I finished dimensioning the posts for the bed and now I am starting to cut the first set of tapers. I am using the evil electric band saw for the rough cuts and then I will true things up with a hand plane. Via email one of the esteemed galooterati suggested that I skip the electron burner and use a scrub plane to remove this type of material. (To be honest it was a different 1/4 strip, but for the sake of argument...) I have to admit that I thought about this and I have even tried with my trusty 40 1/2 and eventually succumbed to daunted-ness. But hey, this is a great oppertunity to play back of an envelope scientist!
The question is how much effort would it take to remove approximately 3/8" from one side of the 8' post to duplicate the electron killing rip cut? Well as an experiment before I ripped the post I broke out my planes and took half a dozen strokes with my scrub plane and with my No. 5 jack plane. In both cases the plane was working on a flat face that had been previously jointed (not totally realistic) and they blade depth was scientifically calibrated at what felt good. This was a bit shallow since this maple is so hard and tends to really tear out when I push it too hard. At any rate this is about the depth I would have used to take off lots of material.
I collected the shavings from an equal amount of planing with both planes and measuresd their mass. The scrub plane was able to remove 5g of maple and the jack plane 3g. So, the scrub plane was taking off approximately 1 g with each pass and the jack plane .5 g. The important question then is how much wood is there to take off? To answer this some electrons died, but sacrifices must be made at times. In the end, the scrap wood left over from the rip cut was 1098 g.
Where is this going? Well, it looks like the scrub plane is more efficient at wasting material than the jack plane, although its efficiency will go down as the working surface will not be flat like the test surface. We also can see that there is at least a 1 kilo-lick in the Tootsie-Roll pop that is planing this post and more likely two or three. This hoakey little experiment really just illustrates that it is fun to weigh shavings and play in the shop. ;-)