milling rought lumber

Nice job Denis. I thought at first that you were just going to use the planer without shimming the lumber. Glad to see that you did with the second pass. That is something that a lot of woodworkers tend to “forget” when they are anxious to get started on a project. And nice idea about letting the lumber rest for a few days after the initial milling to account for wood movement and stress.

Nice video.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

If I could own one power tool, it would be a jointer. Or a planer. Or a jointer. Aw heck, I’m not picky. Just give me both.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

very informative video, congrats1 (Maybe try something a litlle different in regards to sound next time( bit patchy))

-- mwm! Before you criticise walk a mile in their shoes, and when you do criticise you will be a mile away and have their shoes!

very nice presentation. keep it up. i own a 6in jointer and a 13in planer. big planer, small jointer causes me problems as well as others. you have a neat solution

-- wm, brandon,ms

thanks everyone! and 93mwm i can’t really do much with the sound. i am only using a photo camera and it doesn’t have a mic input. but i will probably upgrade sometime soon. just have to stop spending my money on wood :)

i like this. i have neither a planer nor a proper jointer – been using a router table with longish fence for jointing.

If i understand you correctly, you’re using shims to support warped lumber going through the planer so that you can get both faces parallel after you plane both sides? that is, if you start with the concave side down, you place a shim in the hollow? so how many shim supports do you need under a bowed/cupped length?

Good vid Denis. My guess is you are a midfielder aka your lacrosse shirt…

-- Rich in Richmond

Nice work, Denis.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Denis, nice video thanks for the lesson. I have used a planer bed to flatten boards since the early 90s. I eventually sold my jointer because I never used it. For jointing edges, on short boards I use my router table and an extended fence. For boards longer than half the width of my jointing fence I use one of two “straight-edge shooting boards” that I built for one of my PC routers.

They are set up to take from 1/16 to 3/16 off (adjustable) in one pass. I made the shooting boards (one is 50” and the other is 100”) so I would not have to clamp and re-clamp the board and a straight edge onto the workbench every time.

I have never missed my jointer. As long as your planer bed is flat and true, and you shim properly, I am of the thought that this method is far superior to jointing. Most woodworkers never master the jointer anyway and unless the jointer has an extended infeed table long enough to accommodate the full length of the board or edge prior to entering the knives, then accurate jointing is not possible anyway.

I get admonished regularly by other woodworkers who do not like my philosophy. I’m glad to see you are blazing your own trail.

The only question I have is this: I noticed every time you put your headphones on, you turn them on. What kind of music are you listening to? ;-D

Edit: FYI I go back and forth from my classic rock station and talk radio. I listen to classical when I am in the shop on Sundays. I have had this tradition of listening to classical music on Sundays since 1981 when I was a flyboy in the USCG. I listen to Handel’s Water music, and Holst’s The Planets quite often. I throw in some Stravinsky, Beethoven and an occassional Mozart, but I prefer Water music most Sunday’s.

-- www.powdercreeksawmill.com

excellent Denis, allowing your wood to aclimate ,is crutial, that skim plane, acclimate thing is critical…it makes a world of difference in the stability of the wood, and the shimming , and use of a planer “dog” , to insure you have a true flat level surface from which the wood can index ,is also a must…you did a great job….good stuff

AaronK you don’t really need to put shims under the board. the board will not move that much over the width but you just need shims along the edges of the board for support. i usually put one anywhere from every foot to every 6 inches depending on the length of the board and the amount of warpage

PetVet yep I’m a midie :)

TexasTimbers yep i totally agree with you. those 6” and 8” ones aren’t that effective. if you’re like me, you and, Mr Neil. 8” capacity just won’t cut it. you can’t even get a little keeping chest out of that never mind a sugar chest. thats why the only time i would go for a jointer is if i was able to get one of those huge 16” ones with the like 8 ft beds. because like i;ve heard said before. modern woodworking is going downhill because people are relying to much on machinery and building projects based on the machines they have. like glueing up 10 boards to get 17” instead of buying your machines around your projects. just simple enough.

thanks for the notes TW. i dont know why i never considered this as a solution to my problem (too poor/cheap to buy both jointer and planer of sufficient size/quality). Whenever I’d read anything about making boards 4-square, no one ever wrote about using shims on a planer to remove cupping.

in addition to projects based on available resources (which is a problem that plagues WAY more than just woodworking, from hobbyists to industry), another thing that is often neglected in a lot of writing about woodworking that I have read is how to make do with what you have. I’ve read about what to buy first, jointer or planer, but in those discussions (by single authors – not in message boards like this) there was never a mention of how you could use a router instead of a jointer or how you could remove cup on a planer… infuriating! but there are several good lessons tucked away in all of this.

anyway, enough ranting/babbling. suffices to say, I’m glad this method works and will now seriously consider the purchase of a benchtop planer. thanks for bringing this to light.

your welcome. it does work well and thats why its good to be out there. i know i don’t do it for a living or anything but i do sell pieces and take in commissions. the real people who do woodworking for a living and have been doing it successfully for a long time are your best resource. they’ve been there done that. you can’t get much better than experience.

oh and Kevin. i forgot but i listed to rock. WBCN 104.1 i like it but i perfer metal but i don’t know any good metal stations. my favorite band is children of bodem.

best video since charles neil was over good job.

-- check out my amazing woodburning , Pat

thanks pat. you liked that little thing in the end too right! :)

TW this was cool. Thanks for taking the time to show your work and the process. In the later video’s you ought to get the hired help to move the camera for ya! :-) I’ve not seen support boards such as your MDF used with the planer before. That was great. I have seen some shows where they talked about shims being used with a planer and I was like ummm interesting but show me.

Thanks again

-- Jerry, Set in the foothills of the Smokey's

ah BCN…i used to live in boston. at one time WAAF actually played metal, but i dont think they do anymore.

you might try the college stations, particularly WZBC (boston college) which i think is the best station in town – they probably have a metal show in the program…real metal >:-)

You are a very knowledgeable and confident young man. I loved the video. If I can throw in my intermediate level garage floor workshop comments: I picked up a 6” jointer & 12” plane from Craigslist for 100 ea. I love the plane! My favorite part of the project. Now I buy rough wood. I hate the jointer & I ‘m glad so many experienced woodworkers feel the same. I like the router table/extended fence idea. Get a used plane….

ya denny that was great

-- check out my amazing woodburning , Pat

Hey TW, this was great! I’m newbie and have been trying to figure out how to get nice, straight stock for projects without paying through the nose for S4S stock. After you showing just how easy it is with a bench planer I’m elated and can’t wait till payday so I can pick up some more rough lumber! Thanks!

Thanks for the demo TWW!

I recently bought a new Jet 6” joiner and it is really a pain, not only to use but to have to cut down the width of the boards. My first project was a 8’ book shelf and it was virtually useless for long boards. My next project was a lazy suzan for my wife and it killed me to take a 8” piece of walnut and cut it into two 4” strips.
Wish I’d gotten a band saw instead.

After seeing your video I googled “Planer Sleds” to get some ideas. I did not like the idea of having to shim each board or wood glue it to the surface. I found the mother of all Planer Sleds here.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=5245

I think I’m going to go home and make a small version of this.

Jeff Sulman