Face Jointing

That really depends on the availability & condition of the wood you are using. I have milled wood with some extreme mill chips in it. Had to remove lots from the surface to get a nice face. Are you planning on resawing & planing? I like to start with a thick piece. You never know what will happen to some pieces when you release the internal pressure. Some will twist & turn & if you start out too thin there is nothing left to fix the twists with.

I usually figure an 1/8 to 1/4 inch per face. I have some equal-pressure clamps I use whenever possible to keep the pieces aligned.

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

Generally speaking, you face joint one side of the board until it is flat, and then you plane the opposite side of the board to dimension it. Once you have done both sides, unless you have extraordinary figure on one side, it is best to continue to plane instead of face joint, alternating sides until you achieve your desired thickness.

Keep in mind that face jointing flattens one side of the board, and planing will machine it to consistent thickness.

You want to try to removed the same amount from each side of the board in order to keep the MC% levels consistent between the faced.

-- Scott, North Carolina, www.quartersawnoak.com

I’m thinking that a good width to start with is 6/4 stock I tried some that was 15/16 and most of it was to caddy wompuss to get to my target of 3/4 not to mention that my jointer knives are on the dull side.

If it is well sawn at the mill, 4/4 rough lumber will yield 3/4” S4S lumber.
If it is severely bowed, or you need long planks you may have to resort to 5/4 rough. I can’t imagine planing 6/4 rough down to 3/4 finished. That almost makes me cry.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

Generally I will try and get close to the 7/8”-1” unless there are apparent defects in the wood that you are jointing. If you have twist of gashes in the piece your jointing you have to start with much thicker wood.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

A good board you can usually get by with only taking 1/8” of each side, the stuff I usually buy ends up being more like 1/4” per side (mostly air dried from craigslist). All depends on quality of the wood and how much it moves around while cutting.

I usually cut piece down to rough size plus an inch in each dimension and then do my jointing/planing. That way I can use more badly warped pieces than if I were to joint/plane a board first and then cut it to size.

-- Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess. --Gandalf the Grey http://davidwahl.org/category/woodworking/

As others mentioned, it depends a lot on how the wood was milled and processed initially. At my local saw mill, I can easily get 2 clean faces between 1” and 7/8” (final thickness) out of 4/4 stock. At the hardwood re-seller I go to, I am right about 3/4” after cleaning mill marks from 4/4 stock.

I’ve found it also helps sometimes to pre-cut pieces into rough lengths before processing. There may be a twist present in a 10’ long board, but cutting into two 5’ sections often results in a lot less jointing/planing than trying to get the defect out of the entire 10’ board at once.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

There’s a lot of poor boards out there these days, ones with cup and even twist. It’s often a challenge to get 3/4” out of a board that is 1” rough thickness.

-- Dwight - "Free legal advice available - contact Dewey, Cheetam & Howe""

I think you guys need to find better sources for your lumber. I buy 4/4 rough sawn and have never had a problem getting a full 3/4 thickness. As a general rule, you lose 1/4” when milling lumber. 4/4 yields 3/4”, 5/4 yields 1”, 6/4 yields 1 1/4”, and so on.

It does help to cut the lumber down to rough dimensions first, especially to width if the board is badly cupped.

-- Friends don't let friends use right tilt contractor saws......

The 4/4 rough lumber I usually bought I could have both sides with clean faces end up at 7/8” thick. Just depends where you get your stock from.

I just re-read your post and realized that my earlier response does not address your question.

Typically you allow 1/8” per side for flattening and dimensioning the lumber. The exception to this is wide boards.

If you’re planning to leave them wide, once you go past 7” or so in width it is a good idea to add an extra 1/16 – 1/8” per side to allow for any wood movement across the wide board.

-- Scott, North Carolina, www.quartersawnoak.com

mill your lumber and get an an even thickness from what you have then go from there the thicker the better that way when your jointing your wood you wont be pushing a bow down and then gettin bowed wood after you face joint something I done myself even when you mill you will still have enternaL stresses that you have to contend with so the wood has to acclamte to the shop that your in its a process that has to be done for good straight lumber watch Charles Neil on building a pie safe and you will learn alot about milling he rarely uses a jointer in this video but its a good video

-- Stevo, work in tha city woodshop in the country

I would like to say thanks to everyone for there input on this matter