Thread: Techniques for dressing timber boards

Glenn,
I mill and use a lot of Sydney Blue Gum in furniture pieces and kitchens. These projects often contain raised and fielded panel doors. I always rip to roughly the required widths and then dress the long lengths. Docking is done after dressing. The important thing with SBG is how well it is dried. I don't mean how low the moisture content, though important, I mean the drying process used. A lot of people will not use SBG for furniture or dress work as they find it too unstable. This problem is overcome by correct drying ie air dry 6months, kiln dry and then allow another 3months under cover air dry. I have been using this method for over twenty years and have had excellent results.
Panel doors require stable timber. The extra time to stabilize after the kiln is time well spent. The reason for not docking prior to dressing is often the dressing process can expose grain variance or defects that may not have been visible in the thicker piece. These variances may render a docked to length piece unsuitable. Also, end snipe is always a risk.
Hope this helps.

Thanks Rustynail ...

Appreciate the words of advice. I also find your comment about air drying for an additional 3 months very interesting.

I most definitely have snipe to deal with, and while I have been able to reduce it ... I haven't yet been able to find a way to eradicate it all together.

Does your thicknesser have bed rollers or is it just a flat surface?

Hi,

Bed rollers set to 4 thou above table. My issue ( I think) is getting the indeed and outfeed rollers set correctly. I have managed to reduce snipe on outfeed side by setting outfeed rollers just a tetch higher than the table. That reduced it ... But its ever so slightly stil there. Haven't got bk to trying a little higher yet.

Infeed and outfeed set to 20 thou off cutter height ..

Cheers !

Glenn,
Google: Thickness Planer Set Up by Major Panic. This method of set up is one of the most accurate ways of going about it.
In the meantime, a simple trick for overcoming a sniping machine is to have a short offcut, the same size as the timber to be dressed, feed the offcut into the machine close followed (butted up to) by your first board followed immediately (butted up to) by the next board etc. Finish the run with the offcut. This close butting prevents snipe to all but the offcut.
Hope this helps.

Thanks. It was that article that got me to almost removing snipe on the outfeed side. Just a little more tuning I hope.

Hi Rustynail,

would be interested in your opinion on a couple of things.

I have been testing my setup for making raised panel doors (before launching into using my good Sydney Blue Gum). I have been using some scrap tas oak (or at least ... I think thats what it is), and taking it through the whole machining process, and I even plan to finish off with some uBeaut white shellac.

1. How does the Sydney Blue Gum respond to machining ? I noticed on the tas oak that I was getting some tear out when cutting the panel (using a vertical panel raiser from CMT). In some places, it was pretty ugly. I suspect I might have been a little aggressive with my cuts ... although the completed profile was done in about 5 passes across the cutter.

IMAG0744.jpg

2. Seasonal expansion. In my test piece, I have allowed about 2mm lateral space for the panels in the grooves of the stiles, and around 2mm vertical. In your experience, is that enough (remembering I live in Melbourne).

3. Do you have a crafty way of sanding the profiles of the panels doors ? Particularly where the cut has been made across the grain ? Best I can think of is rolling a piece cloth into a cylinder and placing between the sanding sheet and the base of my orbital sander. I somewhat dread doing this by hand as I will be forced to sand across the grain.

Many thanks for any assistance.

Glenn.

Glenn, I have found the verticle panel raiser to be a bit sus when used on harder timbers. I much prefer to raise panels on the spindle moulder. This is not to say it cant be done on the router, you just have to take much more care. There are two methods of depth adjustment, one is the raising and lowering of the bit, the other by moving the fence back and forth. Sometimes, it is necessary to use both methods at the same time to get a good result,
but thats unusual. Blue gum generally works quite well on the machine. My suggestion would be to use fence movement if possible. Your initial passes can be quite deep but reduce the bite in the final passes. Particularly as the bit comes close to performing the end grain shoulder cut. A finger board and a follower are also a good idea as they help reduce chatter and the follower also prevents end tear out, so it is a must.
Your side panel clearance is about right. Top clearance can be reduced as timber moves far more in its width than in its length. Its a good idea to finish seal the panels prior to assembly. This helps reduce movement caused by moisture ingress through unfinished panel edges.
Hope this helps.

Sorry Glenn, I missed your last question. I still sand all the profiles by hand. Mind you, I have gone to a lot of trouble making sure I keep the cutters in tip top condition and razor sharp. The finish they produce is pretty good so sanding is minimal. And often unnecessary.

Thanks again Rustynail.

You confirmed many of my suspicions ... Although I hadn't even considered a follower .. So that's great !

Glenn, With any shaping across end grain a follower is a must. Dont throw it away when you have finished. It makes a useful set up template next time, as the last pass is the finished product.

Hi rustynail ..

Just a brief update ..

Have started machining panels going ever so gently .. and used a follower.

Not much tear out at the shoulder ... Although I crept up on it ever so slowly ... First just nicking the shoulder .. then 1/2 to 1 mm passes ...

Looking good so far.

I expect I am getting a better result due to better timber and lighter passes ...

Still have about 2 mm to remove ... But had to fly to Singapore on business so it must wait until the weekend to finish off.

Thanks for the pointers ...