Ripping 8/4 walnut

[George Carion]

Being a novice, I don't generally work with stock above 4/4. However, I'm about to get started on a walnut coffee table and I want the top to be 1" thick. My local hardwood place only had 4/4 and 8/4 S3S stock. I'm hoping I can rip the 8/4 down to just over 1" thickness on the BS and plane it smooth to 1". Doing this will leave me some usable material as opposed to using a thickness planer and chewing up the extra $$ wood.

My question... I'm very worried that the 1" boards will warp badly after they've been ripped. Should I even attempt this, or should I just plane even amounts from both top and bottom of each board.

Thanks!

[Jim Becker]

If the material was dried properly, you'll likely not have too much issue with movement, but you'll want to plane off a little more from the original face than from the resawn face to help with even moisture exposure.

[David DeCristoforo]

I wish I was God because then I could answer your question. He would be the only one who can tell you if your resawn boards will cup but if I had to lay money on it I would say "they could" but they might not.....

[Don Abele]

George, I ran into this same problem when I made my kitchen table. I wanted it 1" thick but could only get 8/4 walnut. I was REALLY worried about cupping, so I decided to be as safe as I could.

I resawed 1/4 inch off each face - taking it from 8/4 to 6/4. I then let it sit for a week. There was no noticeable cup. I then planned it down to 1" by taking equal amounts off each face.

Yes, I wasted A LOT of walnut, but the table is still straight as an arrow six years later!

Be well,

Doc

[Joe Jensen]

George, Jim said that if the board was dried properly you shouldn't have a problem, but in my experience thats a big IF. If it wasn't dried properly and you take all the excess off one side, the board will likely warp. I hate taking 8/4 stock down to 1", but when I do, I take it evenly from both sides...joe

[Chris Padilla]

Wood: a fickle medium. It could have been pefectly dried and as soon as you rip it, it'll warp...or it may stay perfectly straight. Who knows?! Don (Doc) Abele has a good plan...give that shot and hope for the best. Ask your supplier if they have any such guarantees or even ask them to plane it down for you such that the risk might be slightly on their end.

[George Carion]

Thanks for the advice guys! ... I think I'll try it on one piece and see how it turns out before I start ripping the the rest.

[John Keeton]

If it doesn't turn out well for you on that first board, you obviously will have a useless pile of walnut on your hands which I will gladly get out of your way and pay shipping - and packaging! Just let me know.

[Stephen Edwards]

My question... I'm very worried that the 1" boards will warp badly after they've been ripped. Should I even attempt this, or should I just plane even amounts from both top and bottom of each board. Thanks!

Recently, I've begun to get my "education" about boards warping after resawing. I started out with an 8/4 by 11" by 24" piece of Peruvian Mahagony. I planed both sides. The board was perfectly flat and a true 1 7/8" thick end to end. Then I jointed one edge 90 degrees to the face surfaces. So far so good.

The goal was to end up with two 3/4 boards. I ran the board through my G0555X, splitting it down the middle. The cut was perfect. The fence was set at appx 7/8 from the blade. The board that was against the fence had no warpage whatsoever and has remained flat for over a week now. The other board, however, warped a 1/4 inch deflection from end to end within a few minutes of the resaw! It was flat off the BS. Weird!

[Frank Drew]

George,

How wide the boards are might determine whether a certain amount of post resawing cupping will be fatal to your project; in other words, this is riskier with wider boards if you need to preserve their full width.

From my experience, unless you've got tons of material you can afford to experiment with your safest bet would be to plane the boards to size, taking the same amount off each face, and even doing it in stages to let the wood move a little if it wants to (plane a little today, wait a day or so to see if it cups and reflatten as necessary then plane some more...).

In other words, it's better to lose a little material to planer shavings than risk not being able to use any of it. If you do resaw, and the board you want to use has cupped enough that it can't be flattened and planed and still get 4/4, you could rip it, flatten both pieces, then joint the edges and glue them back together. The grain will match except for a little skip at the glue joint.

[Scott Loven]

Why not just leave it 8/4 and bevel the bottom somewhat if the table edge looks to thick?
Scott

[Mike Cutler]

Why not just leave it 8/4 and bevel the bottom somewhat if the table edge looks to thick?
Scott

My thoughts exactly. An edge profile could add a nice design element.

George

Have you purchased the material yet? If not, consider paying the extra $$$ for quartersawn material. It's much more stable and predictable than flatsawn.
I know that the flatsawn can be have some spectacular grain at times, but there are the "variables" to consider.

[Peter Quinn]

With the price of walnut these days I'd be inclined to look for a supplier that had the appropriate thickness, probably 5/4 or maybe 6/4 even if it means incurring shipping charges or waiting a bit to order it through your local guy. I find 8/4 walnut often tends to have a lot of sap on the B face which reacts to resawing unpredictably. Sometimes this sap line runs quite deep, as much as half the board's thickness. I guess if you are starting with s3s you can probably see the grain and will be able to pick boards with minimal sap content. Still kind of dicey. I'd probably resaw to at least 1 3/8" depending on the width and length required of the finished stock.

Another possibility is to buy twice the 4/4 stock you need, flatten it, plane to 5/8" thickness, face glue two boards to reach 1 1/4", then plane carefully to 1" final thickness. These laminations should remain very stable and while more work yield boards with two perfect faces. Orienting the heartwood side out should keep them in balance and minimize cupping.

In my area 8/4 walnut sells at a higher BF price than 4/4, so it would actually be a cheaper alternative. Also I've found it easier to find wide boards with handsome grain in 4/4 than 8/4 given the relatively small size of todays walnut trees. At work we made some 1 3/4" passage doors and were forced to use 4/4 laminations to achieve styles with acceptable clear sap free faces on both sides. We glued up four pairs at a time with cauls on the out side and lots of clamps, went pretty quick. Did the same thing for all the raised panels.