I’m planning to use a chainsaw mill to cut my own red and white oak timbers for a timberframe home. Then I want to smooth the timbers somewhat with a jointer plane. Assuming there are no “major” dimensional mistakes made when cutting the timbers, how much extra material should I plan on including on each face for the planing? I was thinking of maybe an extra 1/16″ of thickness per face. Also, would a portable power planer be a better (and much easier) choice? Thanks.
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Frenchy is the resident flaming liberal timber framer. Hopefully he will have some useful input, as he's done this/is still doing it.
I would think a jointer plane would be too cumbersome, and would only hit a few of the high spots. If you're really a glutton for punishment, start out with a scrub plane or jack (#5) plane. They're a lot lighter, and are more made for the job you're doing. The jointer plane (#7) is for final planing and jointing.
If you have many at all, I would think a power planer would be much better.
Definitely play around with some samples first, to see what it takes to get the end result you want.
I've never used a chainsaw mill before, but I would be surprised if leaving 1/16" was enough. Surely the bar/chain wanders around a little.
As the Buddhist said to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything.
Thanks for the info. I'm just beginning to learn about planes. Time to do some reading I guess. One book did mention jointer planes as the first to use b/c of their longer bases which would do a better overall job on long timbers. Then you'd use the scrub/jack planes, etc. for the actual smoothing. I should have mentioned that earlier.
Have you growed these trees yet? Or is that next?
Joe H
They be growed already. Nice and tall. If they were softwood, I'd just do some kind of log home but oaks seem too contrary for that
Frenchy's your guy.
As soon as he gets back from Peace Marching in Washington he'll be in touch.
Good luck, Joe H
I think you've got you planes backwards.
Here's some info on a scrub plane: http://www.lie-nielsen.com/tool.html?id=40-1/2
Hell of a plane, too - I've got one. It takes off big hunks of wood - Lets you take off the high spots before you start smoothing it up. The edge of the blade is actually rounded slightly.
.
Here's a #5, or Jack" plane: http://www.lie-nielsen.com/tool.html?id=5
This one cuts less, and starts the smoothing process. And it's a lot lighter than the jointer plane.
.
And finally, a #7, or "jointer" plane: http://www.lie-nielsen.com/tool.html?id=7
This one is the final step. It levels things out the most because of the long shoe. Committee - a group that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
while were talking about planes, who was that little dude, on "Fantasy Island", who used to yell.... ".... the plane!... the plane!..." ?
"De plane, Boss! De plane!"
The character's name was Tattoo. The actor's name was Herve Villechaize.
Tattooooooooooooooooooooooo!
yeah, o.k. yeah, now I remember.
Boss,
while I apprecate your enthusism for hand planes I'll bet after hand planing just one oak timber, you'll drop them and pick up a power plane.. You can't imagine the work involved..
I'm certain that on some level it must be very spiritual listing to the soft whisp of a nicely sharpened hand plane as it cuts cleanly into the timber. On the other hand we are talking about white oak here.. It is capable of dulling the sharpest of tools with a casual glance.
The formula must be something like whisp, whispppppppppreeeeecch. sharpen, sharpen, sharpen,.......
whisp, whispppppprreeeeeccch. sharpen, sharpen, sharpen.......
Or maybe you haven't yet learned how to sharpen a plane iron or a chisel, frenchy, ha, ha? After all, you've always said that you avoid handwork like it's a bad dose of the clap, admit that you have no hand tool skills, and power tools, for you, are where it's at.
White oak is fairly hard, I agree, and I personally have no qualms attacking some white oak with hand tools-- it's how I was trained to be a furniture maker in the first place-- power tools came later. But it's not so hard that a couple of swipes with a hand plane makes the tool blunt beyond use-- more like 1/2 an hour or so between sharpenings for rough flattening.
However, I'd agree with you that I'd rather attack the board footages you've talked about here in the Taunton forums with heavy duty fixed plant. I sometimes wonder how you've managed to handle what you say you've put through with those small home shop Grizzly tools without burning the motors out. (LOL) Slainte.Website The poster formerly known as Sgian Dubh
fair enough, I admit that I'm no fan of my poor sharpening skills and that reflects in my aversion to hand tools. As for the number of bd.ft. I'm using, well not all 30,000 plus bd.ft. will be planed (although most of it will have at least three sides done.) I just assumed that when I bought the tools they'd hold up.. so far so good..
Most be god looking out for wacko's and fools...;-)
By the way, that is meant in no way to minimize the awe I hold for those who do have those skills and can produce such wonderful work as I see displayed here.. by you and others..
