I just bought 33 board feet of random width cherry for several
projects. This is the first wood I've ever bought outside of Home Depot
and Lowes.

It is 13/16" thick, and some, if not all, of the boards have lines on
them that I assume are from where they were planed.

So is my next step to stop on the way home and buy a planer to put a
smooth finish on these boards? I know I could do it with sand paper. I
assume I could do it with a jack plane. But that's a WHOLE lot of
sanding and/or hand planing.

I kind of thought that I might get an electric planer when I started
these projects, just to thin some of the boards. But now I'm thinking
it's necessary to smooth these things out.

Am I approaching this correctly?

Thanks,
--Michael

Michael,

My grandfather gave me a lot of rough cut lumber he had been hoarding.
It has the lines from what I assume is the sawing process. Not sure it
has ever been planed. I got a Delta 22-580 not long after and I'm
absolutely amazed at how nice the wood looks on the other side. 2
warnings:

1. just because it looks nice when it comes out doesn't mean its flat.
Still need a jointer for that.

2. I tried to run my planer without a seperator and the shavings very
quickly clogged my dust collector. I made a my own with a small
Roughneck garbage can and some scarp wood. Works like a charm.

Good luck with the lumber.

Chuck

"Woodchuck34" wrote in message
oups.com...
Michael,

My grandfather gave me a lot of rough cut lumber he had been hoarding.
It has the lines from what I assume is the sawing process. Not sure it
has ever been planed. I got a Delta 22-580 not long after and I'm
absolutely amazed at how nice the wood looks on the other side. 2
warnings:

1. just because it looks nice when it comes out doesn't mean its flat.
Still need a jointer for that.

With a sled your planer can also flatten and straighten a bowed and cupped
board. For boards up to and a bit longer than 8' you can avoid a jointer
for this purpose.

wrote in message
oups.com...


So is my next step to stop on the way home and buy a planer to put a
smooth finish on these boards? I know I could do it with sand paper. I
assume I could do it with a jack plane. But that's a WHOLE lot of
sanding and/or hand planing.

A definite maybe. A brand new planer will give you a finish that is just
great. After a little use, it will start getting a few lines and marks and
it is just not perfect. Blades wear.

At some point you will want to use that nice planer, but still finish with
sanding or scraping for the best finish.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I just bought 33 board feet of random width cherry for several
projects. This is the first wood I've ever bought outside of Home Depot
and Lowes.

It is 13/16" thick, and some, if not all, of the boards have lines on
them that I assume are from where they were planed.

So is my next step to stop on the way home and buy a planer to put a
smooth finish on these boards? I know I could do it with sand paper. I
assume I could do it with a jack plane. But that's a WHOLE lot of
sanding and/or hand planing.

I kind of thought that I might get an electric planer when I started
these projects, just to thin some of the boards. But now I'm thinking
it's necessary to smooth these things out.

Am I approaching this correctly?

Thanks,
--Michael


Some good advice here . The answer is save up and buy a planer that way you
can buy rough cut [sawn] timber cheaper and better quality than yo get at
HD. Furthermore the rough cut one inch stock at HD is actually 13/16" the
rough cut is 1 1/8" so for short lengths at least you can end up with a full
inch stock.

When you get a planer get an additional set of blades so that if they do get
chipped and leave tell tale marks you can replace them with a perfect set
and get the others reground....mjh

wrote in message
oups.com...

snip

It is 13/16" thick, and some, if not all, of the boards have lines on
them that I assume are from where they were planed.

So is my next step to stop on the way home and buy a planer to put a
smooth finish on these boards? I know I could do it with sand paper. I
assume I could do it with a jack plane. But that's a WHOLE lot of
sanding and/or hand planing.

snip

These ridges can't be too high, can they? Is it like the planer knife had
knick in it and left a little, 1/8" wide ridge the length of the board? If
so, I's suggest that you buy and practice using a set of cabinet scrapers
and a burnishing tool (can be bought as a set). Chuck is correct about the
need to joint one side flat before plaining. What he heck. This is a great
time to sart investing in wood prep machinery.

"mike hide" wrote in message
...
Furthermore the rough cut one inch stock at HD is actually 13/16" the
rough cut is 1 1/8" so for short lengths at least you can end up with a
full inch stock.


