The Right Way to Prepare Lumber

To true your wooden with machines, the steps you observe are important. This time-tested process is one of the simplest ways we all know of.

I get to meet many woodworkers across the nation at woodworking colleges, seminars and whereas answering e-mail messages. I discover that one subject pops up repeatedly: “What is the correct method for milling lumber?” You is perhaps accustomed to the essential steps which can be required to deliver the lumber to working order. But what you do, the way you do it, and in what order you do it should affect the mission from begin to end, and can make your initiatives run smoother.

To correctly mill your inventory utilizing machines you will have to have a jointer, a thickness planer and a desk noticed. In my opinion, these are the three most vital instruments in your store. They don’t want to be the “Cadillac” examples. I’ve been in a position to work with a variety of benchtop fashions that carry out extraordinarily effectively. Just having and utilizing them appropriately will put you mild years forward in constructing your initiatives.

Do you look again fondly on the many articles within the woodworking magazines on how to “tune up” your instruments? Probably not. You could have even uninterested in these articles, however they’re vital. The correct milling of your lumber is partially depending on the accuracy of your machines. If your planer and jointer knives aren’t stage with each other, your cuts is not going to be stage. Having the instruments set correctly is half the battle. The appropriate process is the opposite half.

You could also be tempted to bypass a number of of those steps and buy lumber that has a number of the milling full. I’m not a fan of shopping for lumber that’s S2S (surfaced two sides). This wooden, for probably the most half, comes via a double-sided thickness planer to the chosen thickness. These machines exert a lot stress on the board that they flatten the inventory because it enters the cutters. After it passes the knives, the board springs again to the unique form. This machine does an excellent job with flat boards, which we seldom see. However, in case your items are cupped, warped or twisted they are going to be that manner as they exit the machine – although they’re now a constant thickness all through. I counsel shopping for tough lumber and milling the inventory your self.

Start With Smaller Pieces

Some woodworkers begin milling the lumber in its full size and width as it’s pulled tough from the rack. If you’re employed this manner you are attempting to flatten a 6′ to 8′ size of wooden which may be 9″ or extra extensive. As you could have skilled, this could flip a big portion of your lumber into shavings.

For instance, when you’ve got a bow over the size of the board, by the point you flatten one face on the jointer you may cut back the board beneath your goal thickness. The similar holds true with extensive boards which can be cupped.

Rough slicing the width of any cupped board nearer to the dimensions wanted will get rid of pointless milling and produce much less wasted inventory.

Also, it’s not potential to precisely flatten a large piece of lumber by operating half the width on the jointer after which reversing the piece to full the milling on the remaining half of the identical face. I’ve seen many woodworkers try this feat.

The appropriate process is to first minimize your items right into a tough dimension that’s barely longer and wider than their required completed dimensions. Cut the boards to the place they’re about 1″ longer and a minimum of 1⁄4” wider than the completed sizes. As you rough-size the boards, minimize off checks on the ends.

Begin by crosscutting the tough items to dimension. I do most of my tough crosscutting with a chop noticed. If you will have a big store, a chop noticed with an outsized help desk works effectively. However, you can also use a jigsaw and make the cuts in your bench. Just lay out the lengths, slide the part to be minimize off the tip of your bench, and minimize the items you want.

One True Edge for Ripping

With the tough items crosscut, you will have to rip them to width. However, you shouldn’t run a tough edge in opposition to the fence of your desk noticed. It’s too harmful. So the jointer is our subsequent cease. We are all for acquiring one true edge that can run in opposition to our desk noticed’s fence. Here, we are able to take care of the variations in our inventory, comparable to a bow over the size of our inventory (it is a frequent downside that seems in an excellent portion of our tough lumber).

I start working with any criminal within the boards by inserting the convex crooked edge up as proven within the opening picture for this text. Work the 2 ends that can contact your jointer’s mattress, leaving the middle above the mattress. If you expertise a big criminal as you start to push the inventory into the blades, the board may ram the sting of the outfeed desk and are available to a cease. Do not drive the piece of wooden ahead. Simply pull the inventory again from the blades and make a second try at jointing the sting. You could have to run the piece a number of instances if the criminal is extraordinary.

Once the lead finish of the board clears the sting of the outfeed desk you’ll most likely discover that the piece is not going to hit the jointer knives once more till you method the trailing finish of the board’s edge. This is the time to research your board to decide the most effective path to take.

You have three decisions. First, you’ll be able to run the lead edge repeatedly over the knives till the board’s edge touches the blades over your entire size. This will end result within the entrance portion of your board being narrower than the rear space of the board.

