# How to straighten and flatten boards



## CompleteRookie (Jul 1, 2009)

I consider myself a beginning woodworker. I have made the standard set of beginner projects, boxes, bookshelves, night stands, etc. My crowning achievement (so far) is the bed I made for my daughter. While I was extremely proud of it at the time, I look at it now and want to make firewood out of it and start over. I assume that most craftsmen feel that way about the early stuff. I guess I like to do a really good job and I know, in retrospect, that it could be better.

Which brings me to my main point. I have decided to not go too fancy on elaborate designs and stick with shaker and mission for a little while. I am doing this so I can hone more of my basic skills. The last woodtalk online helped me recognize this skill shortage. My wife has an endless supply of projects for me to practice on so no issue there. But I have learned that good straight boards are pretty darn important to a successful project. I do not own a planer, jointer or any hand planes.

Given that straight and flat boards are kind of important, how should I accomplish this? Should I purchase one or more of the above? Is there a better way? I do have a table saw, router, drill press, sander, and a pos band saw.

Any guidance would be appreciated.


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## Lochlainn1066 (Oct 18, 2010)

In a word, yes. You will need at least one or more of those three things.

There are three ways to go, depending on whether you want to work with hand tools or not. Planes are a slippery slope; use one and you end up buying a boatload. They're addictive. Also frustrating and more physical labor.

Path 1: Buy a planer and jointer. The standard duo.

Path 2: Buy a planer and joint using planes. This is what I do. I hate my jointer. I can't set it up accurately and I get a better result faster with planes. Then I use the planer to thickness quickly. I may be the only wierdo like this, YMMV.

Path 3. Do it all by hand. Ugh. Even in the old days they had apprentices. Nowadays our apprentices use electrons. I do it this way sometimes, but I'd hate to have to do it this way all the time.

The cost will be similar whichever path you take. Quality tools cost, even hand tools.

My suggestion: buy a decent thickness planer. You'll never NOT wish you had one.


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## Dryfly (Nov 6, 2010)

Hi CR,
I'm new to the forum, but not to woodworking. Firstly, good for you for jumping in and starting on some projects. That's how we all get experience. As ,for straight, flat pieces, you area correct. That is an absolute must, but there are several ways to get there. There are a few things to consider and mostly have to do with budget and how much room you have. If you are short on space then you want to have some tools do "double duty". By that I mean buy or make a bench-top router table and you can use it as a jointer for "edging" your boards. If you have a couple of hundred bucks, you can do what I did which is buy a Delta 4" bench-top jointer. It's basic and has an aluminum table but it's pretty accurate for squareness and I've done a lot of work with it. At some point I'll get a 6" or 8" stationary jointer, but for now this works great so long as the work isn't too wide. For a little more you can get a Jet with a cast iron table. A planer is a nice thing to have but cannot substitute for a jointer, whereas if the wood isn't flat and the edges not square to begin with, the planer will take it to a new thickness, but still not flat. Think of the jointer as a "flatener" or "straightener" and the planer as a "thicknesser".

My process is a pretty common one. I rip one straight edge on the TS, true it on the jointer, square an adjacent (flat) surface to the good edge on the jointer then take it to thickness with the planer. Those are the steps, but ,as I said, how you get there is a matter of how much you have to spend, and how much room you have. If you get the concept of what you are trying to accomplish, then you can usually find a tool to do it, without breaking the bank.

Above all, learn to "tune" your toolls; table saw especially, and with a good blade you should be able to get close to "glue ready" cuts.

Then there's always the hand planes. It depends on whether you want to take the Norm Abrams, or the Roy Underhill approach. If you go the hand plane route, get good planes and learn (I mean master ) how to sharpen and tune these tools. That's another whole discussion in itself.

Good luck.


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## Dryfly (Nov 6, 2010)

It just occured to me what your post might REALLY be about:

Since your wife has all those projects for you to do, you just might be looking for justification to say "Honey, the guys at Lumberjocks are telling me that I can't do your projects unless I get a jointer and a planer. I don't want to get them, but they're telling me I HAVE TO".

Man, you are a genius. You"ll have no problem firing out how to manipulate wood.

(lol)


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Thicknessing boards by hand with planes is real tedious but flattening one
side and using a planer for thicknessing is much easier. You learn a lot
about your wood when flattening boards by hand too.

The most important thing to plane out is usually twist. Some bowing is
usually no big deal, but you want to be able to rest the flattened side of
a board on its four corners on a flat bench.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Without a jointer, planer or hand planes you are pretty much limited to getting dressed lumber. You can save quite a bit of money and enjoy a far larger selection by dealing with rough lumber but you need the tools to dimension and mill the lumber. If you would like to look at some videos on the subject Woodtreks.com has three pretty good videos that explain how to do this.


