This is a followup to my previous post on squaring stock. Thanks for
the thoughtfull replies.

I hope this post doesn't go on to long, but I thought I might explain
where I'm at. As I said in my first post I am new to woodworking. A
litte more that two years ago my cousin and I hired a sawyer to cut red
oak trees that we took down to make way for a house. We did all the
chainsaw work, cutting the butt logs and the tops for firewood. We did
all the grunt work, wrestling the butt logs, carrying off the boards
and waste etc. A lot of work for a flabby old grandpa (I turned 60
last month). We ended up with 1700 BF, half my cousins, half mine. We
hauled the wood to my house, stacked and stickered it outdoors, painted
the ends, and covered the stack with a tarp. It sat outside for one
year and was then moved into the gararge. It's been there now for a
little more than a year.

Now I want to make my first project with it. I'm going to make a bench
top router table. I'm going to build the frame from the oak. Four
days ago I picked out a board and went over it with a wire brush
followed by a wisk broom. I brought it in and went over it with a shop
vac. I then cut the rough lengths with a cicular saw. Next I jointed
an edge and ripped the rough widths on the table saw. The pieces are
now sitting on by bench.

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces. Also, I don't have a moisture meter, so I am just assuming I
can square the stock after being inside for a few days.

Thanks for comments on any of the above.

Bob

rjdankert wrote:

This is a followup to my previous post on squaring stock. Thanks for
the thoughtfull replies.

I hope this post doesn't go on to long, but I thought I might explain
where I'm at. As I said in my first post I am new to woodworking. A
litte more that two years ago my cousin and I hired a sawyer to cut red
oak trees that we took down to make way for a house. We did all the
chainsaw work, cutting the butt logs and the tops for firewood. We did
all the grunt work, wrestling the butt logs, carrying off the boards
and waste etc. A lot of work for a flabby old grandpa (I turned 60
last month). We ended up with 1700 BF, half my cousins, half mine. We
hauled the wood to my house, stacked and stickered it outdoors, painted
the ends, and covered the stack with a tarp. It sat outside for one
year and was then moved into the gararge. It's been there now for a
little more than a year.

Now I want to make my first project with it. I'm going to make a bench
top router table. I'm going to build the frame from the oak. Four
days ago I picked out a board and went over it with a wire brush
followed by a wisk broom. I brought it in and went over it with a shop
vac. I then cut the rough lengths with a cicular saw. Next I jointed
an edge and ripped the rough widths on the table saw. The pieces are
now sitting on by bench.

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces. Also, I don't have a moisture meter, so I am just assuming I
can square the stock after being inside for a few days.

Thanks for comments on any of the above.

Bob


ASSUMING you had the sawyer cut your boards 1"+ thick your boards SHOULD be
exactly the right dryness for your locale. So, you merely need to plane it
and use it. I buy my ash (green) from a local lumber yard, stack and
sticker it for a year and it is good to go. Your oak should be the same.

If your feel more comfortable knowing the exact moisture content, which you
cannot change anyway, unless you have a kiln, a moisture meterfrom Harbor
Freight is not that expensive. However, if you want to merely check this
batch, don't want to wait forever for HF to send the item and are a bit
cheap, there is another method using your multimeter. If you want more
details, get back to me.

Deb

You may want to do the rough rips on a bandsaw, especially if you find
any reactivity in the stock. As another poster noted, 4/4_should_ have
reached equalized moisture content by now. FWW had a good article on
rough milling a year or two ago. The gist of it was to mill slightly
oversize, then sticker it and allow it to move for as long as you can
possibly allow in it's intended environment. Tom
rjdankert wrote:
This is a followup to my previous post on squaring stock. Thanks for
the thoughtfull replies.

