School me on working with hardwoods

[Joe Scharbrough]

I hope I am not the only guy that has ever asked about this. I am a hobby woodworker not a pro. 30 years ago while working my way through college I became first a framing carpenter then a decent finish carpenter. Over the past year I have come back to woodworking as my hobby of choice. Getting hit by a truck put an end to my motorcycle hobby . Over the past year I have been getting reacquainted with my tools and working to prefect my skills. I have upgraded some tools and have more to purchase I am sure. My current skills are such that I can now take a stack of Baltic Birch and some face frame material and make cabinets that look great and amaze my wife and friends. I am real comfortable with my skills and the quality of my work for making cabinets, built in bookcases and vanities and the like. Raised panel doors are not a problem. I feel like I want to do more.

I don't have a hardwoods dealer close by so today I took a 90 minute drive to Raleigh to pickup some tools at Woodcraft and I was looking at their selection of hardwoods. I also stopped in at another vendor who had a very large selection of great wood. Well now I want to start developing my skills on some finer furniture projects and I sure could use some pointers on working with some of these hardwoods like walnut, cherry and maple and the others.

Looks like I will need a planer, and maybe a joiner. How do you guys get the wood to a size you can use. I do not see a lot of furniture that is 4/4 or 5/4. Are you re-sawing it with a bandsaw or do you run it through the planer to get the thickness you need?

Right now I am just trying to get my head around the basic parameters of working with something other than sheet goods.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi ,joe welcome to the creek,i would get a jointer and planer if you want to process hardwoods.How about a work bench for a project.Lots of good books to build from.All you really need is a desire to get started.Good luck be safe and have fun.

[Dave Cav]

Looks like I will need a planer, and maybe a joiner. How do you guys get the wood to a size you can use. I do not see a lot of furniture that is 4/4 or 5/4. Are you re-sawing it with a bandsaw or do you run it through the planer to get the thickness you need?

Right now I am just trying to get my head around the basic parameters of working with something other than sheet goods.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Joe,
Welcome to the forum. There is a ton of good information here.

Yes, you will need a jointer and planer. Most hardwood is sold S2S, or surfaced two sides. Fully dimensioned hardwood, finished to a final size on all four sides is a LOT more expensive. With S2S the flat surfaces will usually be rough "skip" or "hit and miss" planed, and the edges will be rough. You'll need a jointer to straighten out one edge prior to ripping, and a planer for final thicknessing. Depending on the quality, you might need to face joint one side before planing, although most of the stuff I get is flat enough to plane without facing it first.

A good 6" planer is the minimum you should consider, and an 8" is even better because you can do pretty decent face jointing with an 8". Stick with a known brand; Delta, Powermatic, Grizzly and Jet all make good jointers. Don't overlook used stuff, too.

For starting out I would consider one of the imported 15" four post planers. They are all pretty much alike, and Jet and Grizzly make good planers that are usually pretty well set up and not too difficult to maintain and change knives. The carbide helical head planers are even pretty affordable now, and once you use one you'll never go back. A lot of people use the smaller lunchbox planers when first starting out, but they are noisy and more or less disposable when they start having problems. If you can find an older Powermatic or one of the other vintage brands you might consider one of them, but they are very heavy, and parts can be a problem if needed. Some of them have individual issues you should be aware of; for instance, some of the older Delta planers have a worm gear in the feed power train that can go bad, and is no longer available. If you're interested in vintage wood working machines, check out OWWMdotORG.

The only time I use my bandsaw for dimensioning stock is when I get big slabs that have to be broken down into smaller pieces. Today I was resawing some 4" thick spalted maple on my bandsaw, but I cut it to 1 1/8 (more or less) and will do the final dimensioning with the planer. I normally buy 4/4 or 5/4 stock and then plane it down to the finish size I need. Most of my carcase material ends up being 3/4, and my tops are generally 1", so I start with thicker stock and work it down. I also scored about 600 BF of KD 4/4 alder a couple of years ago, and I use that for my web frames and drawer sides, the latter usually being planed down to 5/8".

Hope this helps get you started.

[Jerome Hanby]

Walnut is wonderful to work with. I like maple too, but it is pretty hard and sometimes that makes it a little difficult to work. In the old days, the call would be mahogany, traditionally the easiest hardwood to work with, but I doubt anyone gets real mahogany these days. I'd be tempted to buy a lot of poplar. It's pretty easy to work and it's cheap enough that it won't break your heart when you make mistakes. Maybe make shop furniture for a while while you get dialed in.

[Jim Rimmer]

Welcome to the Creek. Dave provided some great info and searches here when you have specific areas you need help on will provide lots of help. A lot folks here do resaw on bandsaws; it kind of depends on the project and the wood. It's a good way to get bookmatch panels from a really special board. I resaw some when I am making boxes because I usually make them from 1/2" stock and I don't want to just plane away the extra.

Look forward to hearing more from you.

