WoodWorking

Wood Planing

June 3, 2017

Precision Wood Working

Understand how wood works and behave -Before you put any tool to your lumber, you will need to understand its proper orientation and what direction to plane the board. As trees grow, growth ring layers continue to build on one another and this produces beautiful grain that shows on our boards. This grain can make planning it trickier if we ignore the ideal direction to work. Working wood grain is kind of like petting a cat — if you go from tail to head, you will find the hair standing straight up and might get a hissing disapproval, but if you pet “with the grain” from head to tail, you’ll find the hairs lay down nice and smooth and purring will ensue.

As explained in Characterisitcs of wood it is important to understand how wood expands and contracts as humidity fluctuates throughout the year. All wooden construction takes this natural property into account and ignorance of this can be disastrous.

The first step in most of the woodworking is to identify the right mix of wood by collecting and sorting right mix of wood for further processing. Though collecting and sorting is expected to happen at every stage of production, it is important, to begin with, a right set of components to build a final finished product. An end state of a product must always be communicated to all hands who will be operating throughout stages of production.

Overall working layout for the different stage of production must be designed in a sequential way to ensure smooth flow of wooden components. The conveyor flow of components is an ideal way to ensure that heavy components reach to the next processing destination in desired shape and form. The storage of components in between and near the process steps plays a major role as well. It must be ensured that the desired shape and form of wooden components remains constant throughout its process steps.

Failure to follow strict guidelines in kiln seasoning may have an adverse impact on the condition of the wood. For example, heating kiln chamber’s quickly using too much steam initially or allowing the wooden stack to cool down immediately will bring up stresses in the timber. These stresses are called as case hardening. This will bring lots of problem in wood which may result in loose joineries and uneven working conditions to maintain sustainable quality. We at WoodArtGuru ensure to have sepervised process driven approach for consistent cost efficient process for highest quality.

Text Hover

Seizing of wood

Seizing of wood to the desired length is a starting point to ensure the components of wood are getting shaped into the end state products expectations. Normal machinery used for the seizing of wood can be Jig Saws, Miter Saws etc. Jig Saws are usually compact hand devices which are used to perform resizing at remote locations on the site. Miter saws are usually used in manufacturing sites where a fixed bed is placed along the saw to ensure a consistent flow of components in the process cycle. Multiple techniques are used to ensure consistent desired length components are produced at this stage. The usual manual mechanism is to mark the desired length on the bed of Miter saw where one end of the component is pointed towards the mark and the other end of the component is chopped with the circular saw.

Multiple decision factors are considered while resizing wooden components at this stage

– Overall quality of the component post-seasoning.

– The grain structure of the component.

– Straightness of the component.

– The split of wooden components at its edge.

– Maximum utilization of wooden components in desired end state product.

Skill enhancements and commitment from an individual at this stage are the most important success criteria to achieve an end state quality in expected cost. Resizing must ensure that the wooden components are of the best quality. The majority of defects from wooden components is being removed at this stage.

Milt Saw

Jig Saws

Table Saw

Wood Planer

A wood planer or thickness planner consist of three elements; a cutter head which contains the cutting knives; a set of rollers which draw the board through the machine; and a table which is adjustable relative to the cutter head to control the resultant thickness of the board. Some portable thickness planers differ slightly in that the table is fixed and the cutter head/feed roller assembly is adjusted.

Skillset for this activity consists of the detailed decision on end to end design of the components and its precision seizing. The end state or the final sizing of a product is achieved through these planners or thickness planer machines. Along with final sizing of the components, the planners are being leveraged to bring an end state straightness in wooden components. Any kind of small defects, bends are removed by passing wooden components through planners.

The planners are being used to flatten the face of a wooden component, in which case the sole focus is to produce a flat surface on the face of the wooden component and the fence is not used. This procedure is being performed prior to assembly or joinery of the wood components which will have a flat reference face for subsequent operations. To straighten a piece of the wooden component, repeated feeds are being followed to ensure the edge and the body of wooden components are completely straight or flat. The operator lays the twisted timber on the bed of a machine and rocks it slowly from side to side to estimate the amount of twist. For a twist of 20mm in a wooden component, an operator holds the component level and takes off 10mm off one end, then repeats it for another end.

Industrial thickness planers can accept very wide boards and remove large amounts of material in a single pass. These machines are driven by powerful motors and are of very heavy construction. In recent times, a range of lightweight portable thickness planers has become available which use universal motors and are much less expensive than industrial versions.

During operations, the desired height will be set for a table to achieve required thickness of a wooden component. The wooden component is then fed into the machine until it makes a contact with infeed roller which grips the wood and draws it into the machine to pass it through the rolling cutter head. The knives which are tied to the central machine roller removes the excess/uneven wood on the way through. The outfeed roller pulls wooden component through and ejects it from the machine at the end of the pass.To finish a component that is flat and of uniform thickness along its length, it is necessary to start with a board that has at least one perfectly flat reference face. The wooden component is fed with this reference face flat on the table and the cutter head removes an amount of material from the opposite face so that it is made parallel to the reference face. The reference face is often created by first passing the component over a top bed of wood planner or jointer/jointer-planner. If the lower face is not flat, the feed roller pressure pressing the wood component against the RowLayoutThicknes PlannerWood Jointer/PlannerWood Jointer/Planner table which results in deforming the wooden component. This will then spring back as it leaves the machine, resulting in a non-flat upper surface.