I hope this post doesn't go on to long, but I thought I might explain
where I'm at. As I said in my first post I am new to woodworking. A
litte more that two years ago my cousin and I hired a sawyer to cut red
oak trees that we took down to make way for a house. We did all the
chainsaw work, cutting the butt logs and the tops for firewood. We did
all the grunt work, wrestling the butt logs, carrying off the boards
and waste etc. A lot of work for a flabby old grandpa (I turned 60
last month). We ended up with 1700 BF, half my cousins, half mine. We
hauled the wood to my house, stacked and stickered it outdoors, painted
the ends, and covered the stack with a tarp. It sat outside for one
year and was then moved into the gararge. It's been there now for a
little more than a year.

Now I want to make my first project with it. I'm going to make a bench
top router table. I'm going to build the frame from the oak. Four
days ago I picked out a board and went over it with a wire brush
followed by a wisk broom. I brought it in and went over it with a shop
vac. I then cut the rough lengths with a cicular saw. Next I jointed
an edge and ripped the rough widths on the table saw. The pieces are
now sitting on by bench.

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces. Also, I don't have a moisture meter, so I am just assuming I
can square the stock after being inside for a few days.

Thanks for comments on any of the above.

Bob

rjdankert wrote:

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces.

I don't rip rough stock on a table saw, I use a bandsaw or hand saw.

If you need to use the table saw, make sure it's got a splitter or
riving knife, and that the surfaces against the table top and fence have
been "kind-of" surfaced on the jointer.

If the wood is "really" rough, skip plane it prior to
ripping.(very light pass knocking down the fuzz)

If you have a jointer big enough, you can flatten
the stock and use the flat side for the ripping.

It's as dry as it's going to get with your methods.

You should be fine.

rjdankert wrote:

This is a followup to my previous post on squaring stock. Thanks for
the thoughtfull replies.

I hope this post doesn't go on to long, but I thought I might explain
where I'm at. As I said in my first post I am new to woodworking. A
litte more that two years ago my cousin and I hired a sawyer to cut red
oak trees that we took down to make way for a house. We did all the
chainsaw work, cutting the butt logs and the tops for firewood. We did
all the grunt work, wrestling the butt logs, carrying off the boards
and waste etc. A lot of work for a flabby old grandpa (I turned 60
last month). We ended up with 1700 BF, half my cousins, half mine. We
hauled the wood to my house, stacked and stickered it outdoors, painted
the ends, and covered the stack with a tarp. It sat outside for one
year and was then moved into the gararge. It's been there now for a
little more than a year.

Now I want to make my first project with it. I'm going to make a bench
top router table. I'm going to build the frame from the oak. Four
days ago I picked out a board and went over it with a wire brush
followed by a wisk broom. I brought it in and went over it with a shop
vac. I then cut the rough lengths with a cicular saw. Next I jointed
an edge and ripped the rough widths on the table saw. The pieces are
now sitting on by bench.

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces. Also, I don't have a moisture meter, so I am just assuming I
can square the stock after being inside for a few days.

Thanks for comments on any of the above.

Bob

On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:28:19 -0500, Dr. Deb wrote:
However, if you want to merely check this
batch, don't want to wait forever for HF to send the item and are a bit
cheap, there is another method using your multimeter. If you want more
details, get back to me.

Deb

I'd be mightily interested in learning about the multimeter technique
myself.

Post it here?

Bill

rjdankert wrote:

I'm mostly concerned about the safety of the way I cut the rough
pieces. Also, I don't have a moisture meter, so I am just assuming I
can square the stock after being inside for a few days.

Thanks for comments on any of the above.

Bob

Another option for ripping is the Join-R-clamp system, which is pretty
inexpensive (around $20).. Basically, it lets you clamp the rough
lumber to a straightedge (like a piece of plywood), and then you put
the straightedge against the tablesaw fence.

The way I do it is to plane to thickness.. Cut little bit oversize.
Most of the time, I can just a jointer to get a straight edge.. You get
less waste if you trim to size before ripping, instead of trying to put
a straight edge along the entire 8' board.