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

You can edge joint with the table saw using a sacrificial fence with a 1/32" laminate attached to the outfeed side. You also can plane with a router and a sled to flatten and thickness a board. There is also a safety plane that can be attached to the drill press, but I wouldn't recommend using the safety plane myself. 
While its nice to have a jointer and a plane, you could also use hand planes to accomplish the tasks. Depending on your pocket book the jointer and planer would be my first suggestion depending how often they're needed. The least I would suggest is to buy a set of planes, a jointer, jack, smoothing and a block plane. Hand planes can be had for as expensive or inexpensive as you would like.


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## JasonWagner (Sep 10, 2009)

I could not purchase a planer and jointer together. I use my router table to edge joint one edge of the wood. You can search "jointing with a router" to see some ideas. I'm limited to only edge (not face jointing) jointing this way. I can use a circular saw to get a pretty straight edge then joint it on the router table. I got a benchtop planer (Dewalt 734) for an affordable price. The other thing you can do is have the lumber yard face and edge joint the boards for you. At a few dollar extra it's cheaper than buying tools right now and you can save up.


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Rookie, realize that what advice you are being given. You can get by with all kinds of alternatives and compromises. Tools usually have a primary purpose, but most also ahve alternative uses, as you can see. And many of them overlap.


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## nailbanger2 (Oct 17, 2009)

Don't mean to contradict anyone, but not all Delta tools are built the same. Research any tool you plan on buying, and the search feature on the upper right is a good place to look. Don't ask me how I know this.

http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/1551


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

You're correct in that straight and flat boards are important….everything falls in place from that point of reference. There is no faster way of dimensioning lumber than with a jointer and planer. There are other work arounds but none as efficient or as effective, and even those rely on a flat reference surface to replicate from. I prefer to use my hand planes for smoothing, trimming and fitting parts, and only use them for flattening on really wide surfaces that won't go through my planer. A used jointer and planer are always a possibility…they'll maintain roughly 100% of their value if you were to change your mind down the road.


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## Camper (Jul 31, 2010)

Also remember that by owning a jointer+planer you will save a bunch on material costs since rough sawn is much cheaper than dimensioned wood.

Both of these can be found on craigslist for much less than new ones cost and when you sharpen the blades and tune them up (if necessary) they are almost as good as new. My understanding is that the "technology" of jointers and planers have not changed much in the last couple of decades…sort of like internal combustion engines….basic idea is a couple of blades turning at high speeds on a cutterhead…

My personal experience is that using the right tool for the job greatly decreases the level of frustration and enhances the experience…..


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## Gofor (Jan 12, 2008)

If you have the time but not the money, go the hand plane route.

If you have the money but not the time, go the power route (both jointer and thickness planer).

If you have enough time to learn basic hand planing, and not enough money for both, get the hand planes and a thickness planer. The hand planes can flatten one side and straighten one edge, from which you can use the other power tools. In this case, I would advise getting a quality jack plane (more expensive) to cut down on much of the learning curve that comes with restoring an old one, but you will still have to learn how to sharpen the iron. A top quality jack plane with extra irons will cost less than a good jointer (around $300 for a Lie-Nielsen or Veritas). The advantage is that the plane will be ready to go out of the box, and all you have to do is learn to use it. Any problems can be found looking in the mirror. A cheap beater off e-bay throws in a whole bunch of other possibilities.

The down side of just going the hand-plane route is that SWMBO may not want to wait a couple years to see all this furniture rolling out of the shop, while you perfect your skills and then apply them..

Go

Definition: SWMBO =She Who Must Be Obeyed, sometimes known as LOML (Love of My Life), and CFO (chief Financial Officer).


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

If you want to get burly or lose some weight, get the hand planes.

Hand-dressing stock will get you in good shape. You'll also learn
one of the true fundamental skills of woodworking. The machines
just make the work faster, they don't really eliminate the need 
for skill from the craft and some woodworkers who have the best
machines produce dreadfully underdeveloped and sometimes ugly
work as a result of the rush-rush-rush attitude on can get when 
working with machines all the time.

Everybody who wants to do beautiful work should read the Krenov
books - he shows you when and why to use hand tools and identifies
the problems with over-reliance on machinery.


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

I'm with Loren 100%. I don't get paid for the projects I build, so I don't hurry them. Patience is key.

