tops I seemed to leave a clean surface on the top that was even better than what I could get from sanding with fine paper after using the drum sander to thickness the tops. Thanks!

I think time with the additional bit of precision is the main factor. I finally just got a drum sander but mostly because I have some beautiful and highly figured wood in stock and I don't want to risk the tear out that a plane can cause. I've built about 50 guitars using hand planes and have had my share of disasters. I've gotten a lot better at sharpening a plane but still run into occasional mistakes with them. Plus I want to up my production a bit and I think it will up my quality as well.

Speed consistancy and ease of dealing with figure

Advantages? It is easy to taper thickness of the plate with a hand plane. It doesn't produce dust. It is inexpensive. You can use it unplugged.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt, I will add: no noise, and it is a lot of fun. Also no need to find space for the drum sander. Also a good opportunity to reassess your cursing skills, like I did today planing interlocked grain indian rosewood.

_________________
Build log

Yes, some woods are just no fun to hand plane. Crokey asked about hand planing tops though, and most people don't use woods like that for tops...

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I like my drum sander the best.It's real consistant and quicker.Less risky than a plane on highly figured woods as well.

I have planed down 4 tops from scratch....
I found it takes me at least 4 hours to get it to thickness....
Then another hour for scraping and sanding down to about 400 grit.

I really don't see an advantage unless you really like hand tools over power tools.

I can see that it lets you do some graduation... but you could easily do it after it is drum sanded to some rough thickness...

I think you could drum sand a top in under 1/2 hour... so it is a pretty considerable time savings.

Good luck

John

If were talking hand working a top then mention has to be made of the humble cabinet scraper. I rough work my tops with a No 4 smoothing plane but the final work is done with a cabinet scraper.

4 hours?!! I have to agree with Todd here, hand planing a top really should not take much longer than drum/ROS sanding. Spruce loves to be planed, a finely tuned smoother works much better than a scraper for those final passes IMO. On denser woods, it can be a different story.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I have a hard time scraping spruce for some reason. I exclusively scrape back and sides, no sand paper, before finishing but tops tend to not scrape well for me, I dunno? But yeah spruce is very plane friendly. Another point to a drum sander though is that the whole board will be the same thickness every single time and for every guitar. So you are able to remove one of the many variables as to figuring out the tone.

I don't like scraping spruce either. A sharp plane works best, and then only very fine sandpaper after assembly.
Scrapers are great for hardwoods, but so far I always needed to do some sanding after it: my poor scraping skills leave a wavy surface quite visible under finish.

_________________
Build log

Hand planing is the best part of guitar making, even if you want to final thickness sand, taking it down to .130 by hand will save you money, and get rid of the glue line. Scary sharp your blade and try it, you may like it!

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I