How to deal with twist? (longish)

[Doug Miller]

Right -- but a bandsaw is still a better tool for this than a table saw.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[TWS]

Granted but OP doesn't have a BS. He listed his available tools in OP. Neither did I when I had to cut that large piece of cherry I cited in my previous post.

TWS

[TheNewGuy]

Thanks.

To do a bit of derailing, given what I posted as my current list of tools, (TS, CMS, router, bench disk/belt sander), I *have* been figuring a jointer would be the next "essential" powertool (assuming I'm more Normite than Neander). What would your suggestion be if different?

Understood. And thanks for your candor. This is the type of answer I was hoping for, "yes, it [ripping twist] has its risks; here they are, understand them; here's a safe way to do it when you need to."

I'm very safety aware; but I'm also an engineer by training, and so I'm always looking for solutions, and how to be efficient. "Tossing" a board because it has some twist..., well, maybe I'm gonna have to learn how to do that - or recognize when I'm better off doing that.

usually

I definitely have a couple good wood suppliers in town. But this still goes back to the Q. I posed to Doug Miller further up the thread - just because it leaves the supplier flat & straight don't mean it'll stay that way in my shop! And I gotta learn how to improve my odds there based on storage.

Thanks again, Chris

[TWS]

Well, think about it. You can't make parallel faces on a board with a jointer but you can flatten a board with a thickness planer. Edges are easy with TS and quick pass with a hand plane if necessary. Soooo, I would go with a thickness planer before a jointer. Takes up a lot less space when stored away also.

I have to admit it took me a long while before I learned to recognize the value of tossing a board that was more trouble than I was prepared to deal with. But if you're not there yet don't toss it - save it for a time when you think you're prepared to handle it. Just start out with decent wood for your initial projects.

Frankly, until you are in a position to flatten and surface wood I wouldn't bother storing wood. Get what you need for a project (plus waste of course) and have some success with your projects.

Also, learn how wood distorts so you don't end up with wood that's likely to distort after you get it home. There are two main reasons for distortion: the board has built in stresses that change after you cut off a piece of it. These changes take place soon after machining. The other reason is that the makeup of the board has different absorption characteristics and cups or bends as a result (for example a mix of sapwood and heartwood).

TWS