Do you buy lumber S2S?

[Jon Grider]

Jointing and planing lumber to final thickness is not one of my most favorite shop routines. I've always bought rough sawn lumber, but this AM while feeding several dozen bf of hard maple and cherry into the planer I started considering buying preplaned hardwoods and saving my back, arms and ears [yes I do wear earmuffs] for more pleasant pursuits. Questions for those who do buy preplaned lumber: 1] Does the lumber you buy come flattened on a jointer before being planed or just run through a planer? 2] What kind of a cost premium per bf are you paying for that service? Do you find storing and/or handling planed lumber problematic as far as getting dents and dings in the lumber? Just wondering. I'm thinking that the time savings may pay for the extra processing charge.

[glenn bradley]

It will be interesting to see the replies. I have never bought S2S that was usable for anything like furniture without additional attention. I would say your best bet is to buy a small quantity of wood that is S2S, make a wall cabinet with a drawer and door and see how it goes. Believe me, if buying prepared lumber removed the requirement of me milling I would have gone that way long ago ;-) I do buy it skip planed with one edge ripped.

[Ron Selzer]

I like to buy skip planed to 15/16". I believe this gives me a better look at the grain, an idea of how bad the board will warp and twist and saves hauling a lot of chips out of the basement.
Hobby shop, I do enjoy running lumber thru the planer. Just don't see the need to start off with rough sawn all the time. Used to, not very often now. Also I am not buying top grade as wife and kids demand knots and other imperfections to be shown prominently.
Ron

[George Bokros]

I have taken to doing like Ron does for the same reasons plus less work to flatten one face on the jointer. My source is also closer to me than where I was purchasing rough.

[Mel Fulks]

I have used it occasionaly in employments,but I don't like that method. With things like panels ,especialy when some
will be short , I cut to needed rough lengths where a bow changes lengthwise from convex to concave,making sure that Im not wasting anything. You should be able to sight and tell what lengths you will be able to get perfectly straight and free
of twist. Then after milling you have options as to where to cut for good grain match.

[Mark Bolton]

Search the archives. Beaten to death. Your a smart man. The price you pay to someone else (the mill) to bulk off those chips, handle those chips, and get you one straight edge, is money in the bank. We bring everything in S3S oversized. It lets the mill who has the capacity to efficiently handle the chips and feed them back into the boiler that dries the material, handle those chips. When it comes to your shop they are wasted, burned for nothing, or set out for the trash man to fill up the landfill. Bring in oversized or skip planed lets you still have a view of the figure and color to do in-house sorting/matching if needed and leaves you more than enough room to flatten if needed. If a job comes up where you have to work with totally wild low grade material you have to stick with rough.

There is no way in even in a modestly serious small shop operation that its smart to beat your machines, your knives, your body, your electric bill, to death handling those chips unless you just love it. Its lost dollars.

[Mel Fulks]

Sure ,Mark that is right. But today everything is called "high end" that translates to "standard stuff". I've had employers
tell me that some customers were so picky they had to really be careful. That's when I got to do all the panels. I remember one telling me the lady was pleased with her cabinets that she was in tears while running around like a
chased chicken "they are SO beautiful !" The way to get REAL high end is knowing what it is and accepting those jobs only
when you are sure you can deliver high end and get paid for it. I did an old heart pine breakfast room paneling for a
house that was 5 million in 1980. We bought lots of it . Some of the panels had pieces in them 3 or 4 inches wide ,but
they were matched with all rift and quarter sawn pieces matched for color. Not "toned".

[Mark Bolton]

matched with all rift and quarter sawn pieces matched for color. Not "toned".

Sure Mel, No doubt. But as a I mentioned, skipped, way over final thickness, STILL allows you miles of room to achieve some boutique drama finish on your part, enough thickness for reading grain, color, or any other form of voodoo magic that needs to happen to satisfy the job.

