Good weather has finally struck for a few days in a row. I’ve moved the thickness planer into the covered bay outside and set up some sawhorses with the plywood from the strongback as the infeed and outfeed tables. I took two afternoons to slowly bring all my planks to a uniform thickness.
It’s important that the planks are the same thickness all the way along so that the strips will be consistent in width once they get ripped on the table saw. The sawmill that cut the planks out from the log tends to leave the center of the board slightly thinner since the track vibrates more in the middle furthest from the end supports. The rough surfaces would also make it so the edges won’t follow the fence tightly on the router table when the bead and cove are put on.
You can see the swirls left by the edger blade of the sawmill on the top plank in this photo. The second and third plank down has been finished smooth by the planer.
You can also see the colour variation between the darker heartwood and the light sapwood on the outside few centimetres. When the planks get ripped into strips that should give me some different textures to use for accent strips.
I also got two and a half garbage cans full of cedar shavings.
