Finishing rough sawn timber ?

mathuranatha

G'day there fellas,
,
I'm fairly new to milling and never worked with rough sawed wood much before .I've been milling up studs and 4'x1' boards and i was going to build a cabin .Just wondering what I need to finish the rough sawed boards with?Just a sander like a 7" sander polisher , or would an orbital or a belt sander be better ? Or do I need a planer to use first?

Thanks Mat

Tree Machine

I've used a floor sander, just for speed. Factor in the time to and from the rental yard and the cost of rental and purchase of the paper. With this machine you can lay like 10 boards side by side, with a stopper board perpendicular at the base and do a multi-board sanding, ~40 grit to start.

A 4x24 belt sander is much slower, but if you've got the time go for it. A cabinet scraper (I used the backside of a folding silky saw) is helpful to clean up between grit or work knots or high areas.

I find this to be a really good question. My dilemma is how do you surface these boards right after they come off the mill? This would get rid of the sawdust and the blade marks. Then when it comes time to use the wood the work would be minimal, just 80 grit orbital or belt. Right now, though, if I want to use the wood, it's so much frickin work just to get a board smooth enough to the point of finish that there's little time left for the actual working of the wood. Mine are wide planks, though, 20" wide and up and sometimes really thick. Not practical for your average woodshop planer.

Sanding out mill marks is just plain boring and redundant. I feel for ya, Mat.

Graeme

Go the planer, way quicker and will give you boards of nice even thickness, thickness planers or "thicknesers" are pretty cheap from stores like Hare & Forbes or Carba-Tec these days. Some cabinet makers will do it for you for a fee, if you are sure there are no imbedded objects like nails etc. or you may have to pay for replacement blades for their machinery. I think up your way there are quite a few small sawmillers and furniture makers who could maybe help you.

Regards
Graeme

Tree Machine

It sort of depends on what 'lumber' you've got. Let's say its a 2x4. Planer.
8x8 post, 14 feet long..... see what I mean?

Also very much depends on the planer you have. Try running a 2x12 through a 12" planer. You can do it, but when you fry the motor 4 boards later you're sunk. More likely the excess load will trip the duty cycle and, if you're aware of what just happened, you wait patiently. More likely, with your board halfway through you're looking for a reset switch, checking breakers, outlets.

Then it's helpful to determine, is your lumber a consistent thickness. We like to assume so, but bandmill blades can wander, leaving one end thicker than the other. If you run the fat end through the planer first, that thickness is brought down and the entire rest of the board doesn't get anything. You will run the same board through the planer maybe a half dozen times, flipping the board each time so you don't end up with a one-sided flare. If you start with the other end, the thick end will dog the planer at best, or stop the feed while the rotation burnishes a rock-hard snipe in your wood, or of you're lucky the planer will come to a complete halt without actually damaging the machine's hardware or electronics.

Then a lot depends on do you have electricity? We assume, yes, but you're building a cabin. This could be way out in the sticks. Are you milling and processing on-site? Are you processing back at home and trucking the lumber in?

Then there's the whole, 'What is the lumber being used for?' Countertops, cabinets, flooring? Or is this structural lumber?


I agree wholeheartedly with Graeme about use a planer whenever you can. But there are a lot of 'depends on...' criteria.

Tree Machine

As far as bringing it to a cabinet maker, these guys covet their planers as though it were a child of their own. They have to maintain this piece of equipment at a high level because of the high importance this tool plays in their earning a living. If they do their cabinetry on site, then likely they have a portable planer. Cabinet makers plane cabinetry lumber, which could be a whole lot different than cabin lumber, kind of like an arborist who has a chipper and he can chip limbs, but someone asks him to chip these limbs that have been pushed into a big pile by a bulldozer.

Now you could take your milled lumber to a lumber mill who has a large, high-productivity planer and ask if they'll shut down their production line so you can run your boards through, but you may first want to ask them about the price they're asking for their finished lumber and then ask yourself what time, money and effort you have into your stuff.


I have been through every step of this in building a timberframe structure that was supposed to be a 2 weekend project and ended up taking 2 years. The milling of the wood was the easy part, and the rough-sawn lumber was already there at the start of the project.

I've got pictures the whole way through.

mathuranatha

Thanks for the kind advice everyone .I was just lining the walls with1"x4" rough sawed boards[only a cabin I figured] but some of my friends reckoned it would be a lot better sanded or finished .So I,m only looking to do one side of 25mmx100mm [1"x4"] boards. Either plane or sand one side .I cut them on a small swingblade mill so the thickness is consistent ,thought I would just buy either a hand planer or some sort of sander [belt ,orbital,or the ones that look like a big angle grinder ?] and do one side . So just not sure ---planer or sander and what type of sander?They are still a bit green so maybe i would go through too much sandpaper .But if the hand planer is less than the width of the board will it be hard to get it even.I,m not always so confused --- must be all the automotive spray paint fumes without a mask the last few days

Tree Machine

With that new information, I have to go 100% with Graeme;
Unseasoned wood will fill your paper in mere moments and you'll be spending much of your time with the giant 'eraser' to de-dust the belts (if you're using a belt sander). The belt, as it's continually going around the track will 'open' as it does the turn, and centrifugal force works to a degree to throw the particles off.

The pad sander (orbital or oscillation varieties) push into the wood and moist wood will clog the sheet quickly. Compresed air and a triggered air gun are the best way to defend against this, but you're spending only part of the time sanding and part of the time dicking with the unclogging of the paper.

Now a planer, even a small 12" portable works better on unseasoned wood than dry; less dust, less chatter, and you can run two, possibly three 1x4s through simultaneously. When they come out there's really no need to sand, though maybe a quick 180 or 220 on a hand block.

You DO know that this unseasoned wood, once installed will shrink, yes? Over time you'll get gaps between the boards and the surface will get checks, little tiny surface cracks from the shrinkage of the wood. Here's a list of other common wood defects to look out for.

Leif Raukleiv

I would say the same, you need a plainer. I post a picture of mine.
And wood should be plained when it is dry. In our climate we need several months or more, depending of what sort of wood we are talking about.



2 and 4-sided Planer Moulder and Soloplaner from Logosol

Leif.

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__________________

My place - Bjørndalen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiVoff

Tree Machine

Mmmmmm, that's a nice one, Leif. You lucky dog.

Leif Raukleiv

Voff - voff!

Leif.

__________________

My place - Bjørndalen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MultiVoff

mathuranatha

Thanks very much everyone , looks like i need a planer