At the risk of being labeled as building soundboard panels that are not quite perfectly uniform thickness, I'll share what I do. I plane subpanels down to final thickness. Then glue up subpanels (usually three or four subpanels) to make complete panel while paying close attention to edge joint alignment. I find that I can make most joints within 0.010" misalignment. I find alignment pretty easy with the panel clamps I am using. I then simply use a smoothing plane with a slightly rounded blade to remove any trace of subpanel misalignment. Just a couple fast sweeps of the plane gets anything that's there. I spend about ten minutes straightening things up on a panel after glue-up. Usually, I then give the panel a quick sanding with 240 grit paper. I mean, isn't that the sort of thing that, in part, gives each hand-crafted piano its own personality? Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- >> */Guilty. Access to a nice 60" panel sander would be sweet, though, and >> probably save two hours./* > > I'd settle for a stroke sander, and room to set one up, which doesn't seem > to be included in my two car shop. Just having the capability at all is a > luxury. Now, if you'd just plane a couple more millimeters off those panel > sub assemblies, you could cut your sanding time by 2/3. > > Ron N >
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