Hello…my son and I recently cut down a white oak in his yard near Lansing, MI. Most of the boards are 18 inches wide. There are very few knots. The wood was cut at 1 1/16″ thick. I thought I should have the boards ripped to 6″ since I only have a 6″ jointer, but couldn’t bear to cut those beautiful 18 inchers. I know of a place that can joint and plane those wide boards after kiln drying, and at a very reasonable cost. The question is: am I going to have problems with those wide boards cupping after kiln drying? The first project is going to be a dining room table and it sure would be nice to only have to use 2 boards for the table. Please advise…should I rip before kiln drying or after or not at all? Thanx in advance.
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Replies
DON'T RIP THE BOARDS, DON'T PROCESS THEM. Leave them full width and thickness for now.
Learn to use handplanes, it's not that hard, and build something nice out of those wide expanses of lumber.
For God's sake, don't let owning a six inch jointer dictate the width lumber you are able to work. As far as I'm concerned it's a sin to rip, joint, and reglue.
the answer is..depends.
There ought to be a few boards that are quarter grain..the heart is right in the center..I would cut that out and have two quartersawn planks..
The next grain will be rift sawn..I'd likely do the same.
Then ya have flat sawn..may still need edging.
Depending how 'rustic' the table will be..two rift planks looks pretty good..a few flatsawn will also make a pretty top. I often set aside the quartersawn for 'special' projects, where it really does it's stuff the best.
You will also have some clue after it's dried, to see whats workable as is, and what needs to be ripped to allow thicknessing with the least waste.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
ArtHeft,
One of my favorite stories about how NOT to approach dimensioning wood was on a particular TV show hosted by an old cranky.
He'd just scored some precious, antique lumber; boards more than twenty inches wide, with tight vertical grain. After gloating about this stock, waxing poetic for a time about how beautiful it was, how it's impossible to find such stock these days, and how expensive it was. Then he took it to his table saw and ripped it in half, only to later joint the sawn edges and glue it back together.
Why did he rip that precious wood in half? Because it wouldn't otherwise fit through his thickness planer!
To me, that's no way to do things. He sacrificed an increasingly rare resource because his methods were a slave to the limitations of his power tools. You may not agree.
Alan
>> He sacrificed an increasingly rare resource ...
What? One kerf width?
Was the grain any less tight after he ripped it? Was it any less beautiful? Would it be any more possible to find wood of that quality in 10" boards? It sounds to me like the width of the boards was a very small part, if any, of why he was excited about the wood.
Now if he had chopped it up and made OSB out of it, that would be nauseating.
I have a 12" limit on resawing, a 12" limit on planing, and a 18" limit on thickness sanding.
I often bandsaw 8/4x18" stock to 8/4x9", resaw to 4/4, plane to 7/8, glue (no jointing) to 7/8x17-7/8", scape the joint smooth, and then process. Now I have 2 wide bookmatched boards.
Hand tools are nice but you try to resaw 18" boards by hand.
By God, I agree.
Art,
My inclination would be to leave the boards wide, and rip only as needed after drying, to deal with cupping, or to yield narrower boards for stiles etc. If they remain flat during /after drying, and you need wide pieces, there ya are. If some cup, or split, those are the ones to rip for narrower stock. To rip only to reglue seems to me a waste of time. I know some will argue that wide panels should be glued up of narrow strips for stability, I've not had problems (33 yrs) with panels using widest stock available, if the stock is dry to begin with.
Regards,
Ray
Ray...thanx for the reply. Of all the replies I got to my question, yours was the only one that actually answered my questions. Some of the others were "quasi-religious", kind of like the old go-around about whether to stain cherry (a sin!!) or not. I will definately do the kiln dry and then see what I have to deal with then.
Thanx again. Art
I don't think any of us were advising you to not dry the lumber. If the lumber is not dried or otherwised seasoned the rest of the conversation was moot.
Do yourself a HUGE favor and get a copy of Hoadley's "Understanding Wood." It only costs about $25, and it has excellent explanations and illustrations about warping and drying defects. It answers your question thoroughly, and much, much more, in a waythat is clear and easy to understand.
If you use much wood at all, it will pay for itself many times over almost immediately.
Michael R.
Dry it first. you can deal with warps, twists, etc. later if need be.
I have a dozen 22 inch wide burled oak boards. As you know burls bend and warp much more than straight grain, yet I refuse to narrow them up enough to fit into my 20 inch wide planer.. Trying to plane those by hand would require skills I don't have.
When time comes to to plane them I'll go over to a shop and pay them to run them in their machine.
To me mother nature only makes boards like that rarely. To insult her would probably cast a curse on me and I'd never again be blessed with such wonders!
Gentlemen...thank you to all that took the time to reply to my questions. I will go on with the drying and see what I wind up with at that time. Then bring them into the shop and let them get used to being there for a few weeks and then decide what to do. Thanx again.
One suggestion!
sticker them up and make certain that you have a lot of flat weights on the top of them. In leu of a great big flat weight you can use straps. You know the ratcheting type. Strap them over the top layer of stickers. You'llhave to retighten them after about a week or so and again after two weeks and then about once a month. If you dry indoors in a low humidity area (air conditioned or heated ) tighten every other day.
Art.. I envy your stock...
I've no experience of drying lumber, but from what I've seen through buying my own stock, I'd advise you leave em be till they're dried. Boards with any centre pith in them will probably check / split through the pith, the others may cup or warp according to the internal stresses in the boards and how they're dried.
Personally I wouldn't rip any boards without a good reason not to; my own 6" jointer is gathering dust, made redundant by my hand planes.
Whatever you decide to do.. I hope you and your son enjoy working with the stock.
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
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