Milling rough lumber question ....


bushwacked

Recommended Posts

So when milling boards I have always done:

joint face > plane other face > joint edge > rip other edge on table saw > joint table saw rip if needed. 

Then I saw ishitani and my world has been flipped upside down ... I think. 

It is the first 30 seconds or so.... 

Is there a proper way to do this? And am I doing it right or wrong? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I learned to joint face -> joint edge -> plane opposite face -> rip last edge.

Your method is fine, but It does have you switching machines more than if you knock out the first two steps at the jointer. 

Hard to tell exactly with his video, since it has edits and cuts in the video. but yeah it looks a little unusual he appears to be jointing the edge with a rough face.  

He does re-plane the entire panel after glue up, and later on uses hand planes on the face of panels, so his need to get it perfect in the first place is less than if that initial go were his only shot at it. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on the board.  As long as the end result is the same, there is no right or wrong.

I enjoyed that video.   That's my kind of video.  I'd rather watch someone work than listen to them talk.   I really like his shop too.

The things I got out of it the most were the compressing of the butterfly before insertion, and the clamping pad for the dovetails.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Tom King said:

 

The things I got out of it the most were the compressing of the butterfly before insertion, and the clamping pad for the dovetails.

Those both jumped out at me as well. I like the intercuts of the animal tracks through the snow. Is that just him taking a breather and enjoying the sites around him for a minute?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think so. He shows off his dog and land he’s on every now and then. He’s got a beautiful place there in Japan. 

I take away a lot from every video of his. His work is impressive and his machines are pretty wild compared to ours and don’t see them every day so always fun to watch. 

 

... as far as milling ... 

thanks for the input guys. Glad I wasn’t doing it wrong even though it seems either way works. I may look into face jointing and jointing an edge all at once to save time switching machines. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Different boards are being shown in the first 30 seconds.  The first board shown being edge jointed has either been already face jointed or has nothing to do with the material in the opening shots.  You can see as he rips on the tablesaw that the face against the table is true.  As long as you have a true surface to reference all other steps from, you're good.  Most prefer that reference surface to be the wider dimension as it is easier to bear against it for milling the narrower dimensions.

After cutting the raw material to rough size to minimize irregularities, I do as you do;  

- joint face > This gives me a wide bearing surface for other tasks

- plane other face > This gives me two parallel wide surfaces so I can take grain direction into account for . . .

- joint edge > Self explanitory

- rip to width and cross cut to length on the table saw 

Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe . . . as long as you end up with a properly milled blank at the end, subtle variations on steps don't matter.  If you are getting irregular results, review your methods, pick a method that works and stick with it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed..  It depends on the board and the situation.

I'm currently working a project where I needed to get legs out of a piece of 8/4.  The board was reasonably flat so, I straightened up one edge at the jointer to reference on the fence at the band saw.  I later milled all that stock to final dimensions following a more standard process.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dad had an old woodworking book from the 70’s that I pinched which followed this same process. It’s the process I learnt but don’t usually follow it in the particular steps. 

 

That’s also the first time I’ve seen Ishitani use a domino joiner. 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQCCyoifdA2Hx8X7kFvXjC

Modified+Preparation+of+Timber.pdf

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rough milling.... yeah it depends on the size of the board.

If the board is at least 5/4 and 10" or under  (which is the highest my planer will go)I do it like this:

Joint a face, joint an edge. (just like normal) If the board is fairly straight on the other side, I will joint the opposite edge (yes, I know this doesn't give me parallel edges, keep reading) I do this to make sure the other side is fairly consistent.(no humps or valleys)  I use the planer to bring the board to parallel on the edges and faces of the board. Completely skipping the tablesaw in the process. This gives me perfect results, and usually don't have to clean up anything before gluing up since I don't have any snipe issues with my machine.

I usually rough mill my boards, then let them sticker, then go to my final dimensions. I write the dimension on the edge of the boards to make this process simpler. My machine has a digital readout to .005", so this is really easy. I'll take a final pass to remove .015 or so which makes things very nice :)

Your machine has to be setup properly for this to work. Any deviation in your jointer fence from 90 will completely screw you!  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 59 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    421.8k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,757
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    R Parekh
    Newest Member
    R Parekh
    Joined