Hi: Couldn’t resist getting some 8/4 cherry from a local fellow who has been air drying for years and now has a electric kiln. He had a bunch of cherry from Maine, New Hampshire and Penn and sold the shorter pieces at very good prices. Now my problem is as follows: The 2″x10″x 4′ and 5′ boards are cupped one side and don’t have straight edges. I have access to a local high school shop but their jointer is 8″. How do I rip the boards on my table saw safely to 8″ to get a straight edge so that I can then use the 8″ jointer? All the boards have some superficial cracks and I’m concerned about kickback as the boards are ripped. Is there a way of jointing boards wider than 8″ without a jointer?
Any suggestions are most welcomed.
Replies
Put your board on top of an other board that you know to be flat (ply or MDF ok.
Place some wedges under your warped board to keep it from rocking and glue them to the bottom board with superglue.
Put a lip on the bottom board to prevent the top one from sliding forward.
Send the whole package trough your thickness planer till you have one side flat.
After that you are home free.
C.
I'm confused. Joint the 2" edge on the jointer. That will give you the straight edge needed to rip to any width. You can be sure the board doesn't rock or tip with just a few passes with a plane on the face to knock down high spots that create instability.
If you don't want to rip, there are a number of ways. One is very tried and true--use hand planes. After a little practice you would be surprised at how fast a couple of planes with sharp blades can joint a 10" face.
Another is to make a sled to support the boards through a thickness planer in such a way that the planer doesn't follow any twist, etc. One side on the sled, and the other slide normally.
Get a wider jointer. (Or through money at the problem.)
Make sure you have a splitter in place when you do the ripping. A good splitter goes a long way toward making ripping safe.
I can run the edge on the jointer, but not having a flat face yet I thought the edge won't be true. I borrowed a foreplane and just bought an old #7 and I did some work on one side of a board this afternoon. I was pleased to see it coming along. As I've just started playing with these planes I'm not too confident that I'll really get it flat enough to run it thru a planer. If I could get the edge flat - or the face as you've suggested - ripping it to 8" would then allow me to use the jointer,Building a sled for the planer is an interesting solution and might try that...I remember seeing somewhere about somehow attaching a jointed board or a straightedge to the rough boards and using the flat edge to rip to true.Thanks...english
It's possible to take a board that is rough and rip a straight edge. I do it all the time. What I've done is create a sled for the saw. It's a piece of quarter inch hardboard about 10 inches wide attached to a perfectly straight 8 foot 2X4. Since you are ripping a board that is about 10 inches wide, I'd make the hardboard about 13 inches wide ... remember that the 2X4 will take up 3.5 inches of that width.
To rip the rough board, simply put it on top of the hardboard, which has already been glued and/or screwed to the 2X4, place the 2X4 against the fence, and rip. You shoulg probably have an outfeed table to make this easier.
