Hi All, I'm new to resawing lumber. Having come into about 20 bf of rough white oak, I need to get down to useable thicknesses. I finally have the tools to do it (bandsaw, jointer, thickness planer) and I was wondering the right steps to it. I'm guessing joint 1 side and 1 face, use the jointed side against the ts fence and rip the other side, the planed face against the fence on the bandsaw and finally run it through the thickness planer for my desired thickness. Is this the correct order or am I missing something? Thanks in advance,
You're close, but not quite there. You need to joint one face and then plane the other side on the thickness planer so it is flat and parallel to the first face. You do this first so that when you resaw the board you'll have a flat face to run down in the thickness planer after resawing. I find it much easier to face joint thicker boards than trying to do it after resawing, although that is also an option which probably can work just fine. As you said, you need one square and flat edge to run on the bandsaw table, but I usually wait to rip it to width on the table saw after I'm done resawing and thicknessing it.
Joint face one. Joint edge one. Resaw on band saw, place cutoff aside. Resaw on band saw, place cutoff aside.
-- repeat as necessary --
Now, let them acclimate a day or so.
I then treat the boards as I would any other rough lumber:
Joint face one on all boards. Run all boards through thicknesser, jointed face down. Select one edge and joint that 90 degrees to a face. Mark this corner. I don't rip to width until I use the boards
Note: I do both faces and then an edge, as this allows me to choose the straighter edge and/or better figure and still have the grain oriented properly over the jointer cuttterhead. Some folks prefer face 1 ->
That's exactly what I meant, Wilson. When I resaw, I usually start with a board thick enough to get two usable pieces, otherwise what's the point? I guess it can save your planer knives some wear and tear by cutting off the excess before thicknessing, but if I have 3/4" material and need 1/2", I'm not going to bother resawing. If I have 1" and need 3/8", however, I'll definitely resaw - to get two pieces thick enough to use. It is this situation that I was referring to, where it is my practice to joint both faces and before resawing so I have a flat reference face for each piece for the thickness planer.
Now, if I'm starting with a really thick piece - say 10/4 or something, and want 3/4" or so material. That's the situation where I'd do what Barry suggested and only joint one face and then do multiple "resawings" to get as many usable pieces as possible. In this case I wouldn't usually bother jointing the offcuts to get a flat face until after the resawing was done. I do, however, cut very fat - probably at least 7/8" and more likely 1" - to be sure I can take out any cup that might develop after resawing.
There's probably a ton of different ways to approach this, as in most things.
That's more or less what I'm planning. The material is 5/4 so I'm thinking I can get 1/2" and 1/4" surfaced boards out of it (these are the thicknesses I need for the majority of my scroll projects). Thanks for the tips, it never dawned on me to joint both sides first.
Depending on the tenderness of the kiln, you may get some dramatic movement upon resawing. My recommendation is to plane but one side, take the 1/2" plus from there, realizing it may take a pass on either side to get the board right after relaxing for a few stickered days.
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