I have about 100 board feet of 5/4 white oak that's 8'6" or so long and widths ranging from 4" to 8". I learned my lesson on the red oak and didn't mill any wider than 8", 12" doesn't work on an 8" jointer lol. I have a Powermatic 60HH 8" jointer so nice and long table at 73" but 8'6" seems a bit hard to hold flat to me so I usually cut them in half. if anyone has any tips on jointing long boards I would rather keep the really good ones long.

 

JT

Edited April 17, 20224 yr by jthornton

don't joint them until you need them?

 

i only have a little jointer, rarely used, and mostly use the TS for truing up a wavy edge.

I use a 12"wide and 8' long piece of 1/2" BB with a 2 1/2" wide strip glued to one edge. On that strip are 6 HF deStaco wannabe clamps to hold the board. With infeed and outfeed tables and a good full thickness rip blade, I can "joint" a tad over 8'.

Go Old School, maybe?

3 minutes ago, steven newman said:

Go Old School, maybe?

 

Steven beat me to it.

I agree, believe it or not, it's much easier in my opinion to joint long boards with a jointer plane, clamp it up to the long edge of your bench, and within a short time you'll have a straight edge, and then you can use that straight edge to reference up on the fence of your table saw to parallel the opposite side. Also, jointing edges is the easiest of hand operations to start on, it's hand planing 101, your iron doesn't even need to be top sharp as it would have to be if your planing a surface.

Down and dirty you could even clamp up a straight edge on the wavy or bent edge, and knock it off with a skil saw, that'll be straight enough to get it up on the table saw fence, cut the opposite side, flip and knock a 1/16 off for a nice clean edge.

Just curious, are you doing the edge of the board or flattening sides?

Edited April 18, 20224 yr by lew

6 hours ago, lew said:

Just curious, are you doing the edge of the board or flattening sides?

That's what I was wondering......

8 hours ago, lew said:

Just curious, are you doing the edge of the board or flattening sides?

 

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

That's what I was wondering......

 

He did say Jointing, so that would be the edge.

A hand plane works but, I'm partial shiny things with teeth, that spin. As long as that spinny thing ain't red, glue ready edges are a snap. Freud makes great routers and bits. They should stick to those things and, leave the saw blade manufacturing to folks who know how.

14 hours ago, jthornton said:

12" doesn't work on an 8" jointer lol.

@John Morris but he added this. You can certainly do the edge of a 12" board on an 8" jointer.

10 hours ago, lew said:

Just curious, are you doing the edge of the board or flattening sides?

I joint one side and one edge, the off to the planer to flatten the other side, the last edge gets straightened at the table saw.

 

JT

13 minutes ago, jthornton said:

I joint one side and one edge, the off to the planer to flatten the other side, the last edge gets straightened at the table saw.

 

JT

That's what I thought you were doing but wasn't sure. I agree, that's a pretty big board to hold down on the table by yourself. Maybe a set of infeed/outfeed roller stands

Edited April 18, 20224 yr by lew

I skip those steps and turn it round on the lathe?

6 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

I skip those steps and turn it round on the lathe?

2 hours ago, HandyDan said:

I skip those steps and turn it round on the lathe?

old MASH episode:  local walks in the tent, with a 2x4 in his hand.  hey, that's nice.  thanks, it used to be round....

I use a 10" b10' piece of bb for this task. First set the bb to rip a straight edge----a bit crude but I attach the bb with a 3/4" staples--close to the end of the board---proceed to rip new edge----now remove bb and remove staples-----set bb back from new edge to accommodate router with good straight  router bit--end result is a quality straight edge ----remove bb, remove staples--the only negative would be tiny staple holes at the very end of the board

3 hours ago, lew said:

That's what I thought you were doing but wasn't sure. I agree, that's a pretty big board to hold down on the table by yourself. Maybe a set of infeed/outfeed roller stands

I can do 8' long boards on my Jet 8" using roller stands; one on each end of the jointer. The Jet only has a 66" table, I think it would be a little easier with the PM. When I say I can do it, it's not fun and is a bit of a struggle and I find the jointing (edge) harder to do than the face flattening.

track and good circular saw?  how crooked is this edge?

I'll vote for leaving the boards until you know what you are making with them.  Far easier to joint the face or edge of 4' or 3' long boards. 

For all the years I taught furniture design it was rare that any project needed boards longer than 5'. Of course there was one kid that made a cantilevered desk top that was 10' long solid walnut 1.75" thick.  BTW it didn't turn out very well and the kid eventually cut the top in half after he realized he had no place for it where he lived, and even his parents didn't want such a beast.