Below are the steps in preparing lumber.
1. Start by purchasing the straightest, flattest, dry lumber you can from the lumber mill.
2. When you get your lumber home stack it with stickers between the boards off the ground and let it acclimate to your shop. The boards will lose or gain moisture; normally lose moisture. To tell if you lumber is acclimated test the moisture content against a board that has been in your shop for a long time with a moisture meter. If you don’t have a moisture meter, then wait a week or two.
3. Take a wire brush and then a regular bristle brush to each side of your lumber to remove any grit from the lumber mill. I would rather spend a little time cleaning lumber than changing and sharpening blades.
4. Rough cut your lumber to size. Cut the boards to length leaving them a little long. If you rough cut your boards to length before you work with the jointer and thickness planner the boards will be more manageable and most importantly you will have to remove less material to get the boards flat (See Fig1).
5. Flatten one face and then joint one edge square to that face on the jointer. Using a jointer properly deserves it’s own article but here are a few general tips:
Tune up the jointer before you attempt to flatten a board.
- Make sure the knives are parallel and level to the out feed table.
- Make sure the in feed table is parallel to the out feed table.
- Make sure the fence is square to the in feed and out feed tables.
If the board is cupped place the concave side down. If you place the concave side up the board will rock and it is difficult to make it flat. (see Fig 2).
6. Plane the opposite face parallel on the thickness planner leaving the boards a little thick.
7. Cut the board to width at the table saw leaving the boards a little wide.
8. Re-stack the boards with stickers since fresh wood is now exposed and wait a few days for the boards to loose moisture.
9. Finish milling your boards to finial dimensions using the steps above when you are ready to build your project.
Stickers: Stickers are thin strips of dry wood placed between boards that allow air to circulate around lumber so the wood dries evenly.
Dry lumber: For indoor projects you want Kiln-dried wood which has a moisture content of around 6-8 percent.
September 4, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Informative article! Also, if you are having trouble drying your wood quickly as mentioned in step 2, this could be a result from the surface the wood is laying upon. Some woods also have more moisture in them depending on the way they are manufactured; Kilm dried wood has about 12% moisture or less and green wood usually has 20% moisture or above.