I would choose this feature if I had an issue space on my inventory, both on the backside nook of the board’s forefront or on the higher nook of the board’s trailing edge. If it’s an issue on the main nook, I take away that space on the jointer. If it’s on the trailing edge, I minimize it away as I rip the board parallel on the noticed.

Another possibility is to take nearly all of the cuts on the trailing finish of the board’s edge. This can be completed by inserting the lead finish previous the jointer knives and onto the outfeed desk, then operating the rest of the board – slicing solely the trailing finish of the sting.

Working on this method would assist take away defects on the lead finish’s higher nook, or the trailing finish’s backside nook when the board is ripped to last width on the desk noticed.

Third, if there was no downside space or blemish to minimize away, you’ll take equal quantities of fabric off of every finish by operating the piece utterly over the knives with every go. If the criminal is extreme you could discover it useful to take away a number of passes of fabric at the forefront after which a number of passes on the trailing edge simply to preserve from operating your entire size over the knives with every go. This will preserve the inventory equally extensive on the ends whereas eradicating the criminal.

Next flip to the desk noticed. Place that jointed edge in opposition to the fence and rip the items to width, slicing them 1⁄4” oversize. Some woodworking colleges require that you simply rip all tough boards on the band noticed to get rid of any possibilities of kickback. This is a good suggestion in case your lumber is particularly bowed or twisted. Leave your self much more width if you’re roughing your piece utilizing this technique – say a couple of 1⁄2” – except you might be assured on the band noticed.

Now Flatten One Face

With the items minimize to tough dimension, the following step is to flatten one face of every board. While it’s finest to floor a board that’s equal to or lower than the width of your jointer knives, there are methods that can assist to develop that restrict considerably. But we’ll begin with the usual technique.

First maintain the piece on the mattress in order that the convex face is up. You ought to have two factors of your piece resting on the jointer’s mattress. This will preserve your inventory from shifting round as a lot as you push it over the knives. If you had been to place the convex face down on the jointer mattress, you possibly can rock the piece from aspect to aspect as you make a go over the knives, spoiling your accuracy.

You want to take a look at the grain so as to decide the proper course to run the inventory earlier than making a go over the knives. To decide the grain course of a board’s face, you want to study the grain alongside the board’s edge or the world that’s at 90° to the working face of the board.

You will get a smoother minimize when you begin the piece with the “fat” finish main into the knives. Some say the grain is operating “downhill.”

Generally, the piece may have grain strains that start someplace up the tip minimize of the lumber and run downhill (I name this the “fat” finish) to the underside face or the “thin” finish. (See image at far left.) Using this terminology, you must run the board from “fat to thin” as you make the minimize.

Set the depth of minimize of your jointer to 1⁄16” and run the piece over the jointer knives in order that one face is flat or surfaced. If you had been to run the piece within the reverse orientation you may see areas which can be being torn from the inventory as a result of the knives decide up the skinny, tailing-off edges of the grain that tend to tear.

Squeeze an additional inch or two out of your jointer through the use of it as you’ll to create a rabbet, then take away the unsurfaced space with a aircraft.

If you will have materials that’s barely wider than your jointer, you don’t want to rip the piece in half so as to full the milling. See your proprietor’s handbook on how to take away the blade guard in your jointer. Make a go over the knives. There can be a tough space left alongside the sting that the knives didn’t hit. This could be simply eliminated with a handplane earlier than going to the thickness planer. Be certain to then substitute the guard in accordance to your handbook.

Flattening inventory on the jointer doesn’t imply to utterly floor the face. This piece will sit flat and secure when it’s despatched to the planer.

Plane to Thickness

The planer is the following cease and it’ll deliver all of the inventory to the identical thickness, primarily smoothing the alternative face from that surfaced on the jointer. The knives on the planer are above the desk and your inventory, so you will have to orient your piece to once more run from “fat to thin” by wanting on the edge grain in relation to the highest face. Here is the trick: Keep your items in the identical orientation as they had been run over the jointer knives, as a result of typically the final finish over the jointer is the primary finish into the thickness planer.

Angling your inventory to the blades at both the jointer or planer will present a smoother minimize and reduce the damage in your knives by beginning the minimize on the level of the nook as an alternative of the blunt finish of the board.

Adjust the minimize by 1⁄16” with every go via the planer. When you get the second face surfaced almost flat (it is not going to wiggle if positioned on a tabletop) you want to start to flip the board in order that passes are taken from every face. This must be achieved whereas sustaining the suitable orientation to the knives, which means to preserve slicing with the “fat-to-thin” method. To accomplish this, the boards want to flip finish over finish after every go.

