First, a note:

I don’t know how this happened, but the prior post missed schedule. That is to say that it was all set for automatic posting at 10am, but WordPress didn’t do it. I posted it Friday of last week when I realized it hadn’t gone out.

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I left off last week having sanded both tables. I had gotten rid of the rings on each one. But I’d noticed something that took Table 2 (the one with the random orbital sander) off the rails.

Rather than being smooth and flat, the surface of table was uneven like rolling hills. That was no good. It was not up to my standard.

Also I noticed that the upper board was cupped.

This was bad news.

And it would have to change.

I mean, at least Table 1 (1/4-sheet palm sander) was fine. But how do I smooth out Table 2?

Rather than go back to Angel City Woodshop–a place I respect thoroughly to do amazing work–I decided to hand plane.

I had last used a real plane (not the tiny one I’d used for the seat cushions) back in Mr. Bartkowski’s woodshop class in middle school. I turned to YouTube to guide me.

This was the best video of all I’d watched.

So I went out and got two Stanley planes: a 9-3/4″ inch bench plane and a 14″ bench plane. I was determined to get these boards flat.

But I’d also read that I should make sure to sharpen the blades to make cutting super easy.

I bought a jig to make sure that the angle was set up right for consistent sharpening. It was worth it.

I sharpened the blades and got to work.

Welllll, I sharpened a blade and looked away and nicked my finger on a blade while looking away to grab a paper towel. I knew my sharpening was done, but I had to grab the Krazy glue before continuing. Gotta love the Krazy glue skin repairs.

Since I don’t have a proper workbench yet, I set up a folding table and clamped pieces of wood to it to use as a backstop for the planing. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked! I used cinderblocks to keep the table in place.

This was not a single-day activity. Not even close. This took many days, and I tore up my hands because I didn’t have the right callouses yet.

But when I finished, the boards were flat again. They were ready for sanding. I mean sanding again. This time it wouldn’t be so much work because I didn’t need to focus on any single area.

More next week.