What is "hit or miss" plane?

[joe milana]

My local saw mill has offered to "hit or miss" plane my rough stock for me for $0.15 a BF bringing the stock thickness from 1 1/8" to about 15/16". Why would I want this done and would it remove any warp or twist from the stock?

[Gary Herrmann]

I've heard it called skip planing. Not sure how they'll do it, but if the board is secured so it doesn't rock, it will knock down the high points on each side eliminating some twist. How much depends on how twisted the board is.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Think of it as jointing a board a few times.

It is not enough to flatten it... but it is enough to get a look at the grain. This is nice if you just purchased a lot of wood and want to select the best boards from your pile. If you mill your own stock, or are just purchasing a few boards, it is not worth the money. IMHO, have them surface all of it or just do it yourself.

[Steve Jenkins]

The main reason to have the stock skip planed is so you can see the grain and color better. planing won't remove the warp and twist effectively. Jointing is still the best way to do that. after skip planing you will have less thickness to joint the stock straight.

[Don Morris]

I've had a wood mill offer to skip plane a couple of very dark cherry boards so I could at least see the grain a little before I bought one or the other. They didn't charge to do that. I was glad they did, as one of the boards was some lovely highly figured cherry which I immediately grabbed and said "I'll take this one".

[Peter Quinn]

Hit and miss means what it says. They plane it, taking a little bit off each side, and the planer hits some spots and misses others depending on how much the wood cupped in the kiln and how rough it was sawn. Typically 4/4 hit and miss sells at 15/16.

Why use it? Here's a for instance. My boss uses it in his flooring business as stock to be run in to the through molders. It allows the molding operator to see the grain, sort and rip boards to get around defects, and generally optimize the product with a very quick visual that would not be possible with rough stock. And it cuts down the chip volume the flooring mill has to deal with significantly. He sets up the molders to go from 15/16" to .775" so no further planing is necessary typically on our end before molding.

Is it "flat"? Not what I have seen. It has had the high spots knocked off, and some boards that started flat come out clean both sides, but it is not generally what I would call a furniture joinery ready kind of flat. I prefer to use rough stock whenever available for things I must have truly flat as that leaves more room for the jointer. Hit and miss is nothing you can't generally accomplish your self in two passes through the planer, so think of it as out sourcing some of the dirty work.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Hit or miss planing is also known as skip planing, as has been noted. It's mainly used to take the high spots out. We typically do that for lumber storage - it's surprising how much better lumber stacks that way. It is not a final planing and most times will not eliminate twist or cupping although it will help. As Steve said, jointing is the best way for that, or you can use a sled in a planer. If the lumber is offered that way you can see better what it looks like, although it may lose some thickness you need for jointing. I prefer to dimension lumber for a project just before being used to have 'fresh' faces.

[joe milana]

Great replies, Thanks! I think I will just continue buying rough stock. Makes those first few passes over the jointer much more exciting, and I can usually get a full 1" board if I am careful.

[Sean Hoag]

You could also have them Surface one Side which will cost less than a completely resufaced board. This will let you see the grain in it's grandeur and take half the trouble spots off the board you'll inevitably have to finish plane anyway. There's also what's called Straight Line Rip (One or Two Sides) where they give you just that and save you alot of time jigging it up to get a straight starting point for the tablesaw. Here in NY it costs me about $.35 / BF for S2S & SLR2S. If I had to pay my guys in the shop to mill the lumber, It'd cost me roughly $ .50 / BF when labor is figured into the mix so it actually saves me $$ when I order my lumber in bulk. Hope this helps.