The parts I make are within 0.002 in height and width. I have the tools to make that happen and have been doing it for years.
The problem I've had is that when I order wood the tolerances are all over the place. For example, I ordered 1/4" wood several years ago and what I got was from 3/16" to 5/16". At that time I had no way to accurately thickness wood. I needed it to an actual 1/4".
So this time I ordered wood that was supposed to be 5/16" and I would finish the thicknessing myself. Again I got a lot of wood that's well under 1/4" thick. At least a quarter of the wood is too thin.
From here on out I'm going to be buying thick slabs, resawing it, planing it (Dewalt thickness planer) and finally sending it through my thickness sander.
I've never done all this before so this is the first plan I came up with but my real plan is to do some research before I start anything. This is just what makes sense to me.
Saw off a slab on my band saw. Send the slice and the rest of the slab through the thickness planer to true them up on the cut face. Repeat until the entire slab is cut into planks.
Next saw the planks into workable sizes and send them through my thickness sander.
Carry on as usual from there - shaping, cutting into individual parts, drill, tap, etc.
I can't see any way to avoid putting the slab back through the planer after every board is cut from it or I'll have to take each board to the jointer to get one good face and then send it through the planer. I guess either way works.
Assuming that's all ok then my actual question is how much extra thickness do you give yourself when resawing to ensure you have a good board that's not too thin? Let's pretend I can resaw a relatively straight line - say worst case would be 1/32 deviation.
If the first face is good and I don't have tear-out or other defects then I just need to bring the second face to true and then thickness so I'm thinking 1/16" too thick to start would be good. In other words, if I want 1/4" thick finished planks then I'd mark my slab at 5/16" for resawing.
Does that sound good or am I missing something?
Thanks,
- Paul