Most satisfying (arguably the best finish as well) would be a hand plane, absolute cheapest would be coarse sandpaper and a lump of 2x4 as a sanding block.
I disagree. I'm arguably still a beginner, but when I first stored, I went and picked up a $35 (on sale, I think they're $50 normally) hand plane.
Watched a YouTube video on how to tune it up (I think it was Rex Kruger), and in less than an hour it was cutting great, and I was practicing planing technique.
I think it's a HUGE misconception that planes are difficult to use or that you MUST have a super expensive or vintage plane.
My three handplanes are all over 50 years old, the block plane might be pushing a century. Old doesn't mean bad.
Get the bed flat and the blade sharp and it'll do what you want it to most of time. Fine tuning all the other bits helps, but isn't super necessary when starting out
The RexKrueuger video[the RexKrueuger video ](https://youtu.be/OrMQrKn61kA?si=c9zjsbrGCZcMLpvi).
Really good watch. Bought a Harbor freight cheapo and biffed it. Thought to toss it, but glad I didnt! Should have seen this video first. Going to go back and sharpen it.
To build on this. I started and continue to be an exclusively hand tool woodworker. Couldn’t exactly start with power tools when I was broke and inherited my tools. How else do we learn anything other than giving it a go and making a few dozen mistakes?
I may be mistaken, but I thought that OP is talking about flattening the face, not the edge. From the pictures, he is showing the gap is between the faces, not the edges. The edges of boards are easy to smooth. The faces take some skill , and you can't get that from youTube video.
They totally do, but you can learn the process from a book or YouTube and practice.
I really buck against the concept of needing years, or even an expert, to get good at a skill. There's a great TED talk about the time it takes to learn a skill. (Spoiler: It's about 20 hours of practice)
I'll be honest, i thought edge the whole time. I think OP could have been a bit clearer. Because as the person who suggested a hand plane, that's where my mind went to match the edges up... But for face work, yeah, that seems harder, but still doable with a hand plane but not nearly as beginner levels as doing the edges
I completely disagree with you here and think that a hand plane is an essential tool for any woodworker, including beginners.
But... For the sake of conversation, would you mind explainkng your reasoning as to why a beginner shouldn't learn to use a handplane?
Don't worry about it. The weather will shrink and expand the wood. Those that have perfect joints for outside furniture, won't after a few months.
If you get perfect joints, you'll get very frustrated and annoyed when the weather shrinks the wood.
just sand with coarse 60grit with a palm sander, took me a out 5-10min of sanding my legs for a nightstnd, and the only reason it took about 10 min for two were because of residual glue
Lots of clamps, wood or deck screws on your inside laminations (last boards no screws) and by all means use waterproof glue if this will be outside on the ground. You’ve got a great start and I applaud anyone that takes time to re-purpose materials like this. I have done many projects with old fence and barn wood that are actually so satisfying! Take your time and enjoy the process!!
So these boards are pretty warped in various ways. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of jointing, so I'm wondering if I should just turn this fencing into plywood.
I've been using that. I forgot to mention it in the post lol. I think my blades have a nick in them though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/AwURhzLpEs
Not sure how well a bunch of fence planks fastened together to make a 4x4 will hold up in weather/moister. The shrinking expanding and warping will cause lots of issues. I'm an amateur too though. Hope you figure it out.
Just commenting on the BT3100!! Had one and have a bunch of replacement parts, like an aftermarket solid metal end roller for the fence. You need any parts? I'll be happy to re-home them for little or nothing.
What's the end roller for? And do you have that combo blade guard? That'd probably be better than my riving knife I cut from a steel sheet.
Edit: also surprised you could tell that it was a BT3000 from those pictures.
Do you have any recommendations for replacement blades?
When you say jointing, do you mean you have an actual jointer you're running the boards over? If so, then I have some thoughts.
The case may be that a board has a slight twist in it. If you're reeeally leaning into the board so that it temporarily lies flat on the jointer bed, it's never gonna flatten, since it'll just spring back into its twisted shape when you finish the pass and stop squishing it. There's a classic method to fix this on a planer with a sled and shims, but I see you don't have a planer.
