Originally Posted by
Adam Herd
I bought the boards pre planned so they should all be the same thickness.
I missed this in my original read of the thread. There is pretty much zero chance that purchased pre-surfaced boards are all going to be the same thickness. They will be close, but chances are they all came off a machine at different times or are from different trees or are at slightly different moisture content, etc. You will always need to pick a surface for each board that will be "top" and then either index on that surface or the opposite one for your glue up. One surface can be reasonably flat, but the opposite side will most likely have more noticeable variations in thickness. In full disclosure, the same holds true for stock one prepares in their own shop from rough. It's extremely unlikely that eery board will be perfectly the same thickness.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...