Skip Planing Lumber

[Ted P]

I skip planed 75 or 80 board feet of lumber this morning, some for thought of projects, some because the rough boards came off the stack in the way of what I wanted. Which brought to mind ---- which is the better way to store lumber: in the rough as sawn and air dried for umpty years, or skip planing (plane to where most of the milling marks are gone)? Even though the lumber has been indoors for many years, I like to plane down to the lack of milling marks and let rest for a time before planing to my desired thickness.

When I mass plane lumber I prefer to do it outside where I can shovel the chips vs empty many dust collector bags indoors. (I made four collapsible leaf bags full of chips this morning - maybe 12 cubic feet) And I like to make it worthwhile wheeling the planer outdoors when I do. Should I be more careful in calculating what I need for projects and leave in the bulk in the rough? Or plane what I can handle each time I go for it and store skip planed? If skip planing is the better way, I obviously can plane lumber that has no instant use.

I have a few thousand board feet of a variety of species available to plane so it is unlikely I will over plane......

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[wndopdlr]

Good question and I will be following. I leave my lumber rough until I am ready to use it, then plane a little more than I think I will need. Not saying this is correct, just what I have done for years.

 

[joec]

I like to skip plane to see the grain and colors to match up when I start a project. Amazing the difference in color and grain in the same type of lumber.

 

[creasman]

FWIW, I don't plane it until needed. I do this for several reasons.

• Rough lumber often has warp or twist in it. Once I start a project and know the specific size of each board, then I lay these out on the rough lumber in such a way as to minimize the effort to get a flat board, and maximize use of the "gnarly" boards.
• Only planing what you needs means the plane blades stay sharper longer.
• I don't always know the desired thickness until I have a project.

Skip planing as you describe does have the advantage of seeing the wood grain better, and you haven't taken off too much.

 

[blackhawk]

Skip planing will make you lumber stack a lot neater having everything fairly flat.

 

[Rwe2156]

I don't skip plane lumber until I'm ready to do a project. But that's me. If I had a lot of lumber and wanted to sort/grade I would do the whole lot.

 

[joec]

I had a friend that used to buy lumber and plane it all down to 3/4 and then stack it. I never understood that approach as he did not have any margin if there was a slight twist etc.

 

[Willemjm]

I have a ton of skip planed Cherry, which I got for a steal on auction. It is mostly 7/8"
If I use it, I still have to joint and plane it, to get it perfectly flat.

 

[bob vaughan]

I had a friend that used to buy lumber and plane it all down to 3/4 and then stack it.

I did that once when I didn't have a planer and I was first starting in woodworking (1973±). Didn't do it twice. Went out and got a planer.