Question on Stock Preparation

[Jim Foster]

Dual Question:

1) I am trimming out several rooms in my house with Q-Sawn Oak and I have and will get more roughsawn boards that are 14' long. Many of the boards should ideally be as long as 9' and maybe longer in final dimensioned form. In the past to plane the wood I would set the planer to just touch the thickest of the roughcut boards and then run the boards through, flip the boards and lightly increment the thickness setting maybe .03 or so, at a run until the boards are the correct thickness. This seems to work as long as you watch for boards that are pretty out of whack somehow. And the resulting boards have worked very nicely for the trim I have finished and hung.

the challenge I have is jointing boards this long. It's been a mixed bag. Any suggestions? This wood is both 4/4 and 5/4 rough stock.

2) I am going to make a bench (hopefully 12 feet long, but maybe 10 feet) from either Douglass Fir, Southern Yellow Pine or White Oak, whichever is most easily acquire coupled with cost effectiveness. (I think I can get rough oak fairly cheap, but would prefer SYP or Doug Fir) These boards will be in the rough or milled as framing lumber and will be reduced to 1.25" x 4" I'm struggling a little with how I would joint the 10' or 12' edges, and I'm assuming my planer technique described above would give me good face surfaces. Any suggestions? I'm a little familiar with using a handplane and have some jointer planes, but I would prefer to use power tools if possible for these operations.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't see why you need to joint the edges of the trim stock. You're not gluing the edge to anything. I do see why you'd want to straight-line one edge of the rough stock. I'd do that with a circular saw guided by a straightedge. The challenge is to find or make a 14' straightedge. I'd make one from plywood -- an 8' strip, a 6' strip, and the remaining 2' glued across the joint. You can make this rig straight enough to use it for straight-lining trim lumber.

[Nate Carey]

Jim, what size is your jointer? Sounds to me like the jointer is the real challenge here not the length of the stock being jointed. Trim the stock close to its finished length before jointing, this will make it easier to handle.

[Jim Foster]

I have a Delta DJ 20, so it's about 80" long I think. I've been able to edge joint 6' boards pretty easily, but struggle as the boards get to 9' or so.


Jim, what size is your jointer? Sounds to me like the jointer is the real challenge here not the length of the stock being jointed. Trim the stock close to its finished length before jointing, this will make it easier to handle.

[Nate Carey]

80" bed should handle 12 foot and 14 foot stock with no problem. Sometimes a helper can provide "gentle" support on the "dumb" end of a heavy or awkward work piece.

...and joint the edge with the crown down...

[Jeff Duncan]

I can see having a tough time with boards that long on a shorter jointer. What I used to do with my smaller jointer that would work well for you, was to add extension tables to the front and back (infeed/outfeed) of the jointer. I made them up out of mdf so there would be no movement issues and used a single leg on the end and c-clamps to fasten to the jointer tables. With this setup you can support as much of the board as you want by how long you make the tables. If your jointing a 16' long piece of 4/4 you could have an 8' long infeed. This will help your operation immensely.
Alternatively, and much easier BTW would be to have your lumber supplier mill the stock for you. It's usually very inexpensive to have them do it. I know from my own experience it's cheaper for me to buy stock milled already then for me to do it myself. I just can't get it milled to the thickness I need.
good luck,
JeffD

[Peter Quinn]

In theory you can joint stock TWICE THE LENGTH OF YOUR INFEED TABLE. Beyond that you have too much board NOT on the table to meaningfully joint a long board. You just keep following the crown shaving it down with each successive pass. By taking a few light passes for the first few feet at each end of the board before running the whole board you can often joint longer boards pretty straight beyond what the theory would suggest. Sort of shave off the most offensive part of the crown first. But for 16' lumber few jointers I have ever used (and that includes one with a 108" bed) are going to take out the bow. They are just not made for it.

First thing to do is cut all stock to the shortest length possible, so if you don't need 16', cut it down. I like to use either a router with a pattern makers bit or a skill saw and a long straight line jig made of MDF for jointing long boards. I have one that is 16', joined with biscuits. The edge guide for the skill saw overlaps the joint for strength. I have used it to cut the leading edge of porch floor boards installed with somewhat random lengths over a 24LF span, works great. I couldn't get the whole porch into the shop to joint it!:cool:

Some where on You Tube Charles Neil Has a great video of a TS straight line jig that rides in the miter slot and will handle 10' stock, Nice way to go for things in that length. Another thought is to check with the place you source your lumber to see if they have a straight line saw and can surface one edge for you. The millwork shop I wort at sells lumber retail and does this for customers all the time, even guys set up to do it themselves pay for it S1S for convenience. Good luck, QSWO makes beautiful trim.

[johnny means]

Actually, in theory, one should be able to joint any length board as long as the portion hanging off the jointer doesn't weigh more than he can safely counter balance. I can joint a 20' 1 x 12 but I could not joint a 12' 10x8 beam. If your following the crown while jointing long boards your technique is wrong or your jointer needs work. Either your not holding the stock flat to the out feed or your jointing with the wrong side down. For longer stock with a substantial bow, find the "apex" of your bow and place it facing downonto the infeed table. Many times this will mean that the stock is actually laying across the cutter head when you begin cutting. jointing from this point will create a flat in the middle of your board, which will get longer with each pass until your board is straight as an arrow.

Of course this is in theory and I agree, it usually makes more sense to straight line anything with that much of a bow or cut stock to rough length first.

[Jeff Duncan]

The problem with jointing longer bowed/crooked stock on a shorter tables is that the stock not touching the table is changing the height of the stock over the blade continuously as the board contacts/leaves the table. This is why it is not practical to joint a 20' board on a 6'L jointer. It could be done if one had the proper knowledge to selectively clip the high spots, but would be so time consuming as to make it a poor choice.
My jointer is just over 7-1/2' long and it will handle the average 12' stock using a large depth (1/4") of cut. If it's really bowed though your clipping the ends before you run the whole piece. Of course this is all generalized, if I had a nice straight 20' board it would be no problem, (well, expect for my shop not being big enough to go over 16').;)

[Peter Quinn]

Actually, in theory, one should be able to joint any length board as long as the portion hanging off the jointer doesn't weigh more than he can safely counter balance. I can joint a 20' 1 x 12 but I could not joint a 12' 10x8 beam. If your following the crown while jointing long boards your technique is wrong or your jointer needs work. .

Oh, the old 'crown down' school of thought. Doesn't take much for this to get pretty far off course on a long board. Its pretty hard to 'feel' what is happening on a long board, and at some point you wind up cantilevering as much as three times or more the length of stock touching the in-feed table, or trying to set up stock support dead flat to a table over a great length. Sure it 'can' work, but it can also become an easy way to turn a 1X8 into a 1X5 if those first few passes get a little off course or you tip at the ends. Not so practical. We have done this with three guys (all professional wood workers), a big jointer, and 16'-20' boards, often in the 12/4 to 16/4 range that won't go through a straight line. Dicey in any event even with trim thickness stock IME.


One way to get there quicker is with a BS and a chalk line. You can snap a straight line and cut to this line then use a few quick passes on the jointer to clean up the BS marks. You still have the cantilever issue but at least the 'sea-saw' issue is gone. And for stain grade work it allows you to pick a line that best follows the grain which can be helpful with some boards.