How I remove twist on my jointer.

Re: How I remove twist on my jointer.

John McGaw

Maybe I don't understand. Are you saying that in your drawer example you would de-twist the entire 8' board rather than cutting it into the desired 2' lengths and de-twisting each of those? The latter seems to be the safer and easier course of action and is the way I always do it. I never joint or plane anything longer than necessary for the project.

Re: How I remove twist on my jointer.

Hank Knight

Keith, good post. I use the same technique and it works very well. Another consideration that may be obvious to most, but worth noting, is to begin with the board as near the final dimensions as you feel comfortable. A four foot long board with a 1/4" twist over its length will require the removal of twice as much material to flatten than the same board cut into two foot lengths. Similarly, the twist in an 8" wide board is significantly reduced if the board is ripped into two 4" wide pieces.

Another caution is to restrain the board as quickly as possible after flattening it either through joinery or by clamping it flat (I clamp several flattened boards together with stickers) until it reacclimatizes and reaches equilibrium in your shop. Otherwise the twist may return, but usually considerably milder than the original twist.

easier way

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Make the rough cuttings with lumber full thickness(rough).

On any flat surface identify the high corners and mark them

fix cutting to bench with marked side up

with a scrub plane knock some off from the high corners. Only enough to keep the piece from rocking is sufficient. (my scrub is just a $30 Stanley #5 with a wicked cambered blade in it)

With planed side down run it through the thickness planer. (I have an 18" and if I have a longer bed what I just described could be more effective than a shorter bed can achieve without flattening more with the scrub plane than I do) Alternatively run across jointer. Again only enough needs to be scrubbed off to prevent rocking.

done

My 12 year old grand daughter flattened the exceptionally twisted (and fortunately exceptionally thick sawed)cherry for the panels and top in this piece.

Yes John and Hank, I break it down

Keith Newton

to smaller increments, but with some extra length and width to bring on down in the end. Usually, as I'm doing now, I will break it down yo two drawer lengths, if the stock isn't too bad, since its easy to get some end snipe on short pieces.

Re: easier way????

Keith Newton

Bill, that was how I did it back in the seventies, so it isn't like I haven't tried that.

I seem to recall that you got an 8" jointer for your shop, is that right? Maybe you ought to give what I posted a try. I know you are retired, and like making things for your family and friends, and I applaud that, but I'm still making my living in my shop, and would starve in my market area if I were still dressing my lumber with hand tools. And I didn't find it to be easier.

Beautiful grand-daughter by the way. Its nice to see them growing and out in the shop with you. I'm envious of that. I've got all the lumber for andwas hoping to build a wooden boat or two with my grand nephew, but he is a tennis star now and has been since about 11 so that takes all his weekends for tournaments and practice through the week.

Okey Dokey now....

Barry Irby

Something to think about....

I have done it Bill's way and it works well except that I need a heavy duty bench to attach to. (Play the tiny shop blues tune here)

My lunch box planer has extension tables that are tipped up at the ends, so there is a little step from the table into the planer. I have tried laying the offending piece on my TS (flat surface) and sliding wedges under the high corners until the piece sits level and then attaching the wedges with double stick tape. Then run the piece through the planer, wedges down, and flatten the top. (I save the wedges from cutoffs from tapering table legs.) Seems to work well enough, but is tedious. The little step in the table was annoying so I made a Formica covered platen to go into the planer full length. Did not seem to help much.

One thing I do that is slightly similar is what I call "tail dragging". If I have a board with a concave edge I set it on the jointer with the middle over the knives and push it forward and cut the trailing edge off. Turn it around and do it again. Somehow this seems better that going straight at it. If the board is really bowed, the toe will drop into the cutter and get caught behind the outfeed table. Making a pass or two on the trailing edge provides a flat and helps prevent this. Not sure, but it seems to do a better job of taking advantage of the full length of the jointer beds.

I had not thought of Keith's method. I will give it a try. Sadly, I have a 6" jointer and that is limiting.

Re: Okey Dokey now.... *LINK*

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Look up planer sled, similar to what you’ve done but much easier. Here is one, there are others.

I use both a planer sled and flatten one side by hand. If the stock is very hard, by sled, if softer, by hand.


Planer sled

Re: Okey Dokey now....

John McGaw

Yeah. I did that in my pseudo-shop in Alaska with a crappy Ryobi planer and it worked very well although setup for the first pass could be very tedious. Manufacturing a truly flat sled finally involved two laminations of 3/4" particle board.

clarifying your misconceptions

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I will agree I overstated my case. I will reign it in below.

would starve in my market area if I were still dressing my lumber with hand tools.

Read what I actually wrote. I have never dressed a single board in my lifetime from rough to finish, or even rough to not quite rough. I would not enjoy doing it and would slow my output to a crawl. This activity is for the "life style" woodworkers.

It would be a mistake to presume I don't strive for the same efficiency providing furniture for daughters and grand daughters as I would for a paying customer. I did commission work to get money to equip my shop but now I don't. But my focus on efficiency has not altered.

Recall a recent post titled "taking the labor out of dovetails". If someone showed me a way of removing another hour from making a dovetailed drawer I would be all over it(there is, doing it more often). I can lavish construction techniques on family that few paying customers would afford- traditional built cases, inlay, dovetailed drawers, etc. But construction details are unrelated to efficiency. If I am preparing a panel I am striving for no less efficiency than you are and I doubt much separates us from how long it takes to prepare 20. That rack of 47 panel clamps one sees in some of my posts is there for a purpose. I have made hundreds.

More specific: If I was preparing a cutting for a case top and the twist was a piddly 1/16" I would just run it through the thickness planer and move on. A drawer front would get flattened on the jointer, one pass end to end with the high corners teetering on average the same height above the table. (I will explore the idea, novel to me, of starting in the middle. I cut tapers this way so it is not something I think unsafe or odd to try)

I might glue up a panel less than my planer capacity (18") from skip dressed lumber less than flat and plane the assembled panel flat as done in a furniture factory. Or do sub panels less than 18" and glue the final wider than 18" from dressed sub panels.

But what to do if the board is severely twisted, or wider than 8", and twisted or bowed. Here is where a scrub plane becomes useful providing there is a quick way of fixing the board to the bench and back off again.

A scrub plane is blazing fast at removing wood. A stroke a second is not pushing it and coarse shavings are possible with a cambered blade. The scrub plane gets considered by me when there is a lot of wood to remove from a corner or an edge, not the whole face.

Wider than 8" and bowed. I take the cover off the jointer, send it across and scrub plane the raised part that doesn't get jointed. Takes seconds to scrub it off.

Wider than 8" and twisted or any width severely twisted. I will knock the opposing high corners off with the scrub plane to get a better footprint on the jointer or planer, depending on what I choose to do next for flattening. Takes seconds and requires almost no planing skill as illustrated by grand daughter succeeding at it.

So reigning in my scrub plane claim, it has its place when a lot of wood needs to be removed from a limited area, corner or edge, in the course of flattening.

The cherry from this log went crazy when dried. I was motivated to use it because it came from our property. But I needed extreme measures to recover flat stock from much of the wood cut from the outer portion of the log (unfortunately the clear lumber) We were ankle deep in shavings by the time we got stock for the sides and top.

Re: Okey Dokey now....

Barry Irby

I have looked at planer sleds but have not built one. Will give that more thought.

I think what I really need is a good sturdy workbench that does not roll or slide when I try to plane something with a hand plane. I have used the idea Bill presented but it's a sombitch chasing it around the shop.