Jointer Strategy Question

[EdL]

I would run it thru the planer, full length, just enough to get your desired clean up.

At 8/4, deflection from the feed rollers will be minimlal, to none depending on your planer

Ed

[Stwood_]

I would run it thru the planer, full length, just enough to get your desired clean up.

At 8/4, deflection from the feed rollers will be minimal, to none depending on your planer

Ed

Called...................Skip planing

[Bill Holt]

Mark, clearly you have given this a lot of thought and you know your circumstances.  Do what needs to be done for you.  Just when I was starting into this crazy world of woodworking, I designed a large round dinning tabel.  I had spent many hours on the design and then asked for advice from the "brain trust".  Not one woodnetter, save John Fry, had an encouraging word.  A couple thought I was crazy, some thought I was foolish, a few suggested I go a different rout.  John Fry realized I had given it a lot of thought and said something to the effect that just because my ideas were not normal, didn't mean they were wrong and he said "go for it".  I did and the table has been a huge sucess.

I have never had an abundance of wood stored, so I cannot relate to your situation.  But like most others, I would not want to cut up the whole inventory.

[measurecutcurse]

Folks,

I think some of you are missing the main message.  

Yes, it would be fine to only joint what is needed for the project, IF they were all sufficiently similar in grain and color to be usable for the project.  However, this is not reality.  In order to get truly matching boards in color, grain, and the absence of defects, I may need to joint 2x or more boards.  The excess boards may still be usable, but they simply don't match the ones I've already selected.  

So, if I need 25 bd ft for a project, I may need to joint 75 bd ft to obtain adequate matches.  If there are only 500 bd ft total, this is already nearly 20% of the total stash.  So my conclusion is that I might as well bite the bullet now and joint most of it.  I'm mainly interested if others have made similar conclusions.  It sounds like some of those who replied have been ok with doing 6 ft lengths.

It's not such a big deal to go ahead and plane the opposite face, I had already sort of reached that conclusion.  

There are 2-3 really wide boards that I will probably not joint, so as to maximize the yield of wide stock.

Thanks,
Mark

I work primarily with Walnut I've bought as logs, had milled and then air dried myself. I also have the problem of the boards often not matching, both color and grain. But I tend to not worry about those inconsistencies, and will stain a piece a bit darker, or just leave the natural variation to exist in the finished piece. Even mismatched walnut is pretty IMO, and my wife doesn't seem to mind. So I try to only mill what I need for one project, and try to not be too picky. If thing absolutely need to match, I might buy s2s stock from a hardwood supplier, but that is much more expensive a proposition.