Is there a need to joint flooring

[brdmkr]

I am considering making my own pine flooring.  When woodworking, I normally joint one face and edge, plane to thickness and then cut to width.  I plan on setting up my planer molder to cut to width with the rip saw.  Is it necessary to joint the wood or can I just plane both sides and put a relief cut in the back.

I have a woodmaster with a single router attachment. 


My plans are to

1.  cut to width with the rip blades.

2.  Plane both sides and cut the tongue on the final thicknessing pass.

3.  Cut the groove when cutting the relief cut on the back.

Will this work without jointing to create a truly flat face?   I plan to have a 5" reveal.

[woodmills1]

I assume on the item #2 above you mean plane bothe faces and cut the tounge.



if you are using guides to keep your stock in the same location, the only problem you may have if you do not joint is a small amount of width variaton that may make some pieces snug in between the guides

I would look closley at a few pieces from the rip operation, comparing them as to width and how uniform the width is along the entire length.

the problem with your set up, and others that require multiple passes, is untill the last pass you really can't see if the product is uniform.

with that said, remember I started with small low horsepower equipment, using a plane, joint, rip, joint  then with a 1/2 hp shaper.........2 passes to tounge and 2 more to groove..........made about 15 rooms of very acceptable T and G