Trying new woodworking skills #6: Planed wood, not scrap

I was ready to start on my end tables but I wanted to practice first. The end tables are quarter sawn oak. I don’t want to screw up so I need to experiment with a cheaper project first.

I will also be making an intarsia project. For a long time I have wanted to make a map of Wisconsin with each county cut from a separate piece of wood. I know it’s not very original but I’ve seen a finished project and it looked pretty cool.

I bought some shorts from the lumber yard. These were rough cut 4/4 about 2 feet in length. I bought maple, walnut, birch, hickory, red oak and poplar. I used the joiner to square up two sides. Then I ran them through the planer to 5/8” thickness. This is my first time working with rough cut lumber. The planer worked great. No snipe or tear out. The grain looks great. I feel more confident about using the planer now so I’ll start planing the lumber for my end table project. I will work on the map project in between. It shouldn’t take much thought and should be a good diversion project when I’m not up to being very fussy on the end tables.

My cyclonic chip collector worked well. I filled up quick. It’s surprising how many chips you can make using the joiner and planer.

BJ