Dry rough cut lumber preparation

[jeff...]

Guys I'd like to start a thread to discuss dried rough cut lumber preparation technique. I know a lot of folks enjoy less expensive rough cut lumber over buying Borg Lumber surfaced 4 sides (S4S). I thought it would be good to educate me and maybe others how you prepare your rough cut lumber.

Personally myself I take the following steps.

* I skip plan both faces to remove any high spots. on a 4/4 board I usually skip down to a 1 1/16".

* Then I take the lumber back to the saw mill and straight line rip one edge, I usually stack up common widths to lesson the amount of cutting time. With one cut I can do several boards...

* With one edge straight lined, I bring back to the shop and joint the same straight lined edge and one face to remove an cup / twist / mill marks / etc...

* Then I'll thickness plan the other face to a semi final thickness.

* Finally I'll rip the other edge on my table saw and joint that edge on the jointer.

* Now I have a square board and use a piece of chalk to outline the pieces I want to rough out for the project at hand.

Curious how you all work rough cut dried lumber and how to make it usable for your projects. I know you all don't have sawmills so it would be good to know the steps you take to shape up you rough cut stock.


Thanks

[DaveO]

With the rough cut lumber I have gotten for you here is how I go about it.

First, I cut longer boards to a more manageable length (close to what the longest piece in what I am making will be) on the Compound Miter Saw or RAS. The I rip them to about 6" wide (to fit my jointer) on the bandsaw. Unless I am doing something special that I need the wide board, and then I'll approach it another way.

Second, I face joint those boards flat.

Third, I plane the other side flat, and then flip flop the board to even out the stock removal until I get to the desired thickness. In the case of lumber from Jeff, this takes forever He mills his lumber nice and thick, and Scott dries it nice and flat, and the margin of error allowance to get it flat and straight isn't so great. So I spend a while planing to thickness.
Today I re-sawed two 1/2" boards(after jointing and planing) out of Jeff's 4/4 Beech stock

Fourth, I return to the jointer to flatten and square up one edge to the freshly milled face.

Finally I rip to final width on the tablesaw.

MTCW,
Dave

[walnutjerry]

What is MTCW?

Jerry

[cskipper]

I think it is "my two cents worth"

[walnutjerry]

I agree with what Dave has said basicly. Sometimes, after cross cutting, I will joint one edge first if there is much cup in the board, then rip, then joint one face berfore going to the planer. I try to do what produces the least waste.

Jerry

[Gofor]

Remember, You asked the question!

Caveats: I do not have a power thickness planer, and the only power jointer/planer I have is an old 3 1/2" Sears bench top model of dubious quality. I did not have a bandsaw until last week, so process will change accordingly. I hope to have good thickness planer and larger jointer/planer sometime in the future.

Definitions as I use them in the following:
Cup = Concave distortion across the face width of the board
Bow = Convex distortion along the face length of the board
Warp = Concave distortion along the edge length of the board
Twist = Changes in planar alignment along the length (not a Chubby Checker inspired dance)

The process:
1: Cut to approximate length but usually not less than 24".
2: Hand plane the twist out of the ends using twisting sticks as reference (at least a couple inches on each end.
3: Either handplane or use a clamp sled on tablesaw with the bow up and cup down to straightline the warp out of one edge. Sled is 5' long, so longer boards get hand planed.
4: Using long aux fence on tablesaw, flip board end to end and cut parallel straight edge on other side. Max width is 7" (twice the tablesaw max blade height)
5: Set tablesaw blade height to about 1/2 board width. With board on edge and cup toward fence, remove bow by running past blade and flipping board end-to-end keeping same side to fence.
6. Repeat process with fresh cut side to fence to remove cup.

At this point I have a relatively square board but it usually takes at least one more series of passes, first same side down to get square parallel edges, then with the down side to the fence for the first resaw to get a face square with the edges, and then the opposite face, to achieve a truly square and evenly dimensioned piece. If I have opposing face/edges that are not truly square, I will usually handplane the face to match the opposing side, as the flip method of resawing can leave a slighly uneven surface.
From this point I resaw or rip to the width and thickness I need for the project after I dump out the shop vacs, clean the filters etc, to get ready for more sawdust.