The purpose that that is so vital is as a result of as you take away materials out of your inventory, you might be exposing areas which have extra moisture than the outermost surfaces of the tough boards. If you’re taking extra materials from one face than the opposite, the board will have a tendency to dry inconsistently and is extra apt to cup or warp. Run the items whereas incrementally adjusting the planer minimize to the specified thickness.

The Fat-To-Thin Technique: Flipping your inventory finish over finish works double obligation. It will preserve the right milling orientation in line and preserve any moisture ranges constant from face to face

Jointing an Edge (Again)

When the 2 faces of the board are flat and the board is the proper thickness, we’d like to return to the jointer to run an edge. Wait a minute! Didn’t we already do that earlier than we minimize the inventory to tough sizes? You are appropriate, however that edge was run earlier than we had the 2 faces parallel and flat. If you resolve to use that edge, I can guarantee you that it’s going to not be at 90° to both face of your board. Remember that it was created when the 2 faces had been within the tough. That will trigger issues in lots of areas.

With the faces surfaced and parallel, a cease on the jointer ensures a 90° edge in relation to these faces – even when you cleaned that edge firstly.

If you resolve to glue these items right into a panel you’ll not get a decent, sq. glue joint which might trigger the panel to not be flat. If that is to be a part of a door body your mortise-and-tenon joint is perhaps problematic.

To alleviate any of those eventualities, run the sting on the jointer now. This must be achieved whereas holding a face of the inventory in opposition to the jointer fence and making a go over the knives in the identical “fat to thin” grain-orientation method. This ensures that the sting is at 90° to each faces.

Cut to Finished Width

We now have our items at S3S and are prepared for the following step in milling, which is on the desk noticed. Choosing a blade for this operation could be thoughts numbing. You can choose a ripping blade that has 24 tooth or select a mixture blade that has 40, 50 – even 60 tooth. There are blades designed for plywood and melamine, and a few blades are Teflon coated. You could resolve to use a special blade for every materials – however I don’t.

I don’t like to spend the time in my store altering blades on my instruments. If I’m doing that I’m not “making sawdust.” I additionally don’t use my desk noticed to crosscut fairly often.

I discovered that it’s finest to use a 50-tooth mixture blade. It will produce a pleasant minimize when ripping, can deal with crosscutting if I select, and won’t have to be modified out for many jobs.

Once you will have chosen a blade, set the blade’s top for ripping the inventory. I deliver the carbide tooth simply above the thickness of my materials. This permits the waste materials to be cleared from the minimize, helps preserve the blade cool and lessens the possibilities of burning the inventory as it’s ripped.

Here is the place you will discover that step one we took, slicing our items to barely oversize, actually helps. If you try to rip a large board down the center and it’s not totally secure, you will get motion that causes the inventory to burn. This is much less probably to occur with the items minimize to simply barely over the ultimate width.

That’s as a result of the quantity of fabric on the off fall aspect of the blade is not going to have sufficient drive in motion to bind the blade.

Hand Placement and Push Sticks

Some woodworkers are nice working across the blade whereas others can barely place their arms flat on the desk. As your expertise utilizing the desk noticed grows you’ll change into extra snug along with your hand placement, in addition to with the width of boards that you’ll minimize with out utilizing any push sticks. A standard rule of thumb is that inventory lower than 6″ extensive requires a push stick.

Push sticks might help information your inventory in addition to maintain it tight to the fence and desk. They are invaluable instruments in your store.

Position your inventory on the noticed and let your left hand maintain the piece on the edge and in opposition to the fence with mild stress. Use a push stick to information the piece via the blade. As you progress ahead, enable your left hand to proceed transferring with the piece till you attain the sting of the desk noticed’s throat plate. At that time, cease the ahead progress of your left hand and permit the inventory to slide on as it’s minimize.

One factor that’s vital to keep in mind is to enable the push stick to utterly go the blade prior to releasing the push stick from the inventory.

The final step in milling your lumber is to crosscut the piece to its last dimension. The accuracy of a miter noticed is definitely an excellent wager. But when you’ve got the 50-tooth blade, the desk noticed can be utilized fairly successfully.

From the jointer, to the thickness planer, then again to the jointer and end on the desk noticed. Milling wooden with the grain orientation set appropriately will assist to enhance your woodworking skills and your initiatives. You will start to marvel why your expertise with the less-than-flat panels has disappeared and has been changed with straightforward glue assemblies and extra accomplished initiatives coming out of your store. You know the saying: “It’s the little things that make the difference.”