planing beams

[nh-dan]

Hello all,
I'm going to be building a post and beam camp at some point in the next couple years. I will be cutting my own beams on my mill out of eastern white pine for it. My plans call for 8x8" posts and I would like to know what would be the best/easiest way to plane them smooth. Also I will be storing them in an old semi trailer for at least a couple years before I need them so should I plane them green or wait until I need them to plane?
Thanks
Dan

[fishfighter]

If time is on your side. I would cut them no less then 1/2" bigger. The plane them down to size right before you are ready to use them. That might be enough to take out any bow or twist.

[AlaskaLes]

I've got a sawmill and therefore an angled/railed bed that the cutting head rides on.
My plan is to take a 13" home woodshop planer( that we already own) and remove the lower table.  I'm planning on setting this up on a simple head that will ride on a set of saw bed wheels
and use the existing deck to plane the beams after I saw them.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I would be concerned about storing in a trailer. There probably won't be enough air flow to keep the beams from developing undesirable fungus and other growths...

Herb

[Dave Shepard]

I agree on the air flow issue. It would be best to sticker them outside with a wide cover on them. They will get some color with age, whether stored inside or out, and you could plane that off when you get ready to use them. If by post and beam you mean actual mortise and tenon joinery, you will want to cut the joints as soon as possible, as the wood is harder to work when dry due to twisting, checking and shrinkage, although actually cutting dry pine isn't too bad, unlike dry oak or hard maple.

[Bruno of NH]

Don't store in the trailer .
I had a customer store a green log home kit in a trailer / not good .
Jim/Bruno

[petefrom bearswamp]

Saw them oversize, dry under cover with good airflow, then resaw slightly oversize when dry and plane to the desired dimension.

[Brad_bb]

The options for planing are:
1.  4 sided planer  - you'd have to have a mill that has one do it for you as the equipment and electrical requirement is too expensive for you to do yourself.
2. A 1 side planer like Woodmizer MP100, Less expensive than option 1 - about $5500 for the head, and about $6000 if you need the track too.  If you already have a WM LT10 or LT15, you would only need the head.  Knives are about $150 per set of 4, and you need to have a sharpening service available.  I get mine sharpened for $40 a set of 4 plus shipping.  This method of planing is much slower than a 4 sided planer, but it can work well.  You can get sides of beams very square to each other by checking the stick and shimming with wedges when necessary. If you get a chip in a knife it will leave a small rib on the face of material.  With a small chip, you can cheat two of the knives over 1/4 inch and it will keep you going longer without a 40 minute full knife change.
3.  Power hand planer- slow, labor intensive, doesn't reference well.

At a mill using green wood, they will cut 1/2 inch over size for planing.  If you let your wood season and dry though, any movement for drying is not accounted for in the 1/2 oversizing.  So they'd have to be oversized more than 1/2 inch.  Probably 1-1.5 inches.  1.5 if you think they will twist.  I've milled reclaim Beech that had up to 1.5 inch difference from one end to the next (in 12 and 16 footers).  Fortunately they were in the 10.5"x10.5" size range before I started.  I ended up cutting them to 8.25"x8.25" and planing them to 8x8.

If I were you what would I do?  I would find a good mill with a 4 sided planer that will cut your entire cut list.  Figure out your build schedule so you can order the timber to arrive green and planed when you need it, cut the frame and get it raised right away.

If you had more than 2 years, like at least 10 years, I'd cut oversize as I got appropriate logs and stack them properly for airflow and shade.  then in the year before the raising, re-saw them and plan them with the MP100 one sided planer.  They you'd have dry material that is fairly stable.  The most tension wood is on the outside of the stick and you'd be trimming that off.  So the boards that come off the 4 sides might curl up, but the timber will have less tension.

Caution:  I've been going through the following this year.... Make sure to have your construction drawings done 100% ahead of time before you cut anything.  Figuring out plumbing, lighting, windows, equipment or furniture locations  well ahead of time will help you find problems and make changes on paper long before you ever get to spending money or cutting.  It's far cheaper to make changes on paper than as you're building.

[Roger Nair]

Planing can be as simple as cross grain hand planing with a Stanley 4 found at a flea market or skies the limit industrial machining, since Dan states this is for a camp, I'd suggest the plain plane plan.

[Tom King]

White Pine will be easy to plane most any kind of way.  I have a 6" Makita that can do a lot of work in a short time on clean wood.  Sharpen the knives with just enough camber that it doesn't leave sharp cornered tracks in pieces wider than the planer, just like you would do with a Smoothing Plane.

Dry it first, and keep it clean.  Any grit will take a lot more time in sharpening knives, than saving whatever time it would by not keeping it meticulously clean in handling.

[nh-dan]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Yes it will be a post and beam camp, because I'm going to be using connectors to join the timbers together. Ok I'll forgo storing in the trailer and find a place to stick and stack them outside in the shade. The only thing I worry about is them getting buried in snow over the winter. I might try a hand power planer on a test piece to see if I like the results. I would love to find an older one sided planer that will take larger beams, but so far I haven't found one that will take anything over 6" thick.
Thanks
Dan

[red oaks lumber]

dan
call paul @rivervalley machine 207-897-5211 their in maine. there is alot of bigger 4 sided planers in your area,he'll be able to give you names of shops in your area that could do your beams .
i would saw them an 1''  oversize both ways air dry outside then resaw them to make them clean and bright,you may find that a light sand after is all you need

[Wudman]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,23672.msg337355.html#msg337355

Take a look at this thread.  I planed some beams with a Ridgid portable.  It worked very well for me.  Good Luck.

Wudman