CaseyForrest said:Ive never had or used one, but if I get into selling wood, Id like to be able to have at least 2 sides surfaced.
Who all has one, and what do you have?
How do you go about planeing a board? Do those 3 1/4 planers do any good? Id like to get one of the table top planers, will do up to 12" to 13" wide, and 6" thick, but dont have a clue.
Casey, if you want to sell wood, your customers will buy your wood if they like the quality/price of the boards and not for how well or otherwise they are dressed. The cabinetmaker will machine the wood at his own specification.
Also as noted by others, planing a board is achieved with two separate machines. A Jointer first to have one face and one side stright and the thicknesser or like you call it a planer to make the thickness eaven.
Lumber strightener planers are huge machines with 50 or more HP and several heads and motors in order to do the operation in one pass.
You can dress your own boards at home but you will need two serious machines to be able to do this consistently and particularly the jointer will have to be large and powerful and possibely have it's own power-feeder. Don't forget it is the most dangerous machine in the workshop.
There is no easy way to strighten a board with only a planner unless you want to build a very strong and perfectly stright table extension on both sides of the machine only to achieve a very slow an poor result.
If you decide to buy woodworking machines, forget the one that are designed for hobby or home use ( in my opinion), and try to find older commercial machines. Those are designed to take a lot of punishment and with a bit of work will last you a lifetime, and are not necessarily dearer.
Look for a woodshop that closes down. There is a huge amount of second hand machinery available in the US, and the older machines have little value