[fRED mCnEILL]

My advice would be to find a local sawmill to buy your hardwood from. My first experience in buying hardwood was from a wood supplier closing down. I bought a lift of maple for $300. Being my first purchase I thought that was the going price. With that wood I was building 20 feet of built in closets& cupboards in the bedroom. I was having trouble making 7 ft high stiles(rails?) for the closet doors so I went to the local hardwood store to buy some 8 ft. 1X4`s.They wanted as much for those as I paid for the whole lift. I decided I could probably work a little harder at getting straight ones from the stuff I had. I now ONLY buy hardwood from a local mill. Usually I pay around $1 per bf. Last load was about $.35 per bf. I don`t know how people can afford to build things at lumber yard-specialty store prices.

[Roger Jensen]

Hi Joe,

I went the path of a lot of folks here, starting with an 8" jointer (Jet) and 12" 'lunch box' planer (Dewalt). Like many people, I ended up selling them both and upgrading. I decided on a combination machine, a Hammer A3 31 combination JP. It was expensive and requires 220 power, but it was the best purchase I have made, after my table saw. Being able to put a flat surface or edge on a board with minimal time and effort really improves your experience. I am just finishing a complete kitchen remodel and there is no way I would have wanted to prep the stock for face frames, rails and stiles with my old equipment.

Everyone has to set their own priorities and expenditures, but if you think you're going to be serious about this for the foreseeable future (5+ years), then I'd consider a higher end combination machine or larger separate units.

I also have a bandsaw, but it usually just sits there collecting dust.

Good luck,

Roger

[Cody Colston]

I also buy my lumber from either a sawmill or I have it sawn from my own logs and I dry it in a solar kiln. For dimensioning it, I have an 8" jointer and a 15" planer...indispensible tools in my shop and they work in tandem. Neither one is nearly as useful without the other.

By buying rough-sawn lumber and dimensioning it yourself, you not only have a lot more size options but you will pay for the J/P fairly easily over buying pre-dimensioned lumber.

[cliff smith]

hi joe, if you havent already you need to visit north carloina woodworker website its a great bunch of folks who share a passion for all types of woodworking and there are many sources there for wood and tools new and used. have fun .

cliff

[glenn bradley]

I'm another one in the 8" jointer / 15" planer camp. Not everyone needs these tools or these sizes, some need more, some less. I make tables, chests of drawers, book cases, jewelry boxes, wall cabinets, dressers and so forth. My 6" jointer was always too small, the 8" hardly ever is. My 12-1/2" planer was almost always wide enough but when i went to a spiral head on the jointer, a planer upgrade was called for. Along the same line; my original 30" of fence travel on my tablesaw was often not enough. I shifted the rails and 40" is nearly always plenty. Based on what you end up doing, your requirements and your satisfaction with certain tools and capacities will vary. Many Neander-folks get by without tablesaw, jointer or planer. I enjoy hand tools but, not to that extent. BTW, welcome and enjoy your return to woodworking.

[Jim Matthews]

I'm not sure where you reside, but The Hardwood store of North Carolina is in Gibsonville.

If you're like most of us, the amount of money saved by planing your own stock is miniscule.
Unless you go into production mode, a decent planer and jointer are just additional expense.

For a few dollars more in your stock choice, a decent supplier (you know the drill, call first and find a quiet hour to bring coffee) will visit with you and help you choose materials.
If they only allow you to pick off the top - try another dealer.

The essential ingredient in any project is your attraction to the wood "at hand".

www.woodfinder.com will allow you to plug in your zip code to find a dealer nearby.

FYI - I now by my stock surfaced on two sides, kiln dried and do the rest by hand.
Sorry to hear about the scoot - I was once run off the road by the same old couple in Montana, twice.
When the state patrol came through, they were genuinely surprised as they had never seen me.
The second trip into the dirt wrecked my '77 R/90s.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I do not see a lot of furniture that is 4/4 or 5/4.

Joe

That's exactly the reason why I'm into woodworking. Everything you buy is made either from MDF or pressed toilet paper.

[Frank Drew]

Most hardwood is sold S2S

Really? I would have said that most is sold unsurfaced. I never bought wood at big box stores, or at consumer oriented retailers (Woodcraft, etc.), but in all my years furniture making I never bought anything but rough sawn.

[Dave Cav]

Really? I would have said that most is sold unsurfaced. I never bought wood at big box stores, or at consumer oriented retailers (Woodcraft, etc.), but in all my years furniture making I never bought anything but rough sawn.

S2S means surfaced. It doesn't mean sanded or finished. I also said "With S2S the flat surfaces will usually be rough "skip" or "hit and miss" planed, and the edges will be rough."

I buy wood for most of the furniture I build from a commercial hardwood dealer, and it's just that, S2S, rough planed enough to remove most, but not all of the saw marks and get it to the final dimension. I also buy about 2500 bf of hardwood direct from the mill for my school shop every year. It is mostly alder, with some birch, maple and even cottonwood thrown in depending on what they are sawing that week. It's sold S2S, and every board that goes through the mill goes through a big old Oliver double sided surfacer to get it to final thickness and so it can be better graded before being bundled. Maybe if just depends on the mill you buy your wood from.