Time consuming, but it works. As you can see, the recently acquired bandsaw has the potential to greatly enhance my current process. Resawing on a tablesaw of boards greater than the max blade height is difficult at best and invariably will leave a trace of mismatched saw kerf in the face, even on the second or third pass. Straight lining using the sled also is limited to about the length of the sled.

The above process has also been successfully used on Borg constuction grade lumber, which is much more distorted than Jeff's sawmill lumber. It has also been used on kiln-dried white oak from a lumber supplier that was almost as bad as the Borg SYP, tho. Don't know if the white oak wasn't kilned properly or if it is that difficult to dry. I do know that splits developed as I cross cut the boards, giving an indication of the internal stress.

Go

[toolman]

I have done it two ways.

One way:
a1: Plained both face as did Jeff.
a2: Used my joiner and sq one side.
a3: Used my table saw to cut to about 1/16 to width.
a4: Finish plain face to size.
a5: Joint to width size.
It worked ok for me.

The next way was:
b1: Jointed one side.
b2: Sawed to 1/8 of width.
b3: Plained to size face.
b4: Jointed both sides to width sizes.
This worked ok as well.

I well give the a1 thru a3 of mine then use the jointer as Dave did get one face flat. then a4 and a5.

[Bas]

I'm still so new at woodworking I actually enjoy the process of jointing and planing (ooohh, shavings!), so keep that in mind.

1. Cut down the board to a reasonable length. 6' is about the maximum I'm comfortable with (I have a 6" jointer)
2. For narrow boards (6" or less), joint one face, then joint an edge (using the freshly jointed face against the fence)
3. Plane the opposite face
4. Rip the other edge on the table saw

If the board is wider, I usually joint an edge first, and rip it on the table saw using the jointed edge against the fence. At this point, I basically start the whole process again , including jointing the edge. The first jointing is just to have something to work with at the table saw.

When the lumber is very rough, I'll use the band saw to get it to something that resembles straight. I've even used a hand plane to get it to the point where a power tool can take over. If I watch Roy Underhill much longer I might even buy a hatchet.

Oh, and Borg lumber may be surfaced on all four sides, but with the exception of short pieces of oak, it is usually not straight, level, plumb or flat.

Bas.

[jglord]

There is another way. You avoid having to cut beautiful wide boards to fit power tools, and there is no noise other than the sweat sound of hand planes cutting wood. I will concede, it is very good exercise and lots of it.

1. Begin with the board cup side down and a scrub plane. Begin by cutting across the grain. Work the high points and check progress with a straight edge. When the board is flat.

2. Use a jack plane (I use a 14" home made wooden plane or a #5.) set for a fairly aggressive cut and work at 45 degrees to the grain and get the board fairly smooth.

3. do the final smoothing with a jointer plane (set for a nice fine cut) - working with the grain.

4. take a marking gauge and mark the desired thickness on all 4 sides.

5. repeat steps 1 - 3 on the cupped side. The final cuts with the jointer plane will cut off a small curl when you get to the cut made by the thickness gauge.

6. turn the board and cut the edges square first with the jack plane and then with the jointer - checking frequently with a square.

7. use a low angle plane like a block plane or a low angle jack plane to square the ends.

It really doesn't take all that long and is very satisfying. To learn the fine points of doing this, I very highly recommend Bill Anderson's hand plane class.

[Inflatable Screen Door]

Originally Posted by Bas

1. Cut down the board to a reasonable length. 6' is about the maximum I'm comfortable with (I have a 6" jointer)
2. For narrow boards (6" or less), joint one face, then joint an edge (using the freshly jointed face against the fence)
3. Plane the opposite face
4. Rip the other edge on the table saw

Bas.

That's the way I do it. With this method you use each machine one time. Jointer then planner then table saw. If your shop is small and you need to move things around to use a machine then this order can save some time.