Milling Lumber Flat, Parallel and Square

[Glen Blanchard]

I just watched a video on the FWW site about milling lumber and getting it flat and square. The guy narrating the video talked about the importance of what he calls the "FEE" sequence - that is faces first, then edges, and finally ends. I don't often use this sequence. I tend to flatten one face on the jointer first, and since I am standing at the jointer will mill one edge using the already milled face against the jointer fence. Then I will plane the opposite face and cut the opposite edge on the table saw (or vice versa depending on my mood). Finally I cut the ends. Is there any benefit to milling both faces first? I don't see why it would matter.

[Dan Friedrichs]

As long as you put the jointed face against the fence, it doesn't matter.

[Brian Kincaid]

... I don't see why it would matter.

I face joint then edge joint one side while I'm holding the board at the jointer. I can't see why it would matter either. Of course depending on your lumber you might find out the next day that it moved again and is not 'perfect'

-Brian

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Of course depending on your lumber you might find out the next day that it moved again and is not 'perfect'

This is the only reason I can think of....you would want to relieve any 'stresses' on the larger surface area (faces) before ripping/jointing either edge.

[Myk Rian]

After I face and edge joint, I'll mark those 2 edges with chalk.

[Glen Blanchard]

After I face and edge joint, I'll mark those 2 edges with chalk.

Yep, I do the same.

[Rob Holcomb]

I face joint first too and then flatten the other side in my planer but leave things as thick as I can. Then I usually will set things aside until the next day after doing so because 75% of the time, I find that the next day the board has bowed a little. I just face joint the board again, run it through the planer again and edge joint the board when I'm certain the wood is done moving. Then I square the board up using my table saw. Finally I do the final planing to the proper thickness and cut to final length on my miter saw.

[glenn bradley]

I will sometimes plane a bit from both sides even though the one face is jointed. I guess waiting to edge joint would avoid any 'assumed perpendicular relationship if things moved a bit due to stress release.

That being said I usually cut to rough length and width, face, edge, plane, rip and crosscut. I also do like Myk and Glen but I mark the rough sides.

[Chris Friesen]

One reason why you might want to do both faces first is that if you do only one face you might find that the edge you want to true ends up with the grain going the wrong way to run the true face against the fence.

If you true both faces up first, you can run either face against the fence depending on grain direction.

[glenn bradley]

One reason why you might want to do both faces first is that if you do only one face you might find that the edge you want to true ends up with the grain going the wrong way to run the true face against the fence.

If you true both faces up first, you can run either face against the fence depending on grain direction.

That, is an excellent reasoning. Well done, thanks.

[Tony Bilello]

If you true both faces up first, you can run either face against the fence depending on grain direction.

I agree. I dont edge my boards until I need them

[William Schmitz]

Thinking of this thread last night while I was jointing and planing I could only come up with the reason above as a practical advantage to facing first. If you do the faces first, you gain additional flexbility when edging - four choices of orientation through the jointer rather than two.

However, I dediced the real reason I do the two faces first, is that in my mind I separate thickness from width. I do thickness first, then width. It works out to be a less error prone method for me. First I joint all the faces and lay the stock on the bench with the flat face down. Then I plane it all. I flip all the boards just before the last swipe of the planer to take off the jointing marks (I joint the faces fast, just for flatness, not smoothness). Then I choose an edge and orient all the boards with that edge down. After edging I keep the flat edge down and cut to width. Then finally I flip then over and joint the other edge smooth. I can stop in the middle of this process and pick it back up several days later without messing up.

There is a FWW article that talked about how the jointer should be called the planer (because it is like a giant upside down hand plane), and the planer the thicknesser.

[John Coloccia]

I think most people do one face and one edge as a matter of convenience. You're at the jointer and once you've flattened a face, it's easy to straighten the edge...you're already there, ready to go.

I often flatten the face and then pass it through the planer to get the other side flat before doing anything else with the piece. Often times, I want to be able to see the grain, and decide what I'm using the piece for before I waste any more time dimensioning. Depending on the grain, I may decide to use the piece for something that I'm going to cut out on the bandsaw. In that case, there's no point in wasting any wood with additional milling when it's not going to buy me anything. As an example, I may examine a board after I've planed it and decide that this will actually make a fantastic guitar neck blanks. That 1/8" or more that might come off jointing and passing on the table saw is often the difference between getting 3 neck blanks from a board rather than 2! I don't know why it always seem to work out like that, but it does

[Glen Butler]

I think most people do one face and one edge as a matter of convenience. You're at the jointer and once you've flattened a face, it's easy to straighten the edge...you're already there, ready to go.

This is my reasoning. I want to simplify operations. Use the jointer, then the planer, then the table saw. Done. No going back. While I can see that it would benefit having more available orientations for edge jointing, I just want to get the lumber sized to see what the available dimensions are. For glue ups I will come back to the jointer just before glueing to perfect the edge.

[Steve Griffin]

There sure are many ways to skin a cat.

The number one rule with milling lumber is there is no one milling sequence that is always the best for every type of project.

Having said that,for the last 10 years my shop and employees have used this sequence 90% of the time:

-Rough cut length plus 1"
-Rough joint one edge (just a quick pass or two to get a reasonably straight edge)
-table saw to width plus 3/16 or 1/4
-Face joint
-plane to thickness plus .025 or so
-final edge joint
-two passes on shaper to get to final width. (straight bit in shaper with indexed outboard fence set up to climb cut. Edges come out shiny smooth and dead square)
-Belt sander to final thickness and 150g.
-cross cut to final length.

-Steve