Millling longer lumber using a planer sled

[Robert Hazelwood]

So with the piece of lumber I have, at this point in an attempt to see if I can make it usable, would you suggest I flatten one side using the planer sled or just take the partially flattened side down and send it through the planet without using the sled to see if I can get a milled side and hold the 3/4" thickness? thanks Brian

Depends, I'm not sure how much thickness you have left to work with. At some point you'll make it thinner than the other boards and then those will have to get planed down too. If you're at that point then I would just run it through the planer with your mostly-flattened side down and take some material off the convex side. You might find the board straightens out some on its own when you do that. If not then just skip plane until it matches the other boards in thickness and leave the bow. In long 3/4" material that bow should clamp out easily for glue-up. It will be held straight by the other boards and by whatever you are fastening the top down to, so I think you are likely to come out alright if you can't get all of that bow out.

[Mel Fulks]

I would remove wood from the convex side , that often makes the board straighter on both sides .

[lou Brava]

Not exactly sure, but if your board has a planed surface and ready for glue up except the problem is a bow and planing the bow out will render the board to thin. Than I'd just choose bottom and cut 3 relief kerfs across the bottom face of the board maybe 1/4" or a bit deeper. This will allow the board to lay reasonably flat and you will have no problem getting the top to flush up with your straight boards during glue up. I've done this few times on 8' long 5/4 stock.

[Randy Heinemann]

I just had a similar experience with 6' quarter sawn oak. I ended up using Dominos to get the boards to line up on one side. This was after attempting to plane the ends to get rid of the bow. I wish I had just used Dominos before trying to flatten one side. I would have had more wood to work with. In the end I got a final table top of 11/16" instead of 3/4" which I think will still work (hopefully considering there is about $200 worth of quarter sawn oak in the top. Next time I will just attempt to use Dominos to get the side I plan to use for the visible top, get them joined, and then flatten them. Unfortunately I think this only works if they aren't all cupped end to end (which mine weren't).

Also, a drum sander is sometimes more useful with this situation as it's main function is to flatten. It takes awhile, but it does work better than a planer or jointer sometimes.