John
Look at FWW issue #175 page 58 for a scheme to flatten your wider boards.Cadiddlehopper
FWWissue #175 page 58 for scheme using planer.Cadiddlehopper
Since you've already started with hand planes, I'll second Mike's suggestion that you continue with them. If you don't already know, here's how:James
_____Hand planing (rough) lumber to dimension is not hard: Ideally, you need 5 planes: a scrub plane, a #5, a #7 or #8, a #4 or #4-1/2, and a low angle block plane, but you can get away with a #5 and a low angle block plane -- it's just a little harder. (Or you can use the wooden plane equivalents.) You'll also need a good straight edge, an accurate try or combination square, a marking/panel gauge, and a pair of winding sticks (you can make these yourself). A card scraper is also handy. A shooting board is also very helpful. Select a board face for the reference face. Use a pair of winding sticks and a straight edge to determine the high and low spots. Mark the high spots and use the scrub plane to reduce them to the approximate level of the rest of the board. Check for twist with the winding sticks. Correct with the scrub, as necessary. By this time, you should have a roughly flat (length and width) board with no twist and with a lot of troughs in it. Use the #5 to remove the troughs from the scrub plane. (Planing diagonally or straight across the grain in both directions with the scrub plane and the #5 to remove the scrub troughs will significantly reduce tearout in most woods. Then follow up with the #5 by planing with the grain.) Once the troughs are mostly gone, use the #7 or #8 with the grain to plane the face flat. Once you get full length and full width shavings, you board is very, very close to FLAT. Check with the straight edge and winding sticks. Correct as necessary. Finish up with the smoothing plane (#4 or # 4-1/2). Use the scraper on gnarly grain that gives your smoother a hard time, but be careful not to scrape a dip into the wood. Part 1 of 6, complete. Mark this face as your reference face. All other measurements of square, etc, will come from this face. Select one long edge, and use the #5 to roughly flatten/smooth it, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Mark this edge as your reference edge. Part 2 of 6, complete. Use the reference edge and the try/combination square to mark one of the short edges square. You can use the #5 to plane to rough plane it flat and square to both the reference face and edge -- if the short edge is 4 to 6 or more inches wide; if not, then start with the LA block plane. (Chamfering the edges down to your cutting line will reduce tear out on the corner edges; alternative methods are to clamp a sacrificial piece of wood to the edge and let it tear out instead of your board, or to plane in from each outside edge.) Use the LA block plane to clean it up. Mark the other short edge to the desired length (saw it to rough length, if necessary) and do the same thing to the other short edge. Parts 3 and 4 of 6, complete. Use your combination square or a marking/panel gauge to mark the other (unplaned) long edge to the desired finished width. As you did for the reference long edge, use the #5 to roughly smooth it down almost to the cutting line, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Check for straight and square to the reference face and to the 2 short edges. All 4 edges should now be square to the reference face and square to each other. Part 5 of 6, complete. Use your marking gauge, basing off the reference face, to mark the thickness of your board around all 4 edges. Flip the board over to the unplaned face and use the scrub plane to plane down almost to the marked reference lines (The bottoms of the troughs should be about 1/16 inch above the cutting line). Use the #5, and the #7 or #8, as before on the reference face to make this face flat and square. Finish up with the smooth plane and, as necessary, the scraper. Part 6 of 6, complete. At this time, you should have a board with 2 flat, smooth, and parallel faces, 4 flat and square edges (long edges parallel to each other, as well as short edges parallel to each other, and all 4 edges square to the two faces and to each other), and of the required thickness, length, and width, ready for whatever needs to be done next. The first board you do by hand will take what seems like an inordinately long time, but with just a little bit of practice, it becomes nearly as fast as -- and often faster than -- putting a board through a jointer, thickness planer, and sanding sequence. A couple of things to keep in mind: Keep your plane irons SHARP!! If you have only a couple of planes, open the mouth up for the initial rougher planing, and close the mouth for the finer, finish planing. Let the plane do the work -- don't force it. Try to remove a roughly equal amount of wood from each face; if you don't, the wood will sometimes cup or twist again -- due to internal stresses released by planing -- after you have spent all that time and effort making it flat. Skewing the plane often helps reduce tear out and makes planing easier. If you have one, use the shooting board to make sure that all of your edges are square (to the faces and to each other) and straight. Expect to get a good upper body work out! This is not the only sequence that it can be done in, but it works quite well. Good luck, and have fun! There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment you get when you have taken a piece of rough lumber and turned it into a nicely finished, dimensioned, board using only hand-powered tools.
Is there a way of jointing boards wider than 8" without a jointer?
dare I suggest hand planes...?? doesn't get much safer and you can kiss that ripping to ssuit the capacity of your tool mess goodbye..
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
See if the school has a bandsaw and do it there
A simple way to cut a straight enough edge, to go on the table saw, is with a portable circular saw. Snap a chalk line or set up a straight edge guide.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
I agree with using a bandsaw to get a straightish edge. A table saw and a upped/twisted board is going to get you hurt.
Frank
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled