Introduction
Expand your woodworking skills and get access to a wide range of domestic and imported wood for your furniture projects by learning to flatten and plane rough-sawn lumber.If you’re an aspiring woodworker wishing to move on to more advanced projects, there’s only one path: learning about planing rough-sawn wood.
Buying lumber that’s smooth on all four sides (known as S4S) at the home center will limit your project portfolio for two reasons. First, you’re stuck with 3/4-in.-thick stock. Advanced woodworking calls for a myriad of thicknesses only available in rough-sawn form. Second, it’s rare to find store-bought boards that are perfectly flat, straight and true.
It takes an investment to flatten wood, though. You can’t pull this off without a jointer, surface planer and table saw.
A basic 6-in. jointer will do most everything you’ll need. If you’re only doing small projects, you can get away with a 4-in. jointer for less money, but you can’t flatten wider boards. You need to keep the jointer and planer equipped with sharp knives. As for the table saw, any type will work fine, including portables.
Woodworkers all have their own system for planing wood, some of which are pretty complex. This is one simple method that’ll get you started. As you get comfortable with planing, you’re sure to develop your own.
Jointer Smarts
- Be persnickety and square the fence to the bed before any jointing. That’s the only way to ensure square sides.
- A rust-free polished bed and fence will give you much better results.
- When you’re jointing edges, move the fence every dozen or so passes to spread the wear over the entire edge of each knife.
Finding rough-sawn lumber
Rough-sawn wood is at least 1/4-in. thicker than equivalent S4S wood from the home center, allowing you to flatten and straighten it. It’s also cheaper. If you have a hardwood retailer or woodworking supplier near you, that’s great. If not, you can shop online. Many rural woodworkers, including pros, buy all their wood online.
Board thicknesses are always listed as “X/4.” A 4/4 board is 4- by 1/4-in., or 1-in. Always get 1/4-in. thicker than the finished thickness you’re after. If you need a 1-in.-thick final thickness, you should order a 5/4 board. Select widths that are 1/2-in. or so wider than the finished width.
Dealing with tear-out while planing wood
Chatter and tear-out happens when the grain direction slopes up into the planer blades rather than away from them. Some woods are more prone to the problem than others. Changing feed direction and setting the jointer or planer as shallow as possible will usually help.
If you have tear-out or chatter during jointing, swing the board around and send the other end through first. If the tear-out is still there after the side is flat, let it go and send that side through the planer after the other side has been flattened. The planer gives a smoother cut than the jointer. If that doesn’t do it, you’ll just have to sand your way out of the jam.
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