To mill or not to mill, that is the question

[Stan Orsk]

I have some rough sawn 5/4 cherry that I'm going to rip into 1.5" strips for a table top. Question: Is it better to mill and sand before ripping or put the top together and then plane and sand? The unmilled slab is pretty flat and I'm not too worried about slight imperfections there once the top is put together.

[Warren Mickley]

Welcome to the forum, Stan. It is a little unclear whether you are making the table top with slats and gaps or you are ripping the strips so you can glue them back together.

[Jim Koepke]

Stan,

Welcome to the Creek. I am always curious as to where folks call home. I even try to remember, at my age it sometimes slips away.

Why not smooth and use the slab as is instead of ripping to be glued back together?

jtk

[Stan Orsk]

Welcome to the forum, Stan. It is a little unclear whether you are making the table top with slats and gaps or you are ripping the strips so you can glue them back together.


Not sure yet. I may do a little of both - gaps and solid - using interspersed oak or poplar ebonized.

[Stan Orsk]

I like the look of the strips. Solid board is very heavy and the surface is not that extraordinary.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Hi Stan, I see no point in sanding\planing the board to a finished surface before a glue up, as you will need to do it again anyhow. but milling to an even thickness just slightly more than the final thickness will greatly reduce the work after glue up if your using hand tools, but it will also make the glue-up more exacting.

[Joe Bailey]

What is this "Milling" of which you speak?

And how does it qualify as Neanderthal work?

[Pat Barry]

If I understand what you want to do correctly, make a 1 1/2 inch thick top out of the strips basically face glued to each other, then you should joint / surface plane the strips (or the boards before ripping) so the glue lines are as perfect and tight fitting as possible. If on the other hand the ripped strips will be re-laid out for best appearance and edge glued then you will want to joint / plane the ripped edges to get a nice glue line.

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Stan, I see no point in sanding\planing the board to a finished surface before a glue up, as you will need to do it again anyhow. but milling to an even thickness just slightly more than the final thickness will greatly reduce the work after glue up if your using hand tools, but it will also make the glue-up more exacting.

My thoughts as well (based upon having access to a 25" jointer/planer and a 37" wide belt sander). Skip plane the material to a thickness 1/8" to 3/16" thicker than your targeted finished thickness, rip, glue, and then finish joint/plane/sand.

Now, if you don't have access to wide planing or sanding equipment, I would do this but glue up in widths that would fit through my widest planer or sander, and then finish plane then glue the segments together. Said differently, if I were making a 36" wide top and only had a 20" planer, I would glue up my strips into 18" segments, finish plane, then glue the two segments together as accurately as I could get them, and the sand/hand plane the seam down the middle.