Teaming up

Working on projects is enjoyable. Working on projects with another woodworker even more so.

My friend Jonathon is a good carpenter, but when he lucked into a stack of several dozen seasoned 10-foot pine boards – all 20" wide – he had a problem. While the whole stack was nominally between 4/4 and 5/4, the actual thickness varied all over the place.

What’s more, the band saw mill used to cut them left an undulating surface of extreme highs and lows. A planer would fix both issues, but he doesn’t own a planer.

He asked if I knew where he could get them further milled down to uniform width and thickness for a specific project he was planning, a wood accent wall in his home. Rather than send him to any of the local mills I knew of, I invited him over to my woodshop.

The milling was straightforward. We first jointed a square edge on each plank, followed by ripping all of them to his desired width of 6-1/4". Then, a few passes to face-joint one side to eliminate high spots, then we ran the whole lot through my planer to finish off the presentation sides.

We could only work a few hours at a time due to his work schedule, so it took a couple days to get the job done. But working together we still did the job a lot faster than a single person could do it, plus we had plenty of time to just hang out and talk while we worked. All in all, a fun and productive time.

I enjoy working alone; you probably do, too. That is, after all, a prime requirement for any one-person shop. But every once in a while it’s really nice to be part of a team when making sawdust.