Best way to plane / square oak

[Alick Ford]

Hi,

I've been a member on here for a couple of years now, but hang out in the engraver section!

I've bought some large oak beams that I want to turn into a tabletop for a high bench style table in my kitchen.
I'm getting the base for the table made by a friend from stainless steel.

I bought the oak from a salvage yard close to me, but its a bit uneven and twisted. It's green oak, thats been drying for about a year now.

I want to square it up a bit, and plane the surfaces ready to be sanded and oiled. It doesn't need to be 100% as I'm going for the rustic look against the SS base.

The oaks measures 200mm x 100mm, 2m 30cm long.

I'm not really sure where to start! I have or can get my hands on most hand and power tools.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Alick

p.s. don't know why some of the images have rotated when they uploaded!

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[Andrew Hughes]

Hi,Alick ask such a question is really not a good sign, but I admire your willingness.your oak looks thick and may not be ready to work.the wood should be around 10 before working.For hand tools you will need a scrub plane and winding sticks to start.Power tools would be jointer and planer.Take a little bit from both sides working out the twist.And let them sit.Be patient for best results.This is how i would Start. Andrew

[glenn bradley]

Let's clarify "green". If those boards were a tree a year ago, they have another year or so to dry. However, they appear to have been dimensioned since the original mill work. If they are ready to be machined, given their size I would lean toward power tools; jointer, planer, and tablesaw. Although the sequence can vary somewhat depending on the woodworker:

- joint one face flat.
- joint one edge perpendicular
- plane to thickness
- rip to width
- crosscut to length

Generally no matter how ready my material is, I mill to within an 1/8" or so of my final dimension. Let the material stand for a day or two and then mill to final size.

[Alick Ford]

Well the salvage dealer said it was outside for about a year, and it's been in his shed for nearly a year now drying. It's got quite a few splits in it, and it's moved a good bit, so was thinking that it couldn't move much more.

Watch a few you tube clips on how to do it using a jointer and planer, but wasn't sure if my wood would be to large for that?

I want to keep as much of the length as possible.

Thinking of contacting a local sawmill / joinery workshop, perhaps they would have large machines that would make life easy!

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Alick. I've worked with a lot of oak beams like that, and most likely the core of the beams will still be green for a few more years because oak - especially thick oak - is a very slow drying species. That's not to say that you can't start working with them though.

A look at the ends of several of the beams indicates that the heart (pith) is not centered in the beam. On these beams, you will notice a tendancy for them to cup towards the bark side as they continue to dry. You will also most likely experience deep checks that develop between the surface of the beam and the pith on the side with the shortest distance from the pith to the surface. I would suggest that you place the thickest side up on your table top; although you will have to reflatten the top in a few years at least the deepest cracks will be on the underside of the table top.

Although the easiest way to S2S the beams would be to use a large Oliver Strait-o-plane, there may not be one nearby. The beams will be too massive to be successfully processed on most hobby or light commercial equipment. However, there is a relatively easy way to flatten and dimension them at home.

I would suggest that the easiest and most accurate method of dimensioning and S4Sing the beams will be to use a router and a slab leveling jig. Follow the same process that is used to flatten large slabs that was featured in the December 2011 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. I would suggest that you flatten the face sides of the beams first, and then clamp them all together to flattend the edges.

You might want to consider the use of dovetailed cleats on the bottom side of the top to keep things in line as the wood continues to dry and shrink.

Best of success to you on your project.

Scott

Fir

[Alick Ford]

Hi Alick. I've worked with a lot of oak beams like that, and most likely the core of the beams will still be green for a few more years because oak - especially thick oak - is a very slow drying species. That's not to say that you can't start working with them though.

Thanks for all the advice Scott.

I was speaking to a joinery place nearby and they seemed to think that they could plane them for me! They make oak staircases etc.

But I didn't mention to them that it was only partially dry oak, will that make a difference to their machine?

If I do plane them and bolt them all down to the steel base would they move so much that the base would bend etc?

Alick

[Scott T Smith]

Thanks for all the advice Scott.

I was speaking to a joinery place nearby and they seemed to think that they could plane them for me! They make oak staircases etc.

But I didn't mention to them that it was only partially dry oak, will that make a difference to their machine?

If I do plane them and bolt them all down to the steel base would they move so much that the base would bend etc?

Alick


Alick, typically large beams dry from the outside in. Thus, the outer 1" or so of your beam will be pretty dry, it's the inner portion that is still somewhat green. Since their machinery will only be milling the outside portion of the beams, there should not be any problems for their equipment (as long as it is large and heavy enough to handle the mass of the beams).

Based upon the orientation of the growth rings in your photo's, you can expect that the beams will shrink around 12% from side to side from the time that they were originally milled until they are fully dry. Based upon the thickness and the amount of time that has taken place, I would estimate that they have already shrunk about 65% of their total, give or take.

Therefore, each one of those 200MM wide beams will shrink about 24MM in width from green to fully dry, so you probably have another 6 - 8MM of shrinking across the width still to take place - per beam. If it were me, I would take that into account when mounting to your steel base.

[Alick Ford]

Alick, typically large beams dry from the outside in. Thus, the outer 1" or so of your beam will be pretty dry, it's the inner portion that is still somewhat green. Since their machinery will only be milling the outside portion of the beams, there should not be any problems for their equipment (as long as it is large and heavy enough to handle the mass of the beams).

Based upon the orientation of the growth rings in your photo's, you can expect that the beams will shrink around 12% from side to side from the time that they were originally milled until they are fully dry. Based upon the thickness and the amount of time that has taken place, I would estimate that they have already shrunk about 65% of their total, give or take.

Therefore, each one of those 200MM wide beams will shrink about 24MM in width from green to fully dry, so you probably have another 6 - 8MM of shrinking across the width still to take place - per beam. If it were me, I would take that into account when mounting to your steel base.

Scott,

I like the idea of the beams moving and splitting a bit, I think they will look nice and rustic against the stainless steel base.

I've had the beams in my kitchen for 3 days now, heating on (even tho it's summer in Ireland, it's cold!!) and I cant see that they have moved much. Would I need to leave them for longer before I take them to be planed?

Alick

[Scott T Smith]

Scott,

I like the idea of the beams moving and splitting a bit, I think they will look nice and rustic against the stainless steel base.

I've had the beams in my kitchen for 3 days now, heating on (even tho it's summer in Ireland, it's cold!!) and I cant see that they have moved much. Would I need to leave them for longer before I take them to be planed?

Alick


Unless they were recently stored where they could get wet, you don't need to wait to have them surfaced. Realistically, it will take 7 years or so for those 4" thick oak beams to fully dry. What you will probably experience as they spend more times inside is that the amount of surface checking will increase over the next 6 months.

[Alick Ford]

So a local joiner planed my beams and I'm pretty pleased with the results! All I have to do now is give it all a light sanding and finish it with something.

What are your suggestions for finishing? I want to keep it as natural looking as possible while giving it some protection.

Fill the knots with resin or not?

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[Scott T Smith]

I would probably not fill them, as the wood will continue to move as it dries over the next several years. For a finish, I would suggest something that is easily renewed, such as a tung or boiled linseed oil based finish, but hopefully one of the finishing experts here can chime in with a suggestion. I would suggest finishing all sides to help keep the drying rate consistent all around the beams.

In the third photo from the left, the beam on the right side does not have the pith centered in the beam. As it continues to dry, it will cup away from the floor over time.

[Andrew Hughes]

How about mineral oil and maybe a little wax.The kind of finish that is used on cutting boards.