New dog, new tricks... Need help joining huge-ass reclaimed timbers


jhardy

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So...  first time caller, long time listener.  Great stuff in this place.  Thanks in advance for the help & wisdom that will be bestowed! ;)
 
Question for the experts though...  I am making a 13' x 5.5' board (get it.. ha!) room table out of reclaimed 2.25" or so stock.  I've been making smaller pieces for a couple years now, but by no means an expert...  Anyway, I am trying to joint down the back side & one of the edges of these pieces so I can start planing them all to the same thickness, etc. & I am having a hell of a time running these pieces through my 8"x72.5" Grizzly G0656X (with spiral blade) jointer...  I know that the jointer has plenty of power to deal w/ the material (hence the annoying detail), but my skill level is another topic...  I have about 8 or 9 pieces of 13' each that need to be processed, so repeatable is best!
 
So here are what I THINK my options are...  But I would love to know for sure what the best way is to deal with this...

  • Joint by hand (Festool makes what I hear is a kick-ass hand planer)
  • Get extensions for in-feed & out-feed (assuming at full 13' length)
  • 3x people to man-handle, but still no way to guarantee wood is still making proper contact

Also, after jointing, I will need to feed through my dewalt planer, so assuming whatever setup is used for this would be used for that as well.
 
Thanks guys (& gals) for your help on this!!  I'm hoping your YEARS of experience keeping me from making some very expensive mistakes with my stock. :)
 
-Jason

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Welcome to the forums! 

 

Long boards indeed! Do you have a track saw?  I've used my track saw to get a great edge on long stock in the past.

 

Otherwise, add some support, get some help if you needed it and go for it.

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If your boards aren't close to perfectly flat already, you'll lose a ton of thickness getting them flat.  Unfortunately there's no clever fix for this...if you intend to keep your boards 13 feet long...they better be pretty flat to start.

 

For edge jointing huge boards like that, if they're not fairly straight to start I'll sometimes snap a chalk line on one edge and rip it free-hand at the bandsaw, then take it to the jointer.  It will be a challenge to joint those long boards, no question.  Tracksaw would be a good option like Kev said...but you're looking at a significant cost in tooling if you don't already have them.

 

Ignore those powered hand planers.

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Thanks so much everyone for the ideas, I'm glad that the reality of it is that it is going to be a PITA to get this sorted & that I wasn't just making a rookie mistake! ;)

 

If your boards aren't close to perfectly flat already, you'll lose a ton of thickness getting them flat.  Unfortunately there's no clever fix for this...if you intend to keep your boards 13 feet long...they better be pretty flat to start.

 

For edge jointing huge boards like that, if they're not fairly straight to start I'll sometimes snap a chalk line on one edge and rip it free-hand at the bandsaw, then take it to the jointer.  It will be a challenge to joint those long boards, no question.  Tracksaw would be a good option like Kev said...but you're looking at a significant cost in tooling if you don't already have them.

 

Ignore those powered hand planers.

 

Chalk line & free hand...  That is a great idea!

 

Yeah, expecting to drop a good .25" to .50" in thickness to get a good face on it.  Targeting a 1.75" thickness (and around 700LBs, ha!)...  Re: the face, tempted to ran a pass through the planer & just see what happens. HA!  Any thoughts?

 

Thanks again everyone!

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Thanks so much everyone for the ideas, I'm glad that the reality of it is that it is going to be a PITA to get this sorted & that I wasn't just making a rookie mistake! ;)

 

 

Chalk line & free hand...  That is a great idea!

 

Yeah, expecting to drop a good .25" to .50" in thickness to get a good face on it.  Targeting a 1.75" thickness (and around 700LBs, ha!)...  Re: the face, tempted to ran a pass through the planer & just see what happens. HA!  Any thoughts?

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

 

May sure that there's no rocking due to cupping on the face if you skip plane it. Generally you want to start with a relatively straight board if you're skipping the jointer.

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May sure that there's no rocking due to cupping on the face if you skip plane it. Generally you want to start with a relatively straight board if you're skipping the jointer.

Awesome, thanks!  Yeah, I might take a bench hand planner to get a "good enough" surface...  Just don't want to shortcut too much.  Also looking at getting 10' (on each side) of in and out-feed tables for both jointer & planer...  So much for parking my wife parking the car in the driveway for the next while. HA!

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I have used my tracksaw to joint the edges with great results. To plane the first face I would build a sled. 12 ft particle or MDF as a base. Very straight boards for both sides and then shim the board so it won't teeter totter . You need infeed and outfeed support for the planer and sled. Take light cuts ! Then you have to drag the sled and board back to run it again and again. Once a face is flat you can tracksaw the edges square to the face. Then back to the planer to flatten the other side.

I made a 14' by 30" bar top out of 5/4 red oak and the top came out just a little under 7/8 thick. I used my drum sander after I had it glued up. Took quite a few days to build, wasn't fun !

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I'd do it with my two helpers.  It would be a bear by yourself.  One helper supports the tail end out from the infeed table, and the second supports it when it's far enough off the outfeed table.  If the jointer is tuned properly, it works just fine when the whole board stays down on the outfeed table.  We do it all the time.  I wouldn't even bother trying by myself.  Maybe you can enlist a couple of friends.

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