Just when I thought I could not find 3″ lumber for my Joiner bench top along came a little old lady with some 35 year old white oak! Two boards, 11’x3″x14″ with a little bit of twist and the odd bow but nothing too serious. Question; since my 14″ jointer is out for repairs how should I attempt the surfacing of these monsters while saving as much of the dimensions as possible? I would like two boards @ 8′ for the bench top and the remainder for the vice jaws and end caps. I have a friend with a 20″ planner if that helps. Should I be concerned about movement in wood of this age? (for end caps and such) Thanks as always.
Edited 3/9/2003 8:55:24 PM ET by Bdog
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A 20" planer, with a sled, and the stock wedged, will do the trick, no problem. A bit slwo, but it is only two boards. I can't comment on the movement of the wood after this length of time, but I would think that they have already fully settled down.
Thanks, I will have a sled experience tomorrow then! Cheers
The way I did a sled was to take a flat piece, MDF is good, attach a front stop lower than the stock to be planed, and then lay the stock on the sled. Where it is up, off of the sled, slide a hardwood shim/wedge under it, till firm (no rocking). Use enough wedges so that the open spaces cannot deflect under the pressure of the planer. Then, use either a nail, shoot a pin, or hot glue the wedge, and plane till the top is flat. Take it off of the sled, flit it over, remove the wedges if needed, and flatten the 2d side. That said, there was a thread on this a bit ago, and a couple of WWer's had what I thought were easier ways to do the same thing. Might be worth a look.
Since it's only two boards you might just want to use a scrub plane to get the twist out. Or you could wait until your jointer is running again. It doesn't seem to make sense to build a jig for 2 pieces, especially when you have a nice big jointer that will be working in the future. By the time you get your jig ready you could have already flattened them with a scrub and then planed them.
BTW wood moves no matter how old it is, so yes, always allow for wood movement.
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