So I had a frustrating weekend. I've been working on the 21st century bench and I was finally milling up the 8/4 kiln dried hard maple for the top after acclimating several weeks in my climate controlled shop.
I jointed and planed all the rough stock friday night and sat it aside til yesterday. Everything had stayed put so I was starting to rip it down into 2-3/4" strips. By the time I was through I had several cases where the stock was pinching the riving knife so hard I couldn't force it through and had to shut everything down. Looks like I will be lucky if I can get a 2-1/2" top thickness when all is said and done.
This was very surprising to me to say the least. I was following the video and milling everything as suggested, but I was not expecting to have this much released stress and wood movement. If I had known this I would have ripped it all down first and then jointed/planed everything up. I would have saved a lot of lumber this way.
Is this to be expected? I knew I would lose some material milling everything, but did not expect losing even more after ripping it down. Should I not have even milled it up until cutting it to rough dimensions? This has been pretty frustrating, looks like I will end up with a 2 to 2-1/2" top after spending $300 on lumber, if that is even thick enough for a bench.