Thinking about getting a planer...

[Marc1]

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

 

[CaseyForrest]

WOW, lots'o' responses!!!!

I appreciate all the input.

I don't think Id be using the planer to take twist or cup out of a board. I haven't had to many boards twist or cup, so either I'm lucky, or havent found the right wood.

Just want to pretty up the two wide sides, remove the chatter marks.

Time really isn't an issue, but I have been accused of having ADD. Maybe a belt sander would take to long.

TRIMMED....you mentioned you have the Dewalt 3 1/4 planer, does that come with some kind of fence? Say after you get the top or bottom planed, it will allow you to line up with the planed side and make the edge square? Or is it better to plane the top, then square up the sides with a circular saw? I realize a table saw would be better, and a jointer even better. I do have a piece of uni-strut Ive been using as a fence for my circular saw, and works pretty good. I am confined on space more than anything. I don't have any room to put something where I can use it right there. Everything I have needs to be taken out and set up to use.

Marc1, good point on most wood workers just want rough dimensions.

 

[flht01]

...

TRIMMED....you mentioned you have the Dewalt 3 1/4 planer, ....

I started to ask TRIMMED to comment on using the 3-1/4 as well but didn't want to show all my ignorance at once and didn't want to hijack the thread.

 

[woodshop]

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.

VERY good point... woodworkers and woodshops for the most part don't WANT you to finish that board S4S. They want to do that themselves in their controlled environment. Wood moves with the weather, and a perfectly flat smooth S4S board one day will likely have a very slight twist or cut once you take it into a different environment, diff temp, diff humidity etc. So it's a mute point talking about you getting equipment to do that if you want to sell lumber.

I concur with Aggie about a jig that you can mount that rough board to and get that first flat side on the thickness planer, and thus do without a jointer (sorta). American Woodworker mag I think it was, had an article a while back about that. It's basically a large cradle you attach the board too and then push that whole thing into your thickness planer. I was thinking of building one myself for wide long boards because my jointer is only 8", and I find myself ripping down wider boards on the bandsaw if they have slight twist, just so they fit on my jointer for that first side. The flip side is (no pun intended), unless that board is pretty twisted, you can often get away with just the thickness planer doing both sides on wider boards, especially if you only need a relatively short board.

Gee... a woodworking thread on AS... cool.

 

[Husky137]

All good suggestions. I assume from reading your past posts that you don't have a kiln, so S2S or S4S won't really add any value to the air dried board. Woodworkers buy rough for a reason. Handymen buy S4S. The place I use to buy hardwood (not anymore thanks to an LT40) sold it rough,kiln dried, with the guarantee of one straight edge.

I've done several thousand BF on a delta bench top, but after nine years I think she may be cooked. It had been a while since I used it and I'm pretty sure that the motor is running backwards now. I'd really like a 20" machine but that will have to wait until I build a barn to make it really useful.

 

[del schisler]

planer

the RIDGID 13" planer is a good one It is the only one that has a lock down on the head to prevent snipe on the end of the planed wood The cost is not that bad eather and you get a extra set of blades also Mine is very good My nickel worth del

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I wish I had taken pictures of the sled I used to flatten a 20" wide pecan slab on my drum sander last week. I don't have a permanent jig for this because it would take up a lot space, I have the need for one just a few times a year and because I make my temporary sleds fit the piece I'm flattening. Basically all you need is a flat, semi-rigid base (3/4" plywood works) to attach to the rough board to and shim up the gaps in between. With out pictures this is hard for me to explain but it works very well. You won't set any speed records with it but you'll get the job done.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

TRIMMED....you mentioned you have the Dewalt 3 1/4 planer, does that come with some kind of fence? Say after you get the top or bottom planed, it will allow you to line up with the planed side and make the edge square?

The DeWalt planer I have only has only a cheesy little edge guide. I wouldn't call it a fence at all but I have made a jig to clamp the tool in and use it like a very small jointer (back in my broke college student days). It wasn't the easiest or fastest thing to use by far but it worked for small stuff. You would be better off with a criclesaw for full length boards.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You really don't need a "sled" to straighten boards through the planer without a jointer. It helps to have a tablesaw though

Just lay the board on a flat surface, and then saw (on the TS) two strips from a STRAIGHT board that are a little wider than your crooked board and just as long.

Lay the strips along each side of the crooked board and hot glue them to the board holding the board from rocking.

When you plane the board the feed rollers/cutter head will ride on the strips and plane them along with the high spots off the board.

Also a board can be flattened with a router and a jig too.... very easy, just takes more time than a dedicated machine.

BTW, many furniture/cabinet shops not only buy all S2S lumber, they also buy all of there stile and rail lumber cut to width too.... They are very picky about what they buy too and it's next to impossible to compete with the big boys that supply them..

I agree with the others though, to do it "right" you need a good jointer and a decent planer....

BTW, i've always read that the most dangerous machine in a woodshop is the SHAPER!!

Rob

 

[wagonwheeler]

If all you're trying to do is clean it up - since others will thickness/joint later for thier own use, a thin cut w/ the portable and edging w/ a t/s should be fine.

If you've got a good router & table you can edge it w/ that.

