# Milling timber / how to use a planer-thicknesser



## dance (27 Mar 2011)

I've just bought a planer/thicknesser and I am delighted with it. I have some idea of how to use one to dimension timber so that it is true, flat, square parallel, etc - but all the online video guides seems to have a different idea of how to go about it!

What is the UKWorkshop consensus (I don't seriously believe there is one :lol: ) on how to do this?

P. S. I don't have a table saw but I do have a track saw.


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## Chems (27 Mar 2011)

Personally I do it this way, I have a table saw but don't use it in the milling process like some people do:

1. Plane a face
2. Put this face against fence and plane an edge
3. Thickness face
4. Thickness edge 

Step 4 does required it to go through the thicknesser stood on edge which I've always found fine but its not to everyones taste, it does let you get a very accurate size thou. 

Have you watched this video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-ZZ0dhbJYY
?


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## dance (27 Mar 2011)

Thanks, chems! Concise, straightforward, understandable - what more could I wish for?!


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## Chems (27 Mar 2011)




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## heimlaga (28 Mar 2011)

-Press down more on the outfeed table than the infeed table when planing. 
-Keep your fingers tigtly together when face planing. That increases your chance to keep all of them full length.


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## oddsocks (28 Mar 2011)

Chems":2jflajvv said:


> Personally I do it this way, I have a table saw but don't use it in the milling process like some people do:
> 
> 1. Plane a face
> 2. Put this face against fence and plane an edge
> ...



I was reading a magazine a few weeks ago and steps 3 and 4 were reversed and it took me a while to see that that made sense - as you keep the wood thicker when planing the edge (thicker =wider base = more stable presumably). Having said that in the past I've always done it as above!

Dave


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## dance (28 Mar 2011)

heimlaga? Nynorsk?

Thanks for your second point - can you elaborate a little on this? Is this to be done when using a push block?


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## Karl (28 Mar 2011)

Where are you based? It may be easier for a member to show you safe techniques - better safe than sorry  

Cheers

Karl


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## mailee (28 Mar 2011)

What Chems has said is how I do it too. The advice on planing is good too but I would add when you plane the edge to keep it pressed against the fence to ensure the edge is square to the face. :wink:


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## Dibs-h (29 Mar 2011)

Chems":2h2wuxey said:


> Personally I do it this way, I have a table saw but don't use it in the milling process like some people do:
> 
> 1. Plane a face
> 2. Put this face against fence and plane an edge
> ...



Step 4 - never done it. Not comfortable with a board stood on edge. Although there must be sled designs out there that make it easy and safe to do. I've just used the table saw and referenced the edge that is done in Step 2.

Dibs


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## Chems (29 Mar 2011)

I've never had one tip over, don't know how it would with the rollers. I think the thinnest I've done is about 6mm.


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## Shane (29 Mar 2011)

Dibs-h":1ujvav50 said:


> Chems":1ujvav50 said:
> 
> 
> > Personally I do it this way, I have a table saw but don't use it in the milling process like some people do:
> ...



I use both methods, if it's a 4x2 I'm happy to put it through on edge, much thinner/wider and I'll run it to width on the saw then over the top of the planer


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## heimlaga (29 Mar 2011)

dance":1bvketwk said:


> heimlaga? Nynorsk?
> 
> Thanks for your second point - can you elaborate a little on this? Is this to be done when using a push block?



Not Nynorsk but almost. We speak an old dialect of Swedish in my area. It goes back to the time when Swedish and Norwegian were essentially one laguage and we have a good deal of words and grammar in common with the dialects of western and northern Norway on which standard Nynorsk is based. Remnants of Old Norse. Norwegians generally understand when we talk while most Swedes don't.

In vocational school where I learned machine woodworking some 12 years ago we had an old teacher. He always told us to keep our fingers tightly together when going near a planer. Always. No exceptions. This habit lessens the risk of some finger tip hanging over the edge of a board getting shortened.
We were taught to face plane without a push block. We pushed with the palm lifting the fingers to slide over the bridge guard. I learned about the existance of push blocks a few months back when I bought my own planer/thicknesser which has an old style pivoting guard. Nowadays I use a push block when face planing narrow stock.


By the way: I normally thickness the edge first and then the face in order to keep it stable and upright in my rather primitive machine. On thinner stuff I use the table saw.


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## dance (31 Mar 2011)

Karl":f06alsi7 said:


> Where are you based? It may be easier for a member to show you safe techniques - better safe than sorry
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Karl



Based around Yorkshire.


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