Somewhat akin to the purpose behind this question (Recommendation for manual planing and sanding), I am seeking advice from some experts that would help a hobbyist such as myself trying to manufacture large panels of wood made by joining together (mostly by glue - no fancy biscuit, dovetails, or dowel joints). I even ran into problems when I had access to a decent variety of equipment at a hobby wood shop, when the thickness planers feed width was smaller than the width of the panel I was trying to prepare.
Since I figure cabinet makers make some pretty big armoires and wardrobes, how do you smooth up the glue joints and even up the panels so that they are nice and level? Hand planes (manual and electric) would probably only give excellent results in the hands of the truly skilled.
Are the thickness planers and hand tools described in both the question and answers in the linked question above really the only options?