need help with milling lumber

[Jay Radke]

well i have finally decided to take the leap from demensional lumber. so now that i have my boards i have some general questions. i know the order of the process. how does one deal with a board that is wider than your jointer? do you flatten a board one half of the width at a time?

what is the thickest book-matched resaw that one can achive from 4/4 stock?

thanks for putting up with these silly questions and for your answers.

[Don Jarvie]

Steps to kill wood are:
1. Flatten one side on the jointer. If its too big for the jointer you can use a scrub plane and then a #5 to get rid of the scrub marks. I have a 6 inch jointer and doing each side didn't work out so well. You can always rip the board to a thinner size for the jointer, in that case joint 1 edge then rip then flatten

2. Run them through the planer to get 2 flat even sides. 4/4 is anywhere from 1 inch to 1 1/8 inch so you have a way to go to 3/4.

3. Joint each edge and then sticker stack (wood between the pieces so air can circulate around them) then for a day or two. The wood may move so you may have to repeat the above steps.

4. And to final thickness.

As for book matching, the boards are usually 1 inch thick so if they are pretty flat you could probably get each piece 3/8 to 7/16 thick. It all depends on how much you need to take off to make them flat.

See if you can find Roy under hills episode with Chris Schwartz about hand planes. Chris does a nice job showing you how to use a scrub plane. I made one from an old #5 I had and it works very well.

[Brian Tymchak]

I've used this technique (http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/milling-wide-boards/)a couple times (the Jointer Trick). The boards I used it on were not all that distorted so I didn't have to take that much stock off 1 side of the board with the jointer before attaching to the sled and running it through the planer.

[Myk Rian]

well i have finally decided to take the leap from demensional lumber. so now that i have my boards i have some general questions. i know the order of the process. how does one deal with a board that is wider than your jointer? do you flatten a board one half of the width at a time?
More than half, if you can. I'll find the write-up I did on the process and post it later.
Jointers have a rabbeting function for doing wide boards.


what is the thickest book-matched resaw that one can achive from 4/4 stock?
3/8" is reasonable to expect. 5/16 if the wood had much warp before re-sawing.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on resting your freshly milled stock for a day after taking off a layer on each side.

Milling will also release stresses that can cause twisting.
Cutting pieces to the shorter lengths that reference the tables on both sides (no shorter than 12 inches or so) will make it easier to handle.

Most of us considering particularly wide boards have migrated to using handplanes if we don't wish to rip wide boards in half.

[Prashun Patel]

I usually run all rough lumber thru the planer first.

You'd be surprised how well a planer 'joints' a face with light passes.

It's especially true for panel glue ups, where some post-processing is necessary anyway.

[Myk Rian]

SOME of us considering particularly wide boards have migrated to using handplanes if we don't wish to rip wide boards in half.

Fixed it for ya.

[Jay Radke]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I was hoping my DW735 was going to arrive before the long weekend, but it didnt. I should have filled everyone in on what I was making from the start. It's a tool cabinet for my dremel and all of its parts. It I based off of a recent ShopNotes project. So splitting the board to run on my jointer wont work very well. I was at least able to rough cut the main case pieces. Luckily, most of them are fairly flat. There are two that are cupped. What would be suggestions on how to run them through the planer when it arrives?

[ray hampton]

Jay , If you run the boards thru. the planer with the cup side up , your board will rock unless you can glue 1 strip to the board sides to keep the board steady

[Myk Rian]

What would be suggestions on how to run them through the planer when it arrives?
Make a planer sled out of a 12" wide chunk of melamine coated shelving board. Available at the BB stores.

[Paul Sikorski]

I do things a little different I cut the rough boards down to a bit over size then what I need them let them sit for a day or to if I have time. Then joint and plane from there. Maybe its all in my head but I feel like my boards stay flatter through the build process. For boards to wide for a jointer. The planer sled or taking it down by hand would be ideal. if its big enough and you have the time you could do it with a router. I've never tried it myself but looks time consuming.

[lowell holmes]

I run the wide, rough board through a 6" jointer, leaving a 6" wide smooth, straight surface. I have a 6" wide board that is straight and flat that I attach to the smooth portion of the rough board with double sided carpet tape.

The boards are then run through a 12 1/2" thicknes planer with the 6" wide smmoth board on bottom. leaving a flat and straight surface on the wide board. Remove the 6" wide board and carpet tape, turn the wide board over with the newly planed surface down and put it through the thikness paner again. You will have a smooth, square, and straight wide board.

I found this technique in one of the woodworking magazines.

[Myk Rian]

[QUOTE=lowell holmes;1976182
I found this technique in one of the woodworking magazines.[/QUOTE]
That's the process you pretty much have to use, when doing stock wider than your jointer.
Either that or a planer sled.

[glenn bradley]

Lots of opinions here based on the experiences of the givers which is part of what makes a forum so useful. You can make a planer sled in a few hours (or a few minutes depending on your preference). I used a slab of melamine with wedges and screws to stabilize the material. This works reasonably well if you won't be doing it much. I made Keith Rust's planer sled (http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=24118) in a few hours back in May of 2007 and have used it ever since. I use the jointer first then the planer except, of course, when using the planer sled to face-joint :). The half and half technique on the jointer can be done but, you can practically build a planer sled by the time you fool around getting one face of a large board jointed IMHO.

The thing about taking the time to make a sled is that it will wait patiently in the lumber rack for extended periods of time until it is called on once again. If jointing 12" boards is a weekly occurrence, start saving your pennies for a big jointer; you'll be happier in the long run. I have an 8" jointer and still reach for the sled a couple times a year which is workable for me. We all have different thresholds as to how much fussiness we enjoy for a given operation. I do some things in a manner that might drive someone else nuts and vice versa. You'll find your comfort zone and when you do, your enjoyment of your shop time will increase accordingly. Have fun.

[John W Johnson]

I, too, use planer sleds on my DW735. I made several for different widths and lengths following a plan in FWW. I have a number of salvaged 10/4 x 12" wide beams, and have used them to mill 12" wide stock up to 8' long. It's a real workout on the big stuff but it turned out great.