bookmatched panels: glue first then plane?

[linear]

...or thickness plane first then glue up?

I've resawn some 4" wide 4/4 leopard wood and want to make 8" wide 1/4" thick panels. So which comes first, thicknessing on the planer or glue up?

I'm leaning toward thicknessing first since the feed rollers could stress the joint. Although theoretically it's supported by the planer bed, theory and practice ain't allways in agreement.

Thanks in advance.

[atgcpaul]

...or thickness plane first then glue up?

I've resawn some 4" wide 4/4 leopard wood and want to make 8" wide 1/4" thick panels. So which comes first, thicknessing on the planer or glue up?

I'm leaning toward thicknessing first since the feed rollers could stress the joint. Although theoretically it's supported by the planer bed, theory and practice ain't allways in agreement.

Thanks in advance.

I'll first suggest that you let your resawn boards sit at least a week before
you glue or plane them. You want the MC to equilibrate through the board
again now that you've opened it up. Your boards could cup. After the week
see if you have any cupping, joint/plane to flatten the boards again but don't
take it down to your final 1/4" thickness yet--but close should be good.

You could also get the boards really close to 1/4", glue, then flush up with a
handplane or card scraper, too.

Paul

[LarryG]

I've not personally done what you're contemplating, but can tell you that David Marks on "WoodWorks" always takes the boards to thickness first (usually with a drum sander, not a planer, but same principle) and does the glue-up second. After the glue-up, he typically uses a card scraper for the finishing touches.

He does this on several projects with bookmatched veneers. It caught my eye in part because of the somewhat bizarre-looking procedure of laying down veneers only 3/32" thick and clamping them together with 3/4" pipe clamps. (!)

[rlah]

I've not personally done what you're contemplating, but can tell you that David Marks on "WoodWorks" always takes the boards to thickness first (usually with a drum sander, not a planer, but same principle) and does the glue-up second. After the glue-up, he typically uses a card scraper for the finishing touches.

He does this on several projects with bookmatched veneers. It caught my eye in part because of the somewhat bizarre-looking procedure of laying down veneers only 3/32" thick and clamping them together with 3/4" pipe clamps. (!)

Check that... I believe he runs these thru a drum sander to a thickness 1/16" before gluing! I can hardly believe my eyes when he does that... I don't think I'd go that thin...

rlah

[Tom Miller]

I think the best reason to thickness them first, is that you'll want to use cauls to maintain alignment (too thin for biscuits, etc.). The cauls will only work if all parts are the same thickness.

Regards,
Tom

[drumpriest]

Thickness, then edge glue, then glue to substrait. rlah is correct, David uses a drum sander, as do I. I used to take my stuff to a friend's shop with a DS, now I have one. The problem becomes trying to plane these highly figured woods. Recently I did some curly maple veneer, and ran the remains through the planer to get them close enough to DS. The planer exploded the piece, wasn't pretty.

[linear]

Thanks guys, thickness first is the plan.