Preparing Sawn Boards

[PeterBassett]

Hi all.

I'm starting my first hardwood project, a step stool in american oak.

I've sourced my raw material, 3 sawn boards. I got sawn rather than pse because it was basically twice the price to get them machined, and I'm tight considering this is my first attempt. They are pretty straight, no cupping at all and only a hint of bowing in one board.

Anyway, I'm off to the night class tonight where they have a table saw and thicknesser but no planer and I'm thinking of ways to convert the boards.

Can I just get your opinions on my plans?

They are 2.7m * 160-190mm * 25-30mm boards

I figured I'd put the boards through the thicknesser whole to get down to a reasonably clean surface. I won't go down to finished thickness tonight.

Then I can mark out my pieces on the boards and roughly cross cut by hand and finally run them through the table saw to clean up the edge sides. If I'm right that should leave square sides.

The boards each have one pretty straight edge and I figured this would be straight enough for the table saw once they were a little shorter.

Another thought is cleaning the edge sides with a plane, I have a 4, 5.5 and 7 available to me, would this be better than the tablesaw? I could alternatively use an electric hand plane?

My thought was to get the pieces out oversize and too thick tonight and then leave them in the house for a week before going to final thickness next week at school with their thicknesser. Depending on the quality of cut from their tablesaw I could then either get final dimensions there or at home.

At home I have a DeWalt radial arm with a new freud blade which I was hoping to use to get final dimensions with. I thought I'd get a cleaner cut surface from it than the (wadkin) table saw at school because they seem to have trouble with blades in general.

Any thoughts? Any comments are welcome.

Thanks

Pete

 

[mickthetree]

Hi Pete

I'm no expert, but it sounds like you have more wood than you need for this project? I would therefore mark out a piece to use and cut this from the boards to use.

You then have a much smaller piece to work with.

You'll need to cut slightly more than you need incase the thicknesser causes snipe on the board.

Once you have a smaller piece, you can then see if there is any cup, twist, bow.

You my already have this covered, but thought I'd mention it.

Good luck with it all.

Paul

 

[PeterBassett]

Hi.

It certainly looks like a hell of a lot of wood for a step stool, but it is what the plans call for.

I'm a bit nervous of cutting it down before getting a look at the wood proper incase I go through somewhere I would have liked to get a component from, IYSWIM. It may be inevitable though.

The step stool is this one.

It's out of a TimeLife woodworking plans book.

Pete

 

[woodbloke]

The problem here is that you actually need to plane one surface (the face side) before they can be thicknessed. Stuffing all the boards through the thicknesser will only clean them up, it won't make them straight or true. If one has a tiny bit of twist or wind in it, this will be transferred when it's thicknessed...so the finished board will be twisted.
I would cut the boards into oversize sections and then hand plane a face side. If that sounds like a lot of work, then find a local joiner or cabinet maker who could do the initial prep of the boards for you - Rob

 

[lurker]

Pete

Looks a reasonable plan.

The college TS should be good enough to do all your length/ width dimensions with just an added tickle from a hand plane

Forget the electric plane they are the work of the devil!

You might consider knocking up a simple shute board (unless you have one) out of 18mm MDF whilst you have access to the college tools. This will help you progress your project when you are at home.

 

[PeterBassett]

So the thicknesser won't index off the rough side and clean up the other side?

I realise that I won't get a dead straight 8 foot board out of this process, but I don't need that do I? I'll get a board which is good enough to cut down to size and which can be put through the thicknesser again at a later date.

Or are you saying that any slight curve of the board will just make the thicknesser not do it's job?

If I were to clean up the surface myself, would this be a job for my 5.5 or 7. And it only needs to be flat right, not perfect? So I can then put it through the thicknesser?

Thank you both very much for the help BTW.

 

[lurker]

The problem here is that you actually need to plane one surface (the face side) before they can be thicknessed. Stuffing all the boards through the thicknesser will only clean them up, it won't make them straight or true. If one has a tiny bit of twist or wind in it, this will be transferred when it's thicknessed...so the finished board will be twisted.
I would cut the boards into oversize sections and then hand plane a face side. If that sounds like a lot of work, then find a local joiner or cabinet maker who could do the initial prep of the boards for you - Rob

:sign3:

Gonna be lots of waste
I bet you wish you had bought PAR now :lol:

 

[PeterBassett]

I bet you wish you had bought PAR now :lol:

Well, they'd have charged me for the waste anyway, right? At least this way I get to keep the waste. Maybe someone will want it for their Hamster. :lol:

Chuff, it's hard work this wood work lark! I haven't even started properly yet! :lol:

Any other thoughts on how to proceed? Other than to bin my brothers electric planer! (He's got three of the things for some reason)

Cheers

Pete

 

[woodbloke]

If I were to clean up the surface myself, would this be a job for my 5.5 or 7. And it only needs to be flat right, not perfect? So I can then put it through the thicknesser?

Thank you both very much for the help BTW.

The thicknesser will bring a board down to the required thickness...that's all, nothing else. If the board is twisted and warped to start with, just stuffing through the thicknesser will replicate all the faults present in the sawn timber...the only thing is it will be is clean and planed on each side. What you need to do is obtain a reference surface first before the timber is put through the thicknesser and the ref surface can only be obtained by hand planing or using a jointer (or the planing tables on a planer/thicknesser) - Rob

 

[PeterBassett]

Looks like it's out with the hand planes then. I'll ache tomorrow.

I take it I should be using the longest plane I can to get a flat surface? Or start with the 5.5 and go onto the 7?

 

[woodbloke]

Looks like it's out with the hand planes then. I'll ache tomorrow.

I take it I should be using the longest plane I can to get a flat surface? Or start with the 5.5 and go onto the 7?

'Fraid so...cut the sawn timber to rough sizes that are slightly bigger than (say 50mm in the length and 10mm in the width) you require. A 5.5 is a good place to start with the No7 just being used to get the final surface dead true...I hope your sharpening routine is up to it. If it's not it'll be like wading through treacle, but much harder :shock: - Rob

 

[PeterBassett]

Thanks very much Rob.

*Edit*
Just found this
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/Preparing a board without a thicknesser.html

I don't have Dereks the nice planes, but we'll see how we go.

Pete