George Vondriska

Do Your Own Milling and Save Money

George Vondriska
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Duration:   9  mins

A good hardwood supplier can do lots of operations for you: S2S, surface sanding, gang ripping, making molding, and more. To be an informed consumer you should be aware of what services are available, AND how much each of those services cost. They’re typically priced by the board foot. One way to save some dough on a woodworking project is by doing the milling yourself, provided you have the right tool for the job.

Understanding the Jargon

Let’s get our brains wrapped around what the jargon is all about. S2S means surfaced two sides, which also means milling your material to thickness. You’ll commonly ask for (or do yourself) S2S 13/16, or some other number. The number being the final thickness you want.

Gang rip means getting lots of lineal feet of material ripped to the same width. You’d use this for things like molding and face frames. It’s so much easier to send material through a machine to make this happen than it is to lean over a table saw to make it happen.

Surface sanding is similar to planing, but sanding allows you more flexibility on what you can send through the machine, and often lets you produce thinner stock that a planer would.

Making molding is just what it sounds like. What to put new trim up in your house, or for a customer? If you make your own molding you’re not limited to the species a supplier has on hand, and you can even have custom molding profiles ground for you.

More on Power Tools

If you want to make certain you’re getting the most out of the tools in your shop, have a look at the extensive info we have available on power tools.

More Info

For more information on Woodmaster tools visit their website or call (800) 821-6651.

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4 Responses to “Do Your Own Milling and Save Money”

  1. JOHN

    What is the name of this tool?

  2. William

    What type of milling machine is that?

  3. Christopher

    When milling a crown molding, I guess that you would start with the back side to remove the two angled corners and still retain a smooth back surface to allow for the proper milling of the front surface? Or, am I over simplifying this. Please elaborate.

  4. seure

    Curious as to how the boards are held against the fence during the gang rip feature.

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