Milling wide boards

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    I have a 6" plus jointer and need to mill up some boards wider than that.  I am building a workbench using some Maple and Walnut.  Because my finished widths of the boards will be 3" wide and 6", and 7 feet long and 8/4 and 12/4.  I need to figure out how to work with big boards.  Once this project is done, I don't see the need to work with full length and full width boards again. For that reason I don't see the need to spend 2 days building a nice jig to use likely once.

What is the easiest, cheapest way to mill 10 full sized boards with a 12" planer, a 6" jointer and tablesaw?

[jteneyck]

I have a 6" plus jointer and need to mill up some boards wider than that.  I am building a workbench using some Maple and Walnut.  Because my finished widths of the boards will be 3" wide and 6", and 7 feet long and 8/4 and 12/4.  I need to figure out how to work with big boards.  Once this project is done, I don't see the need to work with full length and full width boards again. For that reason I don't see the need to spend 2 days building a nice jig to use likely once.

What is the easiest, cheapest way to mill 10 full sized boards with a 12" planer, a 6" jointer and tablesaw?

Rip them to less than 6", face joint, plane to thickness, joint one edge, rip the other edge parallel then joint that edge.  Proceed as needed.  

John

[photobug]

Rip them to less than 6", face joint, plane to thickness, joint one edge, rip the other edge parallel then joint that edge.  Proceed as needed.  

John

That is what I usually do but since both my jointer and bandsaw are limited to a 6" capacity.  However my final pieces are to be 3" and 6" wide, I'd really like to start with the boards as wide as possible.  I am considering hitting up local cabinet shops or furniture repair shops to see if they will joint the one face for me.  If they have the right jointer, it should be an easy task for them and it would be done quickly and likely for less money than building a 8 foot planer sled.

If storage was not an issue and I was doing full 8 foot boards often I think I would build a planer sled along these lines.

https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/doub...aner-sled/

[rwe2156]

What I do is joint as wide as I can (this requires removing the guard), once I'm satisfied with it, I slip a length of ply under the jointed part and run through the planer.

When the other side is flat, flip it, and plane off the unjointed strip. I usually double stick the plywood.

I hope this makes sense.

[photobug]

What I do is joint as wide as I can (this requires removing the guard), once I'm satisfied with it, I slip a length of ply under the jointed part and run through the planer.

When the other side is flat, flip it, and plane off the unjointed strip.  I usually double stick the plywood.

I hope this makes sense.

That does make sense and is one of the two methods I saw and was considering.  If I had an 8' long piece of plywood on hand I was willing to try this with I would give this a shot.  I may go grab a 4x8 8' of baltic birch to create a sled with.

What do you mean but double stick the plywood?  Use double sided tape to hold the plywood to the 6" wide dado?  The method I saw had a fence on the plywood and two screws were sunk into the side of the board to be planed.

[Gary G™]

Renting time is a good solution if you can.
The sled works too.
Or:
If your planer is 13” wide, rip an 8’ long piece of plywood or other flat substrate.
Hot glue your board to the substrate with various shims to keep it solid and plane a smidge per pass until it’s true enough to flip and plane without the substrate.

[Admiral]

A lot of 6" jointers have knives that are 6 1/8" actual, so I'd cut the width to say 6 1/2" or so and try and max out the fence to take advantage of the extra 1/8", and then give the overhang edge a very high angle sort of champfer (if you know what I mean) with a block plane or a jack; then joint down until you get the flatness you need to feed into the planer, then flip to make the original jointed side true. I did this all the time before I got an 8" jointer.

[lincmercguy]

"What I do is joint as wide as I can (this requires removing the guard), once I'm satisfied with it, I slip a length of ply under the jointed part and run through the planer.

When the other side is flat, flip it, and plane off the unjointed strip. I usually double stick the plywood."

This is what I do as well. Just keep in mind that you only get one pass with the jointer if the uncut part of the wood sits on part of the infeed table (usually where the guard is attached).

For the plywood part in the planer, I use a piece of MDF for this since it seemed to be better uniform thickness than borg plywood. I also attached a small peice on the bottom at the end that acts as a stop at the infeed table. This prevents the MDF piece from being pulled through the planer.

[Alan S]

If you have a handplane, there are several approaches involving differing amounts of hand work. One is to take the guard off your 6" jointer, cut a 6" wide rabbet, and then use the handplane to take off the narrow ridge left behind. This allows multiple passes on the jointer to get it flat before you run it through the planer.

[carpenter wisdom]

I have a 6" plus jointer and need to mill up some boards wider than that.  I am building a workbench using some Maple and Walnut.  Because my finished widths of the boards will be 3" wide and 6", and 7 feet long and 8/4 and 12/4.  I need to figure out how to work with big boards.  Once this project is done, I don't see the need to work with full length and full width boards again. For that reason I don't see the need to spend 2 days building a nice jig to use likely once.

What is the easiest, cheapest way to mill 10 full sized boards with a 12" planer, a 6" jointer and tablesaw?

Some years ago I purchased a 10' length of 1x3 aluminum square stock tubing.  It is a great straight edge that I attached to my portable table saw fence.  It gives a pretty good strait line rip so it can then be joined pretty easily with my power block plane.  Then once my top is laminated together I use old school hand plane technique of move diagonally back and forth across the top to flatten everything at once.  A power block plane works along with a 3" belt sander to get the final desired smoothness.
I also rely heavily on nearby woodworking shops to mill to spec if I want something more refined. One of the perks of living in a city with plenty of friends with cabinet shops.