The point is, bulk handling of chips is nothing but a waste. Bark, saw kerf, wain, its all just drama. its going to be removed anyway. So as long as you bring your material in with enough room for whatever drama is required, let someone else handle those chips more efficiently AND hopefully put them to further use as opposed to simply winding up in a plastic trash bag (more plastic) at the foot of someones driveway, because they have some goofball notion that thats supposed to be part of the process. Its waste. Its anyones right to waste, but its waste. And its lost dollars which is what seems to be what the OP is getting at.

When we are in a rush and have to pull in a pack of dead rough because the mill doesnt have time to surface and straightline??? IT SUCKS BEYOND SUCK.. the chips, the off-falls, the time spend emptying the DC? Its a LOSER...

Even if I were doing boutique work I would bring my material in skipped with one straight edge unless I needed slabs.

The point is, handling chips is lost time and money no matter how you slice it. If you dont have to account for that.. good for you....

Sounds like the OP is doing a little smart math to me

[Mel Fulks]

I guess some of my dislike is conditioned from s2s coming in with too much removed ....and exposing rocks! Then I know
the "new guy " in the office did the buying...from a "friend".

[Mark Bolton]

I guess some of my dislike is conditioned from s2s coming in with too much removed ....and exposing rocks! Then I know
the "new guy " in the office did the buying...from a "friend".

If I ever got a rock in my material I would be dead shocked. Talking a mill that blades cost thousands. The logs they process have no rocks. Now maybe an uber odd slab yard sawing thick wide insane buggy, crotch inclusions, well then they know what they are in for and your going to be paying $5k for some termite eaten slab thats been pressure washed, sawn (multiple blades), RF dride to 8%, and loaded on a truck F.O.B. after cash payment.

Ive never, ever, gotten a rouge/ratty piece of material from any of 4 mills I have bought from. A rock would be a mile marker.

[Andrew Seemann]

I also hate processing rough lumber. I'm only a hobbyist, but even I think it is a waste of my time, back, and blades. I'm fine with doing a few dozen board feet, but for anything major I just have the lumber yard do it. The last batch I had them do was 150 bdft of cherry.

I get S2S with a straight line rip. I think it is only something like $36 for up to 180 bdft. In my mind that is basically free, especially if it saves me a few hours of my limited shop time. I have it planed oversize between a sixteenth and an eighth, so I can plane to final thickness. Sometimes I will run the SLR1E across the jointer as well, especially if it has been a while since it was ripped, sometimes you get some movement after a month or so. Either way, it is still much easier, you are only removing a few 32nds, rather than trying to straighten a half inch bow over 8 feet.

Plus honestly, the monster two sided Oliver they use does a better job from dead rough than my puny 8" jointer and 15" planer.

[Andrew Hughes]

I like facing and planing lumber. I buy both rough and pre planed boards. I’m a woodworking artist so I don’t think about money. Because if your worried about how much something cost or how long it takes your not making art.

[Jim Matthews]

I'm with Andrew Seeman.

Time is something I can't replace.

[Jim Becker]

I almost never buy pre surfaced lumber for woodworking, the exception being that my supplier of soft maple sells it skip planed, but there's no price disadvantage. The only pre-surfaced stuff I ever use is one-by stuff for construction/renovation purposes.

[Mark Bolton]

I like facing and planing lumber. I buy both rough and pre planed boards. I’m a woodworking artist so I don’t think about money. Because if your worried about how much something cost or how long it takes your not making art.

That's all well and good if the work you have access to, your retirement portfolio, your lifestyle, or your wife's blind acceptance of your pursuits, allows you that fortune. Unfortunatly many of the rest of us, art or otherwise, have to account for the actual dollars in and out of our shop. My accountant keeps me pretty clear on that and moreso that I'm personally not willing to work for a dollar an hour.

If you have the luxury of building bespoke work that generates a serious income weekly from your shop (a one man shop would eat 1500 a week on paper easy) I'm happy for you. I cant find a way to be profitable packing chips. I need to be in the real work.