HD wasn't too good about keeping blades in stock for the Rigid for a while but I think they've fixed that.

The Rigid has a good warranty, too...might be handy if you start getting busy!

Chaser

 

[wagonwheeler]

BTW, i've always read that the most dangerous machine in a woodshop is the SHAPER!!

Friend of mine has a 3hp 220v Shop Fox shaper...that thing is spooky and will just about choke his dust collector on big cuts...

Chaser

 

[Woodsurfer]

Yay! A woodworking thread!

FWIW I have a 15" 3HP brute of a planer that will chew up hardwood all day.

I assume we are talking about hardwoods here, not construction grade or boards destined for a floor or barn... I agree with Marc1 and Woodshop that a typical woodworker hobbiest will not want his boards planed. More than likely they will cup and twist somewhat after the cleanup planing and need to be redone. They won't be the thickness he wants. Some species get dark exposed to air and light, complicates things when mixing freshly planed with older stock. Even ripping a flat board can produce two curved boards as the internal stresses do their thing (so you rip it rough and then get to straightening). Freshly prepared wood needs to be used fast or it gets unstraight quickly .. Pretty much every woodworker has a jointer and planer and is glad to surface his stock exactly as he wants.

One idea to help sell the wood to these kind of customers: belt sand a small area to show off the grain, that's of major interest. Also highlight how it was cut (plainsawn, quarter, etc.).

 

[bookerdog]

grizzly go505

Casey if you want to get started without the big expense. Go for the grizzly go505 12 1/2 inch planer. Its a portable jobsite planer and is built heavey duty. It also has 1/8 inch knives instead of 1/16 inch. Amazon.com has it for 225.00 and if you buy before Oct 31 you get 25.00 off. For what you what to do this would be a good way to start and see how it goes for there. I have one and am very happy with it.

 

[oldsaw]

Casey, I have the Delta 580 as well. Nice unit, and would probably work great for what you are trying to do.

I would like a big 15"+ job too, but don't have the cash or the space.

Mark

 

[Big Woody]

straightening boards

Biggest problem with rough sawn kiln dried lumber is not the planing issue. It is to straighted one edge so you can run it against the table saw fence to cut to the desired width.

If you don't have an expensive ripsaw, then this is the real deal:

http://www.festoolusa.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProdID=561188&id=1

Get the 8- 10 foot guide rail. I have used it for two white ash bedroom floors.

Awesome.

Plus its German just like Stihl:sword:

 

[bookerdog]

EZ guide

You can also get a ez guide system without the big expense. You just attach a plate on the bottom of your circular saw and it runs right down the guide.

 

[trimmmed]

............



TRIMMED....you mentioned you have the Dewalt 3 1/4 planer, does that come with some kind of fence? Say after you get the top or bottom planed, it will allow you to line up with the planed side and make the edge square? Or is it better to plane the top, then square up the sides with a circular saw? .

No it doesn't come with a fence, but you can make a "shoe" for it to sit in that could do that. I think after planing the face, snapping a line and cutting with a circular saw would be just fine for what you want to do. A guide is even better.

 

[CaseyForrest]

Lots of good information.

I agree on not wanting to dimension the boards, just clean up the cuts to show off the grain. I think a belt sander will do that nicely.

Last night I spent about 30 minutes with a Porter Cable random orbit sander. Took awhile to get the chatter marks out, but it worked, with 100 grit. I think a belt sander with 60 or 40 grit would get it done quickly.

In any event, Im off to the HD and Lowes to fondle some machinery.

 

[CaseyForrest]

No it doesn't come with a fence, but you can make a "shoe" for it to sit in that could do that. I think after planing the face, snapping a line and cutting with a circular saw would be just fine for what you want to do. A guide is even better.

OK, Ill take a look at the 3 1/4 planer tonite too.

I do use a home made fence for taking the live edges off my slabs now. No reason it wont work for edging too.

 

[woodshop]

Lay the strips along each side of the crooked board and hot glue them to the board holding the board from rocking.

BTW, i've always read that the most dangerous machine in a woodshop is the SHAPER!!

HEY now Sawyer Rob... next time I need to flatten a wide board that is too big for my jointer I think I will try that. Sounds a lot quicker than rigging up a sled with shims to hold that board. Most time taken would be waiting for the hot glue gun to heat up. Thanks for that tip.

I agree that the shaper is the most dangerous machine in a woodshop. Very unforgiving (not that most other power tools are). Tons of power concentrated in a little shaper cutter spinning thousands of rpms. Catch a knot the wrong way, or feed the piece without any hold downs or featherboards, and you potentially have a wooden "bullet" fired from your machine at over 100 miles per hour.

btw, for the record as per originally asked by the man who started this thread, I use a rather standard 3HP 15" thickness planer. The Grizzly version of it goes for about $800. Jet, Delta, ShopFox... they all come from the same factory in Taiwan with minor differences. Mine is now 15 years old, and you can't really wear them out unless you're a high volume production shop running 24/7 non-stop. You will need at least a 650cfm dust collector hooked to the 4 inch dust port. I fill a 55 gallon drum with sawdust in less than an hour of nonstop usage.