Keith’s Note: Short of trying the technique you are already attempting, the only other step would be to tune-up your planer. And for that you’ll have to consult with the manufacturer of your planer. You can also do some final smoothing using a handplane. With a well tuned handplane the process is quick and easy. This is what I do. Good luck.

Although he did not mention it (that I recall) he did two important things:

One-Flipped all boards over and end-for-end so that grain orientation was correct (uphill) toward the cutter-heads on the second pass.

Two- Kept a constant feed of boards through the planer, so that the machine was never “empty.”
I assume most viewers know this helps prevent snipe since the feed-rollers always have a bearing-surface and so, do not pinch or jump at the ends of boards.

I also note the methodical placement of boards on top of the planer. Boards “not-yet-planed” were away from him in the “far” pile, while freshly-planed boards were sequentially-stacked closer in the “near” pile. These details are often overlooked, even by experienced craftsmen. A consistent, repeatable method like this becomes a habit that prevents problems.

Again, I must commend Keith on the clear, well-lit videography. Having good-strong lighting on the subject with less lighting on unnecessary background details helps us focus on details without annoying glare or excessive bright screens. Cast-shadows make the key-elements clearer, more natural-looking and “quietly-dramatic.” The overall effect is calming, and therefore, conducive to concentration and learning. I appreciate the grey background of the web-page design too. It makes colors in the videos more vibrant and attention-focusing by contrast. This is a welcome relief from most web-pages where insensitive designers create harsh, distracting, “visually-noisy” backgrounds. All these esthetic details enhance viewing pleasure and gently inculcate understanding.

This is an excellent presentation, both in content and in form.

Kudos!

Keith’s Note: Welcome aboard and good luck as you explore the hobby!

Keith’s Note: I couple of thoughts. The first issue to consider is what are the characteristics of the surface you are working. If it’s a table top, or exterior surface of a cabinet or leg, the final thickness of that surface may not matter too much. I few thousands of an inch here or there won’t cause you any trouble when no joinery is involved. So you might run the top through a surfacer at your design specification or slightly thicker and then hand plane out the mill marks or sanding marks. In this case, it doesn’t matter that the final thickness is not perfect and the “eye” won’t pick up small variances. So that is pretty straight forward.

However, in the case of mortises and tenons or other joinery, the tolerance are much tighter. If for example, you intend to hand plane a tenon for final fitting after machine milling, then you will need to oversize it a bit and work down slowly until the fit is correct. Some woodworkers like to avoid all handwork and so in this case, you need to set your machines up extremely accurately since no handwork is planned. In the end, there are no right or wrong ways of doing this and I’ve learned over the years that in woodworking as in most things in life there are many ways to skin a cat. I hope that helps.

And finally, to pick up on your comment about liking to use rough lumber – One of the key reasons to use rough lumber is that you can mill it to very exacting tolerances. You can’t do that if it’s already been thicknessed by a lumber yard. With pre-processed lumber there is no way to mill out the inevitable twists, warps, and other flaws that develop while wood is stored.