How do you prep wide boards?

[jaustin]

I get all my lumber in the rough (kiln dried)
I have a jointer that can do 8" wide boards and a 13" planer.

Do you do anything else but dress two boards and glue them up?

[Capt Bruce]

Flat boards and good edge contact at the keypad side is the whole secret. If you have to glue up then I'd still recommend Norm's old advice to alternate growth rings to help the board stay flat later. To quote Al Who use masking tape on the top side lower face. It gives the brass wheel better traction and tracking is everything in producing an accurate carving. Tape is cheap, wood is not.

[Smoken D]

One thing I learned, don't use biscuits when glueing up the boards together. During the carve it will cut down to one of those biscuits and expose them. Yep, learned the silly way!

[RogerB]

I never use anything over 4" .I glue with a good wood glue for inside and west system epoxy for out side.Rip, joint ,plain to 7/8 glue . This will give you your panel to start . Plain to thickness and square you board. Set to carve Have fun.

RogerB

[cestout]

Here is how Norm taught me to do it: Use your jointer to flatten one face - since you can do 8", then square up one edge on the jointer. Now you have 2 adjacent surfaces straight and square. Use you table saw to make the other edge parallel then use your thickness plainer to make the other face parallel.
Clint

[Router-Jim]

A friend of mine wrote a real good tutorial on how to joint boards wider than your jointer. You may find it helpful.http://woodworkerszone.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jointing_wide_boards