If this were the 19th century I would probably have somewhat better skills but I doubt I could earn a living making furniture.
Edited 1/26/2003 2:55:53 AM ET by frenchy
Jim,
Please don't attempt this.. not without some revision of your plans.. for example one of the things you will discover is that Oak will dull tools quickly!!! Very quickly!!!!!!! Have your wood milled by someone with a portable bandsaw mill (wood miser comes to mind, they have a number you can call and get a list of those with mills near you..). The cost is affordable and probably cheaper than the chainsaw mill..
It will give you a head start on the massive amounts of work you will need to do to build a timberframe..
Buy a Mikita 61/4 inch portable power planer.. It's much cheaper than the Mafell, and uses 110 volts (Mafell requires 220) As it is I spent an average of 8 hours per timber to plane and cut to size plus several additional hours cutting motice pockets. I wound up buying two of them in order to complete my frame in a reasonable (according to my neighbors) timeframe. Check the internet for one, (there weren't any available when went to buy mine and wound up buying new from Tool crib of the north and 7 corners hardware for the second one)
Shortly after cutting your trees you will want to plane and do all the fitting. If you wait too long the Oak will dry and then it's more like wearing out the oak then planing it! increases the work by a factor of close to ten...!
Timbers shrink when drying, It's a matter of judgement as too how much shrinkage you can live with.. the shrinkage loosens tight joints and must be accounted for... I attempted to eliminate that by drying the timber prior to use.. Major mistake!
1/16th is not near enough to remove the mill marks, I wound up milling off very close to 3/8ths and in some cases where there was problems I wound up with beams that were a half inch thinner then when I started.
(By the way, I will be listing one of my power planes on E-bay soon since the heavy work with it is nearing completion.)
White Oak is a wonderfull, durable, and decay resistant wood to work with.. while red oak is colorfull but not very durable. Both of them require a lot more work than pine or most other woods..
I sawed my own for my house and have done a lot of them for others. My bandmill cuts very true, but I still leave up to a 1/4" if I'm going to plane them 4 sides, or about 1/8" if planing just 2 faces.
If you're going to plane by hand with a jointer plane: 1. Learn to get it really sharp and set it up true. If you buy a new plane, you may have to true the sole because I have yet to see a plane of recent manufacture with a true sole. This can be accomplished with 400 wet and dry paper taped to a pane of glass using WD-40 as a cutting oil. 2. Consider making or buy a wooden soled plane. It's amazing how much more effortless they are to use than an iron-soled or steel-soled plane, and when you're finished with you're project, you'll have a great conversation piece for your mantle. There is a lot of good info on making planes and buying the cutting components. You might ask about planes over on the knots forum.
I use a Makita 61/4" electric handplane for the kind of work you're doing. I've planed probably miles of planks and timber with it. A great investment that you'll appreciate. If you've got big bucks, there is a specialty line of German Timber-framing electric planes and saws that I can't recall the name of, but they make a big 12" electric handplane that, last I knew of, cost about $2500.
Keep us posted as you progress.
Jules Quaver for President 2004
JimY,
I would have to agree with Notchman, a bandmill is the way to go, but not saying you can't do it with a chainsaw mill. I have a Wood-Mizer and cut mostly dimensional lumber for grade. When sawing my own stuff, I go for 1&1/8" thickness(due to shrinkage and any movement of the wood when it dries). One other thing to be considerate about when sawing is reaction wood, places in the log that could bend or twist when drying. A good web page to look at for more information is the sawing and drying forum at woodweb.com . Hope this helps some.
Mitch
I prefer bandsaw mill, also. Have a Woodmizer, myself, albeit an older one. You can get a used one pretty cheap. Check out internet.
A random thought, be careful about leaving metal tools laying on your oak. The acid in the oak reacts with the metal to leave a nice stain. Happens in just a few minutes.
I personnaly prefer the unplaned look. Most of my timbers for my home came from a late 1800's barn. Lots of "character", which is also what I call any mistakes I make.
Have fun!
Rick,
I was thinking of doing that for my timber frame too, untill I walked into a barn and a sliver attacked me.. after that I figured that I would plane everything baby butt smooth, then sand everything in ever finer grit of sand paper 'til I reached 1000 grit. followed by 10 coats of hand rubbed laquar.
Now I'm wondering if I can use a pressure washer to spray polyurethane!! (just kidding)
Funny I call those things charcter marks too! I carefully put in many so that everyone can see that it is a hand crafted frame and not some machine stamped mass production thing!
Edited 1/25/2003 10:07:37 PM ET by frenchy