Well – as things go – the 2nd top appears to be more difficult than the 1st top. I ran into all sorts of issues. I thought I had the hang of smoothing the edges of the boards before the glue up – and on some the process went quite quickly. However – on others I stalled entirely. I was using the number 5 which I had hoped would give me enough surface area to only take off the high spots. However – in some cases – I couldn’t seem to get the plane to bite. Then when I dropped the blade it the mouth closed up and I couldn’t seem to get the bedrock adjustment to back off to open the mouth. After much futzing – I think it was just the board that was so badly twisted but I honestly can’t say for sure. All said in done – it took me about twice as long to side plane the boards for the glue up.

I think this comes down to the fact that I had 24 boards, picked the nicest 8 boards for the first top, then picked the 8 next best boards for the 2nd top which also means they were the 2nd worst set of boards. Clamping was also problematic but I finally got things sort of OK. Again – not an ideal situation from the looks of it….

Some pretty big valleys and high spots. But oh well – I had the same deal on the first batch. Just means more time with the plane. Planing started today and it’s going OK on the first side. I wont bore you with pictures of that since it’s much like the first top.

In other news – I found a sale on Craigslist today and managed to pick up a #3, a #6, and a few random block planes. Also got a brace with a couple of bits, a draw knife, a few hand saws that Im anxious to learn how to sharpen. That class is coming up soon. Just in time for when I’ll need to cut these boards! I also ordered a Veritas marking gauge to use for mortising when I get that far and that showed up today. So it was a good tool day for me 🙂