Not likely. Band mills make such smooth surfaces compared to flexing
circular saws that 4/4 is pretty much cut at 1" nowadays versus 1 1/8".
Old folks like me remember thicker stock, but mostly it's a case of feed
rates and hammering which decided what you could get in the way of oversize
stock.


When you get a planer get an additional set of blades so that if they do
get chipped and leave tell tale marks you can replace them with a perfect
set and get the others reground....mjh

If the lines run parallel to the edges of the boards, they may be nicks. If
more or less dickandpurpular, dull knives or fast feed. Either way, if
it's curable with a pass with a cabinet scraper, I don't mess with 'em.

On 18 Jan 2006 06:49:07 -0800, wrote:

I just bought 33 board feet of random width cherry for several
projects. This is the first wood I've ever bought outside of Home Depot
and Lowes.

It is 13/16" thick, and some, if not all, of the boards have lines on
them that I assume are from where they were planed.

So is my next step to stop on the way home and buy a planer to put a
smooth finish on these boards? I know I could do it with sand paper. I
assume I could do it with a jack plane. But that's a WHOLE lot of
sanding and/or hand planing.

I kind of thought that I might get an electric planer when I started
these projects, just to thin some of the boards. But now I'm thinking
it's necessary to smooth these things out.

Am I approaching this correctly?

Thanks,
--Michael


Some advice.

If the boards are wide and have any significant twist or cup you may
want to rip them first by the project. If you are looking to clean up
13/16" to 3/4" nominal you may not be able to do so at full width.
Ripping them first will help to limit the total cup per board and help
to clean them up to a thicker nominal. I would leave them rough until
I had a project in mind and then process them as I need them specific
to the projects. And, while I've broken the rule before, you should
limit widths in glue ups to about 4 inches alternating the grain
direction to limit the post process cupping.

I've been processing about 250 bd. ft of walnut this way. wide
boards, lots of cup, 13/16" rough. if I didn't rip first I would have
probably gotten at best .625" out of it. Ripping first, I'm holding
about .725"

It also helps to cut to rough length first to limit the length you
have to work on the jointer.

And to get them truely flat, you should face joint them first or use a
planer sled.

My $.02 worth, probably worth about that much.

Frank

Thanks for all of the good tips. I actually went to HD to buy a planer,
and their credit card/check machines were down, and they were only
taking cash.

I'm sure my wife will tell me that was an omen that I shouldn't buy.

Thanks,
--Michael

"George" George@least wrote in message
...

"mike hide" wrote in message
...
Furthermore the rough cut one inch stock at HD is actually 13/16" the
rough cut is 1 1/8" so for short lengths at least you can end up with a
full inch stock.


Not likely. Band mills make such smooth surfaces compared to flexing
circular saws that 4/4 is pretty much cut at 1" nowadays versus 1 1/8".
Old folks like me remember thicker stock, but mostly it's a case of feed
rates and hammering which decided what you could get in the way of
oversize stock.


I was not referring to the quality of the milling device, rather required
industry standards .Perhaps these standards have changed but it was that
fourquarter roughcut had to be at least 1 1/8" thickness....mjh

One thing to keep in mind - if your boards were planed before you
bought them, and if it was the planer that left the marks, you might
not end up all that much better if you get a cheap planer and re-plane
them yourself. Is there a real tool dealer in your area (HD or Lowes
don't count)? I'd also reconsider the use of a hand plane - I've been
using one along with a card scraper to get rid of machining marks, and
I've found that combination to be very effective, much quicker than
sandpaper or a ROS, and even sort of fun. (Watching beautiful grain
appear from rough-cut boards is really amazing...) Same quality thing
applies, though - unless you want to spend a bunch of time tuning a
hand plane, plan on spending about $150 on something nice from Steve
Knight or Lee Valley.
I don't discriminate against "tailed" tools, though - I've been using
my router table as a jointer to smooth the edges of boards, and found
that to be quick and easy also.
Good luck,
Andy

wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks for all of the good tips. I actually went to HD to buy a planer,
and their credit card/check machines were down, and they were only
taking cash.

I'm sure my wife will tell me that was an omen that I shouldn't buy.

Thanks,
--Michael

Do not do anything with the wood until you have your panels glued up. There
will invariably be some mismatch. That is what the extra 1/8" is for. It
disappears sanding very quickly.
You only need a planer if your panels will fit it. If you are making a 20"
wide panel, a planer will be a waste of money. A planer is really designed
to make 13/16" boards out of raw stock. Since you bought 13/16" stock...