As can probably be deduced from this question, I am fairly new to woodworking and only do it as a hobby. I have amassed a decent collection of tools and have built a 380 sq ft shop out back. Fortunately, I have an excellent source for rough lumber less than 2 miles from the house. As of right now, I do not have a thickness planer, so I usually get them to plane it to 1/8″ over thickness, then take it down to thickness using my jointer and a hand plane. My question is this: after I buy the wood and let it acclimate to my shop, what process do you guys recommend for milling the wood?
My thoughts are to crosscut it with my miter saw first (over length of course), joint one edge, rip it to width (slightly over to allow for cleaning up of saw marks), then final crosscut to length. Does this make sense or do I need to change something around? Any help would be great!
Tom
Replies
Cut to rough dimensions several days before you want to use the pieces. The wood will move and you may be surprised by how much. I've seen many boards that were straightlined (the yard ran them over their jointer) and when I ripped pieces from them the pieces were "off straight" by at least a quarter of an inch.
I have a shop-made jig that I use to straightline boards on my saw. So, I rip oversize, stabilize, and then straightline on my saw, leaving a little extra for sanding, cleaning up. I have an Incra TS-3 setup, so I can rip to a 16th oversize and then take a 32nd off of each edge. I use a Freud glueline rip blade, and I usually get pieces that go straight to the glueup table.
John
Hi Tom. If you know what each piece of wood is going to be used for, cut it at its rough dimension before letting it settle in your shop. After letting it climatize, at a rough size, I would
joint a face
joint an edge
rip to width
joint the ripped edge
plane to consistent thickness
crosscut to length.
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