Do you always start with the jointer?

[Carl Beckett]

Just curious, do you always start by flattening every board?

I do not. Often my stock is fairly flat to begin with

But reading here seems like some of you always flatten just out of principle

[Doug Dawson]

Just curious, do you always start by flattening every board?

I do not. Often my stock is fairly flat to begin with

But reading here seems like some of you always flatten just out of principle

A critical element here, methinks, is deciding what parts of the board are going to become what parts of the piece, cut them roughly to size, and then joint _that_.

It's all a big massage, and it certainly increases the yield.

[Don Jarvie]

Buying rough lumber is cheaper and leads to flat boards since you have more room to work with to get an true 4/4 board. I’ve seem enough 4/4 that isn’t flat so you don’t have much to work with.

I use rough lumber and cut it slightly long then joint it, let it rest a day or two, joint it again so it’s flat on one side then use the planer. Let it sit then plane to the final thickness. You can then edge joint and cut to the final size. You have a better chance of having consistent wood.

[Matt Day]

The only machine that touches the wood before the jointer is the RAS to cut to length.

[Bill Space]

It depends.

For me the closer the rough wood is to the desired finished size, the easier it is to make the pieces flat, especially if there is bow or twist in them.

Sometimes I joint an edge and rip to width on the tablesaw, before jointing one face.

Also, as mentioned by another above , I will use my RAS to shorten boards to close to the desired length for the same reasons.

The jointer always seems to precede the planer in my shop.

By the way, your post is unclear regarding what you do in your shop...

[Tom M King]

I always sight a board first, but don't remember the last time I saw one straight enough not to visit the jointer first in process.

[Derek Cohen]

I determine what sections of a board will be used, cut these a very little oversize, and then joint. This will reduce the amount of waste removed when a board is cupped or has a twist.

Bandsaw, handsaw or tablesaw comes first.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Carl Beckett]

Well, I may be breaking some cardinal rule. But yes I chop things up to smaller sizes as a starting point (the smaller the piece the less out of flatness propagates). But from there, 'it depends' if I will ever surface the face (in fact sometimes I will thickness plane without facing). Cant imagine the neanders get everything dead flat using hand planes.

Whether I face it depends on the use of that particular piece. For example, door rails/stiles I always surface and want them as square as possible. If resawing I might surface one face as a reference for the fence, but subsequent slices may go right to the planer (relatively thin panels arent rigid enough to where it matters anyway). A panel glueup I might not, and instead cut the finished sub assembly to size/squareness or sometimes run it through the belt sander. Other pieces in a project it just may not matter that they be exactly flat/straight. Sometimes it does affect joinery depending on how you do it (machine cut joints are easier to setup if flat/square than hand cut as example)

The responses here was what I was observing. Most of you flatten everything early in the process no matter what. Maybe I should be as well... am going to think through some projects and which pieces I flattened and which pieces I didnt, whether it caused grief during the build that would be solved by flattening.

(projects are mostly furniture; cabinets, drawers, bookcases, chests, chairs, etc - a lot of arts and crafts, shaker, mission style (not too many complex curves/shaped designs))

Was just asking as a curiosity.

[roger wiegand]

Nearly flat boards may start at the jointer, but I only have a 6" jointer and most of my wood isn't what I would call nearly flat, so at this point I need to cut it down to fit my machine first. That means at least a crossscul to a few inches over final length (my planer snipes something awful, but that's another post topic) and often a rip to something under 6". Running a 10 ft bowed board on the jointer first would very often result in nothing left, while 3-4 ft long pieces from the same board can be jointed and planed to 3/4 or 7/8. Wider boards that need to stay that way get flattened one side with a hand plane, again not over a much longer length than needed.

My joinery is bad enough without dealing with extra dimensions of variability.

[Jim Becker]

Well, I may be breaking some cardinal rule. But yes I chop things up to smaller sizes as a starting point (the smaller the piece the less out of flatness propagates).

Oh, I also break things down before milling. I generally skim them first if they are rough to insure I know "what's in there", mark them with chalk relative to the components i expect to take out of them, cut down to length (oversize) and then flatten and thickness them. It's very rare that a board is not "worthy" of at least one quick flattening pass before milling to thickness.

[Jim Becker]

In general, yes, I do start with face jointing. I like flat material and the majority of the time, I wouldn't be happy with "fairly flat". I face joint and then thickness. Edges I leave for my slider and rarely do them on the jointer.

[Dave Zellers]

Just curious, do you always start by flattening every board?

Always.
Always, always, always!

Often my stock is fairly flat to begin with

Often? What about the other times? Fairly flat is not flat.
The joy of working with perfectly flat stock, can not be exaggerated.

The experience after I sharpen and replace the knives in my jointer and planer is remarkable. After jointing, planing and stacking a dozen boards for a project, they are so flat they actually stick together a bit.

I love that!

But seriously, it depends on the project. Absolutely for cabinets and furniture and not so much for every day things. But buying rough lumber and surfacing it yourself does two things- it will be dead flat when you start your project and if the rough lumber is flat to begin with, you can yield much thicker stock than the pre dressed retail stock.

[mark mcfarlane]

...

The joy of working with perfectly flat stock, can not be exaggerated.

...

This ^.

That being said, I'm kind of like the OP in that if I don't need an exact rectangular chunk of wood for a specific part I may not joint it. The more complex the project the more likely every part gets treated the same and jointed.

[Andrew Seemann]

One thing to add is "plane long; edge joint short" I always plane boards as long as practical, so that the least amount is lost to snipe. I then rough cut the boards to length (unless the final length is really short) and edge joint. The shorter the boards, the more accurate your edge joint will be, especially if you don't have a really long jointer.

[Richard Coers]

The key statement is "fairly flat". If fairly flat is fine with you, then okay. But fairly flat is not okay in my shop. I usually buy my stock hit or miss planed to 15/16". That gives me material to further flatten and thickness to size.