Klingspor Lumber - Buyer Beware

[Willemjm]

My understanding is that the industry calls that skip dressing, because the lumber cannot be reliably dressed at or near 100% at 15/16". I think true S2S averages closer to 13/16". A lumber grading rep told me they consider 100% dressed to be not more than 3% rough per 1000bf. Of course all of that is subject to the grader, vendor, material quality, etc. These are averages, I have certainly seen 15/16" come in as well.

Yes, that would be skip dressing, leaving minor imperfections here and there.

If I buy rough lumber, after jointing and planing, most pieces are close to 1”. With skip dressing closer 7/8”

In the cabinet industry, everything goes down to 3/4” though, so unless it is something special custom, that is where we have to end up.

Tru S2S does not work for us, as wholesale lots sits in storage and when pulled is never perfectly straight and true. 1/16” leaves too little to correct that.

 

[ErnieM]

Why does the thickness matter? So what, it’s off by 1/32,1/16 or 1/8. That just makes it weigh less which is good thing

I design all of my work and nothing is exactly 3/4” or 1.5”. I make adjustments in the design

I suppose it depends on the nature of your work. As an instrument builder, if I was off by 1/64" I run the risk of a part not working. In some areas, specifically jack making, a part that is .003" too thick or too thin just would not work reliably. I buy all of my wood rough and at least 1/4" thicker than I need. Without a jointer, planer, drum sander, and my Byrnes sander, I wouldn't be able to work at all. When I started building harpsichords 40 years ago, my attitude concerning thickness was very much like yours. It took me quite a while to realize that my early instruments weren't reliable because of it.

Now some will say that worrying about thousandths of an inch is ridiculous as wood will expand and/or contract more than that. However, if a part is designed to be exactly 0.5" thick and it expands or shrinks .003" it will be off by .003". If I'm not accurate in my thicknessing process and start out with a part .003" too thick, it will be .006" to thick when it expands. That's enough to make it fail.
Fortunately for me, this level of accuracy is only important in a select few, small parts. For these, a digital caliper is my only method of measurement. For larger assemblies, like the case, a regular measuring device like a tape measure or ruler (Imperial or metric) is more than accurate enough.

I admit that I've come to enjoy working to such tight tolerances, but at times I'm envious of folks like you that have the freedom to change their designs on the fly to accommodate differences in wood thickness. Different strokes for different folks!

 

[old and in the way]

I believe that the idea is that the retailer is starting with 4/4 rough material and planing it to 3/4" in order to be convenient to, perhaps, the majority of their customers who may not have the means to thickness surface a board. This would be close to the sized dimension the customer might be after, and so the retailer is offering this as an unsolicited service and charging the customer for it, even customers who do not want the service if the customer is still willing to buy their product. Since they are probably using 4/4 lumber to start, you are paying for 4/4 because they are paying for 4/4, and also paying for the board processing services. If you are looking for rough lumber, there are better places to shop for lumber than what is in essence a retail hobbyist store.

Skip planing, which is to allow those of us who do not have "rough lumber transference vision" to see how the board might actually look when planed and allowing for color and grain selection in matching boards, should really do no more than skim the surface to remove the rough; these boards have not been faced on a jointer and are in all probability not flat. Mills do this to thousands of board feet at a time, with little concern other than pushing a hack of lumber through the planer at minimal cost as a value added service, so it is not the same as you lovingly flattening the board and then thickness planing it with very sharp cutters. Any 4/4 lumber I have bought skip planed is still at 15/16" plus.

Perhaps having a full shop I take this for granted, but generally I would rough cut the rough lumber to the approximate piece sizes that I need, and then flatten, straighten, and size each piece to the dimensions that I need, so that variation from flat and straight is minimized. To cut pieces from an already thicknessed board and hope that they don't twist or warp is not the best approach.

FWIW, YMMV.
Tone

 

[danmart77]

Old and in the Way -- where are you located?

 

[old and in the way]

danmart77:

I am located southwest of Asheville, North Carolina.

Tone

 

[Willemjm]

I think purchasing from a reputable wholesaler is a very different experience. Supplying cabinet shops, or factories, they can’t afford poor quality, as that will affect their supply volume.

Below is a picture of our last Soft Maple, skip planed, pricing slightly over $2 a bf.