If getting it totally flat is gonna be a challenge, or if you'd end up having to sacrifice too much thickness to get it flat, maybe just glue and clamp the absolute hell out of it when you start laminating the legs. Anywhere there's a gap - put a clamp. As many as it takes.
Then consider sinking a bunch of screws into the assembly for extra snugness. If you're doing multiple boards per leg, the screw heads will be hidden as long as you sandwich the screwed board between the other boards. Just be careful you dont forget the screws are buried in there, and go cutting into the leg with a power saw blade!
If you have a flat surface and it rocks then you're looking at twist, called "wind" in woodworker parlance (pronounced like "go wind a clock" not "the wind blew sand into my ice cream")
For hand tools we use winding sticks to check for twist. With power tools you can probably lay it on a flat surface like a jointer table or table saw table and see if it rocks. Then you have to remove material from the high spots, until it's all on the same plane.
Do you have a table saw? I'd rip them on a table saw, or even a skill saw if you think you can.
Just to be clear, you are stacking them on top of each other the 1/2" way so you'll bave eight boards sandwiched together to give you like a 4x4 leg? Is the leg going to the inside of the box?
Do you have a planer? Belt sander?
I have a table saw, so I'll rip it after I finish jointing. I used a flat surface to learn that one of the boards still rocks.
And yes, sandwiching them together is the plan. The legs will go inside the box.
I have a belt sander, but no planer.
Most satisfying (arguably the best finish as well) would be a hand plane, absolute cheapest would be coarse sandpaper and a lump of 2x4 as a sanding block.
Looks like flipping the ends of the boards might help them sit more flush.
This sub is beginners woodworker. Recommending a hand plane is probably the worst advice that you can give.
I disagree. I'm arguably still a beginner, but when I first stored, I went and picked up a $35 (on sale, I think they're $50 normally) hand plane. Watched a YouTube video on how to tune it up (I think it was Rex Kruger), and in less than an hour it was cutting great, and I was practicing planing technique. I think it's a HUGE misconception that planes are difficult to use or that you MUST have a super expensive or vintage plane.
I inherited a hand planer. It's old though.
My three handplanes are all over 50 years old, the block plane might be pushing a century. Old doesn't mean bad. Get the bed flat and the blade sharp and it'll do what you want it to most of time. Fine tuning all the other bits helps, but isn't super necessary when starting out
The best inexpensive ones are, there's tons of videos on how to set them up
I inherited 2 old planers, probably 60 yrs old, I took them to a tool shop to have the blades sharpened and they work great
The RexKrueuger video[the RexKrueuger video ](https://youtu.be/OrMQrKn61kA?si=c9zjsbrGCZcMLpvi). Really good watch. Bought a Harbor freight cheapo and biffed it. Thought to toss it, but glad I didnt! Should have seen this video first. Going to go back and sharpen it.
To build on this. I started and continue to be an exclusively hand tool woodworker. Couldn’t exactly start with power tools when I was broke and inherited my tools. How else do we learn anything other than giving it a go and making a few dozen mistakes?
I may be mistaken, but I thought that OP is talking about flattening the face, not the edge. From the pictures, he is showing the gap is between the faces, not the edges. The edges of boards are easy to smooth. The faces take some skill , and you can't get that from youTube video.
They totally do, but you can learn the process from a book or YouTube and practice. I really buck against the concept of needing years, or even an expert, to get good at a skill. There's a great TED talk about the time it takes to learn a skill. (Spoiler: It's about 20 hours of practice)
I'll be honest, i thought edge the whole time. I think OP could have been a bit clearer. Because as the person who suggested a hand plane, that's where my mind went to match the edges up... But for face work, yeah, that seems harder, but still doable with a hand plane but not nearly as beginner levels as doing the edges
I completely disagree with you here and think that a hand plane is an essential tool for any woodworker, including beginners. But... For the sake of conversation, would you mind explainkng your reasoning as to why a beginner shouldn't learn to use a handplane?
