which way to go ?

[mrbingley]

Hi, Long time reading the posts (very enjoyable), first time posting. I'm making myself a fold-down workbench, roughly copied from one I spotted in a catalogue. My material to work with is some 4' X 9" X 1 1/2" pine, which I'm going to "thickness" down to approx 1" and then double up the boards to give me a top of approx 2". I intend to rip the boards approx two thirds of their width and stagger the joints with the odd widths so that I don't get the glue joints all in a line. Is it best to thickness the boards at their full width first and then rip them to width, or rip them first and then thickness them ? Thanks in advance for any help with question.

Chris.

[todd the wood junkie]

It may be decided by the equipment you own, but personally I'd tend to favor thicknessing at full width and then ripping. Main reason is effort. I like to favor running fewer, wider boards (especially pine) through the planer as opposed to the effort of a bunch of skinny ones.

[Bill Wallace]

If I understand your intentions, then you should thickness first, then rip. In this way, all of the boards will be exactly the same thickness. Even if you don't change the settings on a planer, two boards following each other can have slightly different thicknesses, depending on how much drag the cause on the cutter, etc.