Feel like I live in a decent lumber desert

[Brian Runau]

I live in Indianapolis and either I am terrible about milling lumber or not able to get my hands on flat sanded stock.

I bought some walnut from Northwest Lumber. Not cheap stuff. 13/16" thick sanded one side. It was not flat on either side and I need 65" lengths for a dresser top. The boards are bowed end to end in addition to not being flat across the face. I could mill out the flat issue across the face with the extra 1/16", but a little bowing over the 65" created a problem. When I need shorter lengths for projects it is not an issue since I cut them down and this seems to make it easier to mill it. I have a nice Grizzly 8" jointer that I used for many years and does a good job.

I did the best I could to get a flat side and square edge and still have 3/4" finished thickness, but I will have to pull some of the pieces together using stub tenons to create a flat side when I glue up. The bottom side is not all milled flat due to thickness required. pretty good and no one will see it.

Am I really bad at this or is this a common issue? I supposed I can buy unmilled 4/4" so it is not an issue.

Thanks.

Brian

[Stewart Lang]

Best to work with a local lumber yard where you can trust the supply that they get, and more importantly pick out boards for your projects. When you get lumber shipped in, they'll just send you whatever, and often times the locals have picked out the good stuff, so you get the leftovers. Every supplier is different of course though. Some are better than others.

I also prefer buying rough stock and dimensioning myself. I think it makes a little bit of difference in what you can get out of the boards. But you're also at a bit of disadvantage since you can't immediately see what's beneath the surface, so to speak. Pros and cons I suppose.

[Charles Grauer]

I buy rough sawed 4/4 so I have room to bring it true and have 3/4”. That is very poor wood stock u got. I would ask to have it replaced or just go someplace else. There should be a good supplier in your neck of the woods. Charles

[Randy Heinemann]

I assume you don't own a jointer or planer. Over the years I found that acquiring these tools is the only way to get high quality hardwoods at a reasonable price (reasonable most of the time).

Flattening one side on the jointer, then planing it flat to thickness, then jointing one edge, and finally cutting to width and jointing that final edge.

However, if you don't own a jointer or planer, then I would try to make contact with a local woodworking club/guild in your area. There must be at least one in the Indianapolis area. Once involved with the guild/club, I'm sure you can find a resource within the club or recommendations from the club members to either use a jointer and planer or buy these services.

I have never had any consistent success buying already flattened and/or thicknesses hardwood that doesn't have some problem. Unless this prep work is done at the time you buy the lumber, the boards are still likely to cup, twist, or become malformed in some way just sitting at the lumber yard. Even if you acquire a jointer and planer and do this work yourself, you must still allow the wood to condition in your shop before doing final prep work.

I'm not lecturing; just letting you know that it is extremely difficult to get good quality hardwood lumber to build quality furniture unless you are in control of prepping the boards yourself or work with someone directly to do it with you.

Look for the local woodworking club. You'll never regret it.

[Stewart Lang]

I assume you don't own a jointer or planer. Over the years I found that acquiring these tools is the only way to get high quality hardwoods at a reasonable price (reasonable most of the time).

Flattening one side on the jointer, then planing it flat to thickness, then jointing one edge, and finally cutting to width and jointing that final edge.

However, if you don't own a jointer or planer, then I would try to make contact with a local woodworking club/guild in your area. There must be at least one in the Indianapolis area. Once involved with the guild/club, I'm sure you can find a resource within the club or recommendations from the club members to either use a jointer and planer or buy these services.

I have never had any consistent success buying already flattened and/or thicknesses hardwood that doesn't have some problem. Unless this prep work is done at the time you buy the lumber, the boards are still likely to cup, twist, or become malformed in some way just sitting at the lumber yard. Even if you acquire a jointer and planer and do this work yourself, you must still allow the wood to condition in your shop before doing final prep work.

I'm not lecturing; just letting you know that it is extremely difficult to get good quality hardwood lumber to build quality furniture unless you are in control of prepping the boards yourself or work with someone directly to do it with you.

Look for the local woodworking club. You'll never regret it.

Randy, I agree with your points. He did mention he has an 8" jointer though, so he probably knows what he's doing as far as milling comes.

[Bill Carey]

Hey Brian - if West Lafayette isn't too far try Cassen's Lumber. Dan is a great guy with reasonable prices and fine lumber.
Here are his current walnut prices per bf:

2019-11-04_12h38_52.jpg

[Edward Dyas]

I live in Indianapolis and either I am terrible about milling lumber or not able to get my hands on flat sanded stock.

I bought some walnut from Northwest Lumber. Not cheap stuff. 13/16" thick sanded one side. It was not flat on either side and I need 65" lengths for a dresser top. The boards are bowed end to end in addition to not being flat across the face. I could mill out the flat issue across the face with the extra 1/16", but a little bowing over the 65" created a problem. When I need shorter lengths for projects it is not an issue since I cut them down and this seems to make it easier to mill it. I have a nice Grizzly 8" jointer that I used for many years and does a good job.