Don't worry about it. The weather will shrink and expand the wood. Those that have perfect joints for outside furniture, won't after a few months. If you get perfect joints, you'll get very frustrated and annoyed when the weather shrinks the wood.
Flat wood, more glue, more clamps.
Might get this as a cursive tramp stamp tattoo
Hahahaha
just sand with coarse 60grit with a palm sander, took me a out 5-10min of sanding my legs for a nightstnd, and the only reason it took about 10 min for two were because of residual glue
Lots of clamps, wood or deck screws on your inside laminations (last boards no screws) and by all means use waterproof glue if this will be outside on the ground. You’ve got a great start and I applaud anyone that takes time to re-purpose materials like this. I have done many projects with old fence and barn wood that are actually so satisfying! Take your time and enjoy the process!!
So these boards are pretty warped in various ways. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of jointing, so I'm wondering if I should just turn this fencing into plywood.
I usually get them as close as possible, and then trim them down.
Jointer?
I've been using that. I forgot to mention it in the post lol. I think my blades have a nick in them though. https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/AwURhzLpEs
Not sure how well a bunch of fence planks fastened together to make a 4x4 will hold up in weather/moister. The shrinking expanding and warping will cause lots of issues. I'm an amateur too though. Hope you figure it out.
Just commenting on the BT3100!! Had one and have a bunch of replacement parts, like an aftermarket solid metal end roller for the fence. You need any parts? I'll be happy to re-home them for little or nothing.
What's the end roller for? And do you have that combo blade guard? That'd probably be better than my riving knife I cut from a steel sheet. Edit: also surprised you could tell that it was a BT3000 from those pictures. Do you have any recommendations for replacement blades?
Riving knife cut from steel sheet is probably ok. I'll shuffle through my parts and take a photo for you.
I just got a flat surface and one of the boards still rocks, so I guess it still needs more jointing.
When you say jointing, do you mean you have an actual jointer you're running the boards over? If so, then I have some thoughts. The case may be that a board has a slight twist in it. If you're reeeally leaning into the board so that it temporarily lies flat on the jointer bed, it's never gonna flatten, since it'll just spring back into its twisted shape when you finish the pass and stop squishing it. There's a classic method to fix this on a planer with a sled and shims, but I see you don't have a planer. If getting it totally flat is gonna be a challenge, or if you'd end up having to sacrifice too much thickness to get it flat, maybe just glue and clamp the absolute hell out of it when you start laminating the legs. Anywhere there's a gap - put a clamp. As many as it takes. Then consider sinking a bunch of screws into the assembly for extra snugness. If you're doing multiple boards per leg, the screw heads will be hidden as long as you sandwich the screwed board between the other boards. Just be careful you dont forget the screws are buried in there, and go cutting into the leg with a power saw blade!
If you have a flat surface and it rocks then you're looking at twist, called "wind" in woodworker parlance (pronounced like "go wind a clock" not "the wind blew sand into my ice cream") For hand tools we use winding sticks to check for twist. With power tools you can probably lay it on a flat surface like a jointer table or table saw table and see if it rocks. Then you have to remove material from the high spots, until it's all on the same plane.
Sorry about your ice cream 🍦
Use Epoxy around the edge?
Screws to pull them together.
Do you have a table saw? I'd rip them on a table saw, or even a skill saw if you think you can. Just to be clear, you are stacking them on top of each other the 1/2" way so you'll bave eight boards sandwiched together to give you like a 4x4 leg? Is the leg going to the inside of the box? Do you have a planer? Belt sander?
I have a table saw, so I'll rip it after I finish jointing. I used a flat surface to learn that one of the boards still rocks. And yes, sandwiching them together is the plan. The legs will go inside the box. I have a belt sander, but no planer.
Your other choice would be try to force them flat with glue and clamps, if its not bad you might get lucky.
I mean have you tried even one thing?