how to surface (flatten) wide rough stock?

Hello,

I have a 6" jointer and 1 12.5" thicknesser. Recently bought some 14 inch wide mahogany I want to use for door panels. I would truly prefer to NOT cut them in half so I can joint and thickness the surfaces.

I also have some 8 inch wide oak I would like to use as rails and stiles for the doors, and I would prefer to flatten this as a single piece before I run them thought the thicknesser.

So I am looking for suggestions on how to obtain a flat surface on the wood.

Should I plane only 6 inches flat on the jointer and hand plane the rest?

Should I consider planing 6 inches with the grain and the rest against the grain taking very light cuts on the jointer? I am pretty reluctant to try this one!

Or should I do it all by hand? (I have a #7, #6, and #4 but no jack plane.) If I do it by hand what is the proper method for obtaining a flat surface? Should I plane in an "X" pattern and then reverse direction? Good exercise but tedious and I am not convinced that I would get it right.

Are there other power tools that could provide a flat reference surface? Someone I spoke to suggest ed a sled, and a router, but I have no idea how to construct it.

And before someone says, "buy an 8" jointer" I already tried that with SWMBO and was soundly vetoed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dean Hummel

Reply to
Dean Hummel
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Cutting them in half won't help anyway.... they'll still be too wide. :-)

This came up a few months ago, and IIRC somebody had a pretty detailed description of a planer sled. There was also an article about building a sled in one of the woodworking magazines around that time, which was referred to in the discussions here. A Google Groups search on "jointer" and "sled" will probably turn it up.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Hi Dean,

Splitting the boards into pieces that fit your jointer can work fine. Take a look at the following link. It is an album of mine on my web site.

The pictures of interest are the two that have "joint" as the beginning of their filename. That was a wide Bubinga board that I split in half, resawed each piece (all 4), jointed the faces via handplane, thicknessed the pieces and edged glued the original pieces back together to make a top and bottom of the display cabinet you see in the pics.

The point being, I don't think you are going to find the joint where the pieces were glued back together. The Mahogany should be easier to match back together. The Oak more difficult. But its grain is probably no worse to match back than the Bubinga was.

Email me if you go this route and I'll help as much as I can.

Otherwise, your #6 will do a fine job. If there is much wind or bow to the boards, I would use a scrub plane prior to the #6 and finally the #4. Once you get one side flat, you can take light cuts through a planer as well, flip the board and do the side that you leveled by hand.

MikeW

Reply to
Mike W

Da Link, man... You forgot the Link! Tom,

Reply to
Thomas Bunetta

Oops, thanks Tom:

Reply to
Mike W

I had the same problem many years ago. I scouted the lunmber yars etc until I found one with a 24" planer. I made an appointment for an hours time, paid up front and had a thousand lineal feet taken care of. All I had to do was stand where the boards come out and load them in my truck. I had previously unloaded the boards where the operator could grab them and shove them in. The planer could handle several boards at the same time.

Reply to
Bob AZ

Reply to
Thomas Bunetta

Okay correct me if I'm wrong (which I'm sure you all will), but I'd swear I read on the wreck or heard David Marks say on his show, that if you're going to use a really wide piece of wood, that you should split it, let is sit for a few days, and then joint it and glue it back together in order to release the tension in it. The theory is that over time, a wide piece of wood will move a great deal and by splitting it, you can get it to move more quickly and have a more stable piece in the future.

Reply to
D Steck

You may be right about David Marks, but if he meant it to apply to _any_ wide board, he was wrong. It's the orientation of the growth rings, their placement and spacing which make the difference.

A piece of wood made up of narrow boards will move as much as a single board, all other factors remaining equal. In reality, however, there is a bit of randomization which may allow it to move less than some full boards. Looks like sh*t, though, just to compensate for the "stability."

Reply to
George

It doesn't need to. One should be able to rip, joint and reglue without disturbing the grain noticeably.

I showed in a message above what can be done, and I'm doing another in a couple days out of Mahogany. You won't be able to tell.

The whole flipping growth rings (up, down, up)--if that's what you mean--is a myth. Just place them for best looks.

MikeW

Reply to
Mike W

Well, would that be "many" or one board you're using?.

As long as we're at the dance, the reason you would rip and rejoin is to break the tight rings around the heart, where the rate of curvature is the highest. As luck would have it, the grain there is quartered, making an easy re-match possible. To make more than two boards to be reglued wouldn't do a bit of good, so I'm sure that's not what you mean.

If you do, get out and read Hoadley.

Reply to
George

How about forgettng the joiner and hand plane one side roughly flat . The easiest way I have found to do this is to use a scrub plane across the grain. Having done this run it through a planer with the just flattened side on the bed . Keep runnung it through the planer until the whole side is finished . flip and resurface the rough handplaned surface. Now leave it for a few days to let it stabilize, then recheck for flatness , if not, repeat the process until it is . don't forget to store when complete upright or at least where both sides get the same air exposure .....mjh

Reply to
mike hide

Less the "keep runnung," the way I do things. Nonetheless, if you have strongly curved annual rings in one area of the board, smart money breaks the continuity.

Reply to
George

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