I did the best I could to get a flat side and square edge and still have 3/4" finished thickness, but I will have to pull some of the pieces together using stub tenons to create a flat side when I glue up. The bottom side is not all milled flat due to thickness required. pretty good and no one will see it.

Am I really bad at this or is this a common issue? I supposed I can buy unmilled 4/4" so it is not an issue.

Thanks.

Brian

A brief search looks like Northwest is your best option. It may be they got some bad wood now or they might sell the good stuff to someone that buys a 1000' or more. Will they let you go pick out the wood? This might help keep from getting all the culls. Another option if you have the equipment to work it you might get the wood rough sawn and machine it yourself. You could flatten the wood before surfacing it.

[Matt Day]

Hey Brian - if West Lafayette isn't too far try Cassen's Lumber. Dan is a great guy with reasonable prices and fine lumber.
Here are his current walnut prices per bf:

2019-11-04_12h38_52.jpg

It’s right around the corner from me, an hour+ from Indy. Stop by for a Purdue sporting event while you’re here!

[Bill Carey]

It’s right around the corner from me, an hour+ from Indy. Stop by for a Purdue sporting event while you’re here!

I'm up in Morocco so it takes me about 45 minutes to get there - and I hope to be down there this weekend to pick up some walnut for a conference table build. I've gotten some truly beautiful QSWO from Dan, and his selection of slabs is pretty good. Plus he's just a nice guy to sit around and have a conversation with. My 11 yr old grandson has taken programming classes at Purdue, and he has already decided that's where he wants to go. I never went to college so I have no allegiances one way or the other. Only team I follow anymore is the Blackhawks. The Bears are dead to me.

[Will Blick]

Brian, I just did battle with the exact same issue yesterday.
I had a bunch of 15/16 hard maple.... slightly surfaced, but the boards were cupped, bowed, etc.
I needed a large panel glue up of 6ft lengths. The boards were 8ft
I tried to find the best of the bunch, eyeing them down the edge like ww's prob. did 400 years ago
I found ones where I could cut off the last 2 ft where most of the probem areas were, reducing waste. My goal was 3/4" finished thickness.
I needed the top and bottom flat and parallel due to the installation. Off to my 12" jointer and planer.

Lesson learned, sometimes its hard to calc. what thickness will be left after joining and planning long boards. When jointing, I would eye the boards, and mark the high spots on edge to be as efficient as possible on the jointing operation. I would only put pressure on the marked areas when jointing, to minimize losss. As when u put too much pressure on long boards, u can start to remove material where its not required, as the wood has some flex that can cost u added waste. Remember, we are only holding the wood down near the blade on outfeed, so the wood can be influenced by our pressure. That strategy has saved me in the past. This time, the face jointing sitll consumed more material than I had hoped...

NOw, thin shavings in the planer, till I cleaned up the other side.... I hit 3/4" and 8 of 10 boards still had lots of untouched areas, argggg... so, I shot for 11/16".... still not there... finally, just barely got it at 5/8". I thought I was gonna achieve my 3/4" thickness goal, but I was off by 1/8" ! Now I am trying to build some ribs under for added support as these panels will take on a lot of weight. I hated to waste all that wood.

As u correclty stated, when the boards are shorter, MUCH less waste to get both faces flat and parallel, but its the long ones that can be quite deceiving. Next time I use long boards, I will start with less warped wood, or thicker wood when its mandatory I hit 3/4" final thickness. I rarely have this problem, but this maple was sitting too long, and wanted to do its own twistee dance over time.

I agree with other posters, ideally, go select your wood right before you start a project, nothing beats starting with the boards that are closer to true, u pay more, but no throw-aways like this would have been had it been for a more important project.

Dont feel bad, we all go through this. As an efficiency measure, try doing what I suggested next time, i.e. mark the high spots on the edge, and joint them first, only applying pressure in those areas, that surely reduces the amount of loss. Its quite easy to see them, or if you have a flat bench (I mean FLAT), lay it on the flat top, and you can easily see the high spots there.

[scott vroom]

That's the reason I only buy 15/16 and mill it myself.

[Will Blick]

I did start with 15/16", that was my point, and I still failed... sometimes just too much loss if the finished boards are long and twisted or cupped enough....

[Andrew Seemann]

Wood starts doing screwy things this time of the year in the midwest (spring too). The wood might have been Starrett-straight-edge flat in summer, but drop the humidity from summer to fall and it becomes a different shape. It likely will be worse in the dead of winter. It is just the nature of the material.

Proper drying, milling, acclimating, stacking, finishing, etc all help, but they don't change the fact that wood has curved growth rings and is hygroscopic. It will move and change shape with changes in humidity no matter what you do. Working around movement is just part of the challenge and art of woodworking.

[Will Blick]

Well said Andrew...
I tend to buy in bulk when I get a good deal on lumber... it can sit around my shop for years.
I might slow down on that practice

[Bill Dufour]

Update your location. Western deserts have much more wood then Middle east areas.
Bill D.