Using roughcut lumber for the first time

[Greg Magone]

I bought about 60 board feet of rough cut oak lumber at the lumber yard. It was a good bargain - $2/bd ft compared to $3.50 for planed wood.

I've never used rough cut before and wondering what are the best ways of preparing it for use? I didn't ask the yard if the wood is dry or green. I didn't think about it until I was reading online that rough cut is often green. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, what steps do you follow to get the wood ready for use?

Thanks

[Greg Crawford]

Greg,

Most lumber that makes it beyond a commercial mill is kiln dried. Smaller mills may be different, but if you got it from a regular hardwood dealer, I'd have to say it's been dried somehow. It may still need some more drying to acclimate to your area (it doesn't give your locale), but only a moisture meter will tell for sure.

Very simply,

1. Face joint for one good reference surface
2. Plane for uniform thickness
3. Square one edge on the jointer
4. Finish the other edge by ripping on the table saw.

Most WW mags have had good articles about this, and there's probably a good tutorial on SMC. Try Googling the forum and see what comes up.

BTW, you'll be amazed at what you find under that rough skin! I love it.

Greg

[Prashun Patel]

If it's green, you'll have to dry it. Drying can take a while - weeks to a year. You basically sticker it and place it somewhere dry to air dry by itself.

If the wood is already dry, then you should still acclimate it first. Ideally, you rough cut /plane it to approximate length and approximate thickness, and then sticker it and let it dry for a week or 2 in your shop. This gives a little time for it to warp if it's gonna.

Then, you joint, plane, and cut it to final dimensions (pretty much in that order).

After final milling, you really should get it glued or joined up sooner rather than later to inhibit any new warping.

[Joe Scharle]

To make my jointer/planner blades last longer, I wire brush the embedded dirt from the boards first.

[Mike Cutler]

I didn't think about it until I was reading online that rough cut is often green. Can anyone confirm this?
Thanks

Greg

Nice work on the wood score, that's a good price( Depending on the part of the country, a very good price!)

The above statement is painted with too broad a brush.
I primarily buy rough cut wood that is properly, hopefully, dried. A rough cut board should cost less than an S4S, or S2S board as no milling has been performed, so a lot of people do it purely for the savings involved.

As for milling the wood for use? Mill it as required, and leave that that isn't needed rough. One tip I can pass on is that when the board is planed a new surface is exposed that will seek to reach equilibrium with your shop enviorment. Planing both sides evenly gives you a better chance that the cupping across the face will be minimized. Some folks even look at the orientation of the growth rings and plane more or less off either side anticipating cupping, (I'm not that good though.:o)

I know this isn't the Neander' Forum, but,,,, You'll find that knocking down the "high spots" and starting the hand edge with a plane will make the machine work go more smoothly and quickly.;)

[Zach England]

Not to hijack the thread, but I am in a similar position regarding rough wood. What's the best way to deal with a board wider than your jointer? My jointer is only 6.5 inches, but my planer is 13. I have some otherwise really nice 9-10 inch wide maple that has a bit of a warp in it. If I can get a *mostly* flat face with handplanes/sanders/whatever can I just run it through the planer taking a couple light passes on each side, making sure it does not rock or twist?

[Prashun Patel]

There are 2 ways:

1) Make a planer sled: doubleface tape your piece to a known flat sled and use shims to support the piece under the bows or cups so that the rollers in the planer can't push those flat. The top face will then be roughly as flat as the sled. Then you can flip it and run it thru without the sled and the 2nd face'll true up to the 1st.

2) You can search this forum for a way to use yr jointer for this. Basically, you remove the guard, and joint 6" of your board, letting the rest overhang, which creates a rabbet. You then run yr piece thru the planer on a sled with the rabbet overhanging. This flattens the 2nd face over it's entire 9". Then you flip the board and run it thru again w/o sled, which flattens the rabbet.

[Larry Browning]

I know others have suggested that you join one face before planing the other. However, unless the face is REALLY uneven, or there is a warp of some kind you can run both faces thru the planer with good results. I do this ALL the time. If a board is cupped, run it thru the planer with the cup facing up. Make several passes until you have knocked off the high center and that surface is flat. Turn the board over and plane down until that side is also flat. No more cup!

[Maik Tobin]

Not to hijack the thread, but I am in a similar position regarding rough wood. What's the best way to deal with a board wider than your jointer? My jointer is only 6.5 inches, but my planer is 13. I have some otherwise really nice 9-10 inch wide maple that has a bit of a warp in it. If I can get a *mostly* flat face with handplanes/sanders/whatever can I just run it through the planer taking a couple light passes on each side, making sure it does not rock or twist?

I also only have a 6 inch jointer to work with. I will likely get flamed, but I rarely run wood through the jointer to start. I take care to purchase mostly flat wood, cut it to smaller lengths and run it through my planner, making sure that the wood is very well supported on both sides with outfeed tables. Run the wood through with the cup up (prevents wobbling) and take off enough as is necessary to get it flat. Flip it over and plan other side. Then I go to my jointer and joint an edge. Then its over to the table saw for the other edge. This prodedure will work with cupped wood where the cup is 1/4 inch or less. I try to not by any twisted wood, or I cut out the twists.

