How thick rough boards to start with before planing

[Adam W.]

As others have said, suppliers typically sell in fixed thicknesses and the smallest standard thickness you can probably use is 2 inch / 50 mm.

The discussion about work and machine wear to get the material down to your required measurement is interesting because I often don't do it that way. Getting down from 50mm to 38mm is going to be a lot of work no matter how you do it. I avoid working to fixed dimensions as much as possible.

I use hand tools only. Very often I find the thickness of the piece is quite arbitrary and it doesn't much matter how thick a part is. So long as it is thick enough to be strong enough and any extra thickness doesn't adversely affect the looks, that is OK with me. For example, I am currently preparing some table aprons that are coming out thicker than I need but what does it matter? Nobody will see that unless they climb underneath the table, and I am far too lazy to plane a few mm off just to reach some pre-determined thickness.

I expect the same thing will apply to many parts of your bed, so I would reduce the work required and the wear on your machines by just removing enough material to get the boards flat, straight & smooth (enough). What harm would it do if your finished pieces were 44 mm instead of 38 mm? What harm would it do if the left side of your bed was 43 mm and the right side 39 mm?

Or am I the only lazy sod here?

Modern timez, innit!

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, material thickness was nominal and differences were accommodated for in setting out and construction.

Today in machine controlled carpentry and joinery, 38mm is 38mm and nothing else will do.

 

[akirk]

Just bought 4 lengths of 2.5m oak (c. 150mm wide) from Yandles
One side was planed (presumably to allow you to see the grain)
each plank was < £30
Ran them all through my Triton lunchbox thicknesser - to be fair, had cut several into shorter lengths, so easier to handle, but still ran some full lengths through - thicknesser on a B&D workbench on the driveway...
wood went from 25mm thick to 23mm thick
easy job that took less than an hour start to finish including some other zebrano blanks at the same time...

38mm is very chunky oak - my 23mm finished dimension still looks very chunky and solid - why do you need 38mm?

 

[rogxwhit]

Hi

So I am wanting to order some oak, I need 2.4m long, 150mm wide boards at 38mm thick, but the cost was extreme for PAR. (8ft x 6" x 1.5")

I am thinking of buying them rough sawn and then planing and thicknessing them at home, but I was wondering what a guide starting point should be for the rough sawn thickness to order, as I appreciate there is going to be twist/bow/cup that I am going to have to get out.

Thanks,

Do you have a particular source of oak in mind? If so what's the provenance of their material (eg native, Euro, etc) and what form is it in (through & through, square-edged ...)? And what processing services can they offer?

It's hard to advise a strategy without a bit of context like that.

 

[rogxwhit]

Also, oak seems a bit overkill for a bed. How visible will it be in use?

 

[Jacob]

It's useful to look at stuff first before designing. Just measured my (IKEA) bed rails - 21 x 180 mm made of engineered beech (glued up bits), which could have been done from 1" very good well selected sawn boards, but you'd need 1 1/2 " to be sure.

 

[dzj]

When going from 50 to 38mm, don't do it in one go and plane a similar amount from
both sides.

 

[Adam W.]

I think oak's a fine choice for a bed.

 

[stuart little]

Ordering 1.5" PAR means taking it from standard sawn size of two inches so are wasting a lot of wood. PAR is not a good way to buy timber - it'll be bent in a few days or so anyway.
Rule of thumb says you probably loose 1/4" in planing sawn stuff
But it depends on the lengths of the finished pieces. If long you will lose more thickness in getting them straight, and vice versa. This is why you cut them to length from cutting list before starting any planing.
You might have to adjust your finished design sizes depending on the stock and how the planing goes. Or if you are committed to the design sizes then order stock thick enough to cover all eventualities

Just to add, allow enough length to cut off any snipe, if present.

 

[stuart little]

I think oak's a fine choice for a bed.

I made a double from reclaimed 'mahogany', mainly sapele.

 

[rogxwhit]

I think oak's a fine choice for a bed.

Yes, but if we all had oak beds there'd be no oak trees left ... then what would we make external joinery from ...? ;-)

 

[Adam W.]

UPVC of course......It's maintenance free!

 

[rogxwhit]

Well if the field's that wide open, maybe we might have PVC beds? (A bed wouldn't need the 'U').

But seriously, a bed isn't that structurally demanding, and often much of it is covered and can't be seen, and pine would fit the bill easily. Or is it a kind of vanity project ...?

 

[Adam W.]

Maybe the OP wants to build an oak bed and not a pine bed.

 

[Hornbeam]

Agree 38mm is very chunky. Rails on our bed which I made are about 20mm X 150 but then with a wide slat support inside which strengthens it a lot

 

[Hornbeam]

When going from 50 to 38mm, don't do it in one go and plane a similar amount from
both sides.

With the price of timber and the type of work I do, if I was going from 50mm to 38, I tend to plane and thickness to the maximum dimensions and then cut a bandsawn veneer/laminate off each side so I get something useful not just another bag of woodchips

 

[rogxwhit]

Maybe the OP wants to build an oak bed and not a pine bed.

That had occurred to me! But it can be interesting to stir the waters ...

 

[rogxwhit]

So I am wanting to order some oak

See what you've started?

An issue seems to be that 38mm doesn't readily relate to what can be economically derived from stock thicknesses. I feel prompted to suggest a finished thickness of 46 / 47 ... it's going to be heavy, though ... and I haven't seen your design.

 

[sawdustandwax]

Have a look at the 'specials' section on the Scawton timber site. It's 21 or 22mm par, if you want to finish at 38mm cut some strips and laminate them to the top and bottom of the rails. You can then concentrate on construction rather than preparation and save a lot of time and cash. 38mm for bed rails is overkill unless you're building it for baby elephants...

 

[Inspector]

With the price of timber and the type of work I do, if I was going from 50mm to 38, I tend to plane and thickness to the maximum dimensions and then cut a bandsawn veneer/laminate off each side so I get something useful not just another bag of woodchips

In some cases when you remove wood unevenly (band sawing off one side) from a board it bows or cups again and now you have a board that will be undersized when you clean it up. Might work well with quarter sawn wood that has been air dried slowly from old straight trees, but newer trees that are kiln dried often end up moving a lot.

Pete

 

[Jameshow]

Have a look at the 'specials' section on the Scawton timber site. It's 21 or 22mm par, if you want to finish at 38mm cut some strips and laminate them to the top and bottom of the rails. You can then concentrate on construction rather than preparation and save a lot of time and cash. 38mm for bed rails is overkill unless you're building it for baby elephants...

You could do a c section 42mm to and bottom say 49mm deep with a 20mm web.

Lighter weight but just as strong.