milling four square

[Mike Steinhilper]

I've had some cherry and some walnut sitting in my shop for a year now waiting for a planer. Finally got one. I think half of my walnut is now sawdust :( So, can someone point me to a good primer on how to mill this wood? I only have a planer, no jointer, but I think I can effectively use my router table to joint an edge. My problem is getting one straight edge to start. I've read a lot about it, but haven't really grasped it yet.

[glenn bradley]

I haven't found a single article on this that doesn't start something like this:

"STEP 1: Start by "jointing a face" which means to make one face of your board perfectly flat. (A "face" is the wide side of your board, and "edge" is the skinny side)."

That being said, some folks have had success getting a flat face (this is the reference for your remaining steps) by setting up a sled to ride through the planer. This assumes a planer with the knives above the work. Using wedges, screws or whatever, you get the rough lumber to sit SECURELY on the sled with the face to wards the knives as close to flat as it will get.

You then take tiny (1/64") bites until you have a surface that will lay flat. This surface doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to ride flat completely through the planer to allow you to flatten the opposite side completely. This flat side is now what you would have had you jointed to start.

There have been a few discussions about this technique here on the Creek. I'm sure some of the folks who have actually done this will chime in as I only know of it second hand.

[pat warner]

"but I think I can effectively use my router table to joint an edge."

Serious business, this material prep (http://patwarner.com/material_prep.html), everything depends on it.
Nothing registers the same way twice if you don't do a good job of it.

[Joe Mioux]

MIke:

I actually did this yesterday and it worked out pretty well.

I used 3/4 inch Poplar plywood, and two wedges. Pinned the wedges on each end of the plywood and on opposites sides. thin side facing inward.

I spaced the wedges just a bit wider than the 6x5 old oak beams that I was milling.

Next I just went to a flat surface, table saw and rocked the oak beam back and forth and got a feel for the bottoms high and low side. Then place beam on the sled and ran it through the planer. -- The beam set on an angle to elimate the rocking.

It worked surprisingly well, albeit not as good a jointer, but acceptable for my intended use for this wood.

Next I just ran the opposited side through the planer to get two parrallel surfaces and then turned the beam on its side and repeated the procedure to get some square stock.

Joe

[frank shic]

http://www.newwoodworker.com/squrstock.html

[Ellen Benkin]

You can always plane one side flat using a hand plane. Not something I'd want to do, but it can be done.

[Joe Mioux]

You can always plane one side flat using a hand plane. Not something I'd want to do, but it can be done.

But, but, that's like a.....a...... like.... aaa ........ WORK!

Just teasing.

Joe

[Mike Steinhilper]

Thanks for all your advice. Joe, do have a pic of what you did for you oak beams? That may work for me but I'm not exactly sure of your set up.

[Joe Mioux]

I will try to post one this evening, Mike

Joe

[michael tessler]

Step 1......flatten one face. Obviously, the best/easiest way is to use a jointer. Options if you don't have a jointer.......use a hand plane to get the board sufficiently flat to run thru tha power planer. You don't have to make it perfectly flat and smooth, just enough to run thru the planner. Another option......do you knowq of someone/shop who has a jointer, who will face plane it for you.

Step 2.......plan opposite face smooth. If you are taking significant thickness off the board (3/4" down to 1/2") plane both sides equally to relieve internal stresses.

Step 3......Edge joint one edge with Jointer. Options.......the always usefull hand plane; a router, Table saw - make a jig to hold the rough lumber and rip a straight edge. Don't forget the lumber yard/store you bought your wood from........mine charged me $10 to edge plane a bunch of boards for a recent project.

Step 4......rip opposing edge.

Step 5.......crosscut to length

I've read where some people have made a jig to hold the board, and then run it thru the planer. From a safety standpoint, that process would concern me.

[Joe Mioux]

Here are a few pics of the wood I jointed on the planer with sled.

[Joe Mioux]

Hre is my helper...

[Jim Becker]

Showing off your "littl' joiner" again, Joe?? (Very cute)

And yes, you can do a lot with a sled and some shims!

[Joe Mioux]

Hey Jim:

Notice my hi-fidelty stereo system in the background? lol

[glenn bradley]

Mike,

If it's any encouragement, I just got through squaring up some 16/4 using the sled method. The piece was too long for my 'baby' jointer to handle comfortably. Worked well.

[glenn bradley]

Mike,

I started with something like the board on the right. Using thin plywood strips taped on as shims I ended up with the board on the left using just the planer.

[Mike Steinhilper]

I'm encouraged! But I'm still not grasping it! So does the sled run clear through the planer? Is the sled clamped in place, or does it move through with the work piece? And you're shimming the bottom face of the work piece in order for it to be flat against the sled, thereby making the top face parallel to the bottom shimmed face?

[Matt Day]

I wrote this to a friend recently, and I think it should help you understand the sled method:

Picture a 12” wide (to fit in you planer) piece of flat plywood or MDF. The length of this plywood will be based on the length of stock you want to use; add about a foot to the finished measurement for waste. So you now have a 12” wide by X’ long piece of wood, which is the basis for the sled. On top of this piece of wood, you’ll place your rough sawn stock. When you put this down, you’ll see all the crowns and twists in between it and the plywood. You need to place shims in these gaps so that when it’s run through the planer the wood is not flexed. At one end of the sled, you’ll want to attach a small piece of wood so that when the planer starts pulling in the rough stock through it pulls the sled with it too. Make sure this block is shorter than the rough stock, and there aren’t any pieces of metal (screws or nails) sticking out. After this is all built, all you need to do is feed it through the planer, but you’ll have a heavy piece of wood that you have to be careful with so you don’t loose your shims.

You’ll want to set up some infeed and outfeed tables when you’re working with long boards to avoid snipe. You should do the face jointing first so that you have a good surface to work with when you edge joint with the router/guide method.

FWW had an article on it in issue 175 . I think the method described above is pretty good, but FWW definitely has a nice jig.

[Joe Mioux]

I'm encouraged! But I'm still not grasping it! So does the sled run clear through the planer? Is the sled clamped in place, or does it move through with the work piece? And you're shimming the bottom face of the work piece in order for it to be flat against the sled, thereby making the top face parallel to the bottom shimmed face?

Mike Yes, the sled is run through the planer. The bottom of the plywood sled is what you reference as flat.

Remember a planer makes a piece of wood parrallel to its opposite side.

The top of the sled with the wedges is just going to support the piece of wood.

Let me know if you need additional pics.

Joe

[Mike Steinhilper]

ok, it's finally beginning to sink in. I think I should have gotten a jointer first... oh well.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I get an initial reference surface by passing my stock across a jointer till I get a flat plane.

Then I either joint the sides square to that initial reference surface or I'll put it in the planer reference surface side down and then returning to the initial reference side I'll joint square sides.

Either way it all references off that first flat plane.

[Joe Mioux]

Mike, it is really pretty easy. Just give it a try and see.

Joe

[Mike Murray]

I have a 6" jointer so I end up using the planer sled method quite a bit. It's obviously more time-consuming to set up, but I like it because I can control exactly how I'm going to flatten the board to get maximum thickness yield. I put the convex side down on the sled and wobble it around until I discover the highest points, typically two opposite corners. I then wedge it in such a way to even out the removal of material, which maximizes the thickness yield. This works great for me, and I've never been able to achieve the same control when flattening on a jointer (I'm sure part of the problem is my rudimentary jointer technique). I use hot glue to hold the wedges in place and I only flatten enough to create a good reference. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth, just flat enough to serve as a good reference for the other side.