[Frank Drew]

Easier plus a lot quicker than making and using a sled, face joint half or so of the board's width on your jointer, as Shawn details, then flip the board end for end and face joint the other half. You might need to do this a couple of times depending on the board's initial flatness and how deep a cut you feel like taking. You won't get a perfectly smooth finished surface this way off the jointer -- you don't need that at this stage -- but you will get a perfectly good reference surface for running the board through your planer.

[Steve Jenkins]

One thing to add. don't joint full length boards unless you need them. You can lose a lot of thickness. I typically rough cut 1" over on length unless I'm working with very little extra then I will rough cut 1/4-1/2 over my final length.

[Greg Magone]

One thing to add. don't joint full length boards unless you need them. You can lose a lot of thickness. I typically rough cut 1" over on length unless I'm working with very little extra then I will rough cut 1/4-1/2 over my final length.

What do you do about planer snipe in that case? My usual way of handling planer snipe has been to cut the board long, and then cut off the snipe that results. Of course, that's wasteful.

I have a quality planer and it is known for little snipe, but I have yet to adjust it properly and reduce it through adjustments.

[Frank Drew]

Greg,

I think Steve's main point is that if you need a six foot board, don't process a ten footer; if you need to add two or three inches onto each end because of snipe, ok, but don't straighten more than you need to for the job at hand.

[Chris Padilla]

One thing to add. don't joint full length boards unless you need them. You can lose a lot of thickness. I typically rough cut 1" over on length unless I'm working with very little extra then I will rough cut 1/4-1/2 over my final length.

I learned this lesson the hard way!!

[Steve Jenkins]

What do you do about planer snipe in that case? My usual way of handling planer snipe has been to cut the board long, and then cut off the snipe that results. Of course, that's wasteful.

I have a quality planer and it is known for little snipe, but I have yet to adjust it properly and reduce it through adjustments.

quite often if you simply hold the board by the end with a little upward pressure until it gets about 1/3 the length through the planer then go around and support the outfeed end the same way until it comes out that will eliminate the snipe.

[Jim Kountz]

quite often if you simply hold the board by the end with a little upward pressure until it gets about 1/3 the length through the planer then go around and support the outfeed end the same way until it comes out that will eliminate the snipe.


Yepper, and quite often no one takes the time to truly tune their planer to avoid snipe in the first place, Its a finicky adjustment on some models but it can be done. Every once in a great while I'll get snipe. When I do I know its time to make some adjustments. Part of keeping things squared away in the ol shop.

[David Keller NC]

"What do you do about planer snipe in that case? My usual way of handling planer snipe has been to cut the board long, and then cut off the snipe that results. Of course, that's wasteful.

I have a quality planer and it is known for little snipe, but I have yet to adjust it properly and reduce it through adjustments."

While not completely impossible, it's difficult to get adjust any planer to not give you any snipe at all. But there's a way to reduce it substantially if you've a planer with a cutter head lock (like a Dewalt 735, for example) - plane both faces to very close to the final thickness you need. For this to work, the face on the planer bed has to be very close to perfectly flat.

After you plane the board close to the final thickness, run a last pass, taking off no more than 20 thousandths or so. Then run the board back through the planer in the same orientation that you just did, but don't move the depth adjustment.

As you might expect, you will still hear the planer taking off wood, but it will be obvious that it's a lot less on the pass where you changed the depth adjustment. On a critical piece, I may run it back through 3 or 4 times.

Doing this will generally substantially reduce the "ledge" of the planer snipe. It may still be visible, but will take only one pass with a smoothing plane to erase it (or a bit of sanding with a ROS).

[Fred Voorhees]

Greg...all I ever use is rough cut lumber. And rough cut does not necessarily mean that it is green. $2 per board foot for oak is a pretty decent price. Around here in NJ, I have paid $2.25 to 2.50 per board ft. Joint, plane and back to the jointer for a square edge and then to the tablesaw for width. Wider planks than can be run through your jointer can be shot through the planer on a planer sled. I use mine often instead of ripping lumber in half and then gluing it back up again.

[Zach England]

When we talk about planer sled, is this as simple is a very flat, rigid board the width of the planer, or is there more to it?

[Mike Cutler]

When we talk about planer sled, is this as simple is a very flat, rigid board the width of the planer, or is there more to it?

That's pretty much it Zach.
Mine is made of MDF and has a firing strip across the leading edge. I use door shims and blue painters tape to "level" the board out, and double sided stick tape to hold it in place. I have a 3HP Jet that applies more than enough downward pressure to keep it place.
There are some really nice examples that have been posted by folks here on the board. Much more refined and "permanent" than my method. Do a search and you'll get a lot of really great ideas.