How to Prepare Rough Lumber
You can save money by purchasing rough lumber from a mill for your project. You will need to prepare the lumber, however, using some special tools to get the wood ready to be used. You can prepare rough lumber to make the quality of the wood much better.
Supplies:
- Rough lumber
- Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Circular saw
- Jointer
- Table saw
- Thickness planer
- Measure the rough lumber using the measuring tape. Cut it six inches longer than you need it to be. Mark it with your pencil and use the circular saw to cut the lumber.
- Set the fence on the jointer to 90 degrees, and then adjust the depth of the cut on the feed table to 1/16 of an inch.
- Place the edge of the rough lumber on the joiner until the edges are exactly on the length of the wood. This may take you several times, depending upon how rough the wood is.
- Power on the thickness planer and place the board in. Set the cutter head to cut approximately 1/8-inches of material from the lumber for each pass it makes. Continue planning until this side of the board is completely smooth. Turn the board over and repeat the process for the other side until it is smooth.
- Set the rip fence on the table saw to the width that you want your lumber to be. Power on the table saw. Put t he jointed edge of the lumber up against the rip fence, and cut the rough edges off.