I am taking a woodworking course at the local tech school, and the instructor (a professional woodworker who moonlights at the school) has commented on how slow I am. He wasn't criticizing … just pointing out that if I depended on this stuff for my daily bread, I would have to go on a pretty meager diet.

I use a combination of machines and hand tools. On bigger stuff, my power jointer and power planer come in handy. But on smaller projects, it seems to me I do better with hand tools (I am fortunate in that I have assembled a pretty decent cadre of hand planes, chisels, saws, etc. and have a decent workbench with both end and face vises).


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## LateNightOwl (Aug 13, 2009)

Patron's tutorial really helped me understand how to mill wood flat and square.


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## CompleteRookie (Jul 1, 2009)

Lots of great advice here. Thank you. Given what everyone has stated and given my available time it makes sense that I look into getting both a jointer and a planer. I may still get some hand planes as it looks like they have some good uses even if the initial milling is done with machines. However as I thought more about this process, another question came up.

If you had a 1×6 board, you could surface 2 sides (the 1 and the 6) with a 6" or 8" jointer (I have seem videos where you joint both sides to ensure they are flat and square, so I assume this is the standard). However if a board is 1×10, how would you go about jointing the 2 faces? Would it need to be cut in half? Is that what typically happens on boards which are wider the 6" or 8"?

I saw this combo and thought it might be a mid-range choice.

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-8BT-8-Inch-Jointer-Planer/dp/B001O0D6NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291255340&sr=8-1

I still want to get a couple of hand planes however as I am positive that regardless of the quality of the machining, hand planes will add a refinement which cannot be matched otherwise. I was looking at the WoodRiver V3 series - they seem to be a good mid-range - above most but below LN and Veritas.


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

Yep.

You rip boards to a width that you can pass over your jointer's knives.

Not a bad thing, incidentally, because it allows you to alternate grain pattern* (when you edge join them, later), and-in so doing-create a more stable panel than the original board ever was!

Think:

)))((()))(((


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

CR, Just for clarification, you state that "...you could surface 2 sides (the 1 and the 6) with a 6" or 8" jointer…". From your other comments I'm sure you actually understand 'squaring wood' and this is merely a matter of wording. You'll joint the first face(side) and one edge with your jointer, then plane the opposite face on the planer. And lastly straighten the other edge with a table saw. All assuming the power tool route of course. 

BTW, lots of good and correct advice given to you by several folks here. Unbiased too from both camps. One of the best offerings of good info for a rookie I've seen in a while. You know when you're no longer a rookie, then you'll have to change your LJ username. LOL. Which may not be too far off…


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## khays (Aug 16, 2009)

Yep, I usually joint an edge, rip then plane and glue them back together with alternate grain pattern as NBeener said. Here is a link from Gary that looks pretty slick with a router. Basically you have a planer sled and you route two dados in the wood then put it on the planer sled to get a flat surface. At that point you can rip->plane or plane other side then rip the boards and use alternate grain pattern if you want and glue them back up or just rip to final dimensions. Lots of ways to go about it 

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/1992


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## khays (Aug 16, 2009)

You can always go to woodmagazine.com and watch free videos, google on how to use a jointer and planer to get a clear idea on what they are used for, which you seem to know already. It always helps though by watching someone actually do it.

Kevin


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## Dryfly (Nov 6, 2010)

Let me clarify my point about the Delta jointer. I am not advocating this jointer as a great solution. I agree that there is a lot to be desired with the tool, and only bought it because I needed it right away, and live in a rural area where my only choice was Lowe's. Had i been able to get Jet ( Otherwise a 3 hour drive and I needed to get a job done ASAP. $200 isn't chicken feed to me but it did get me out of a jamb. I have not had the trouble that Nailbanger had with it. As such it worked out well enough that I have been able to hold off on purchasing a CI floor jointer. I will do that however. I consider myself lucky, based on the comments made of the review linked to his tread. I do have to diddle around with the fence, which I regularly check for square, and sometimes have to re-set the darned thing. So far I haven't burned any wood as a reslt of not being able to square the edges. As for the tables, I haven't had any issues. I hope these words doesn't jinx me (LOL).

CR, as for the Jet combo, they make decent tools, but if I were to spend $400+, I'd want a longer jointer table and a wider planer. There are some great pointers in this thread about "edging" with a router, which you already have, and you can make a table. Here's a link to an easy one that you can attach to you table saw and use the TS fence ( http://www.woodworking-news.com/woodworking-projects/adding-router-extension.shtml ). You could go that rout for now and put the money in to a bench top planer. I'd go with t lease 12 1/2 or 13" wide. Please remember, though, that we all have our way of skinning the cat. This is just my opinion and how I might go if were my money.

Good luck.


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