Best planer thicknesser for cupped, warped boards

[Lukeyr1]

I have a lot of reclaimed scaffold boards, with slight cupping and warping that I want to flatten out on one side, to make into dining tables. Keeping the rustic look on the opposite side.

What would be the best machine to do this?

A portable bench thicknesser such as a Triton TPT125, DeWalt DW733, Makita 2012NB or Metabo DH330.

Or a Planer thicknesser: Scheppach HT850 or Clarke CPT600, CPT800 or CPT1000.

The boards will be cleaned up, with any grit or metal removed, before putting through a machine.

Budget is around £500 but can go up to £800 for the right machine if more suitable.

Those brands listed above are what I've been researching but if anyone has got any recommendations for a better model machine to look into further that would be great.

Thanks

 

[recipio]

You have to plane one side flat before putting it through the thicknesser so you need a proper P/T .Otherwise you are down to using an electric planer or even a router flattening jig. Really any secondhand P/T will do the job as long as it will accept the width of the boards. It is however hard work pushing heavy boards over a planer - a second pair of hands or a roller stand would help.
Lastly don't forget to budget for an extractor or you will be up to your ankles in sawdust.

 

[fleyh]

If you want to flatten many boards then (ideally) you need planer.
Thicknesser (in its default function) will leave boards just as cupped/warped but thinner.


If you are happy to invest your time into making just the thicknesser work then you could devise a jig to flatten boards on the thicknesser:
Or you could simply use a hand plane and get your woodwork to the next level.

Experienced woodworkers usually advise against combined planer/thicknesser (especially budget ones), even when space is a major constraint.

As to which specific model to pick - there are plenty of threads on this forum already (and it looks like you have already gone through those) any of the models you listed are considered good enough. So it is mostly down to price/availability/features.
For instance
- Triton and Dewalt are designed imperial - 1 turn of thickness lever does 1/16" height change
- Makita and Metabo are metric - 1 turn = 2mm
Not a deal breaker either way, as you will most likely check the final thickness with calipers, but as you get into a ball-park of desired thickness it may be annoying having to do maths in the system you are not used to.

Makita and Metabo also accept after market (very expensive) spiral cutters. If that's something you are interested in then it may be worth considering. e.g. Spiral Cutterhead for Metabo DH330 Thicknesser OEM size |Sheartak Tools

 

[Lukeyr1]

If you want to flatten many boards then (ideally) you need planer.
Thicknesser (in its default function) will leave boards just as cupped/warped but thinner.


If you are happy to invest your time into making just the thicknesser work then you could devise a jig to flatten boards on the thicknesser:
Or you could simply use a hand plane and get your woodwork to the next level.

Experienced woodworkers usually advise against combined planer/thicknesser (especially budget ones), even when space is a major constraint.

As to which specific model to pick - there are plenty of threads on this forum already (and it looks like you have already gone through those) any of the models you listed are considered good enough. So it is mostly down to price/availability/features.
For instance
- Triton and Dewalt are designed imperial - 1 turn of thickness lever does 1/16" height change
- Makita and Metabo are metric - 1 turn = 2mm
Not a deal breaker either way, as you will most likely check the final thickness with calipers, but as you get into a ball-park of desired thickness it may be annoying having to do maths in the system you are not used to.

Makita and Metabo also accept after market (very expensive) spiral cutters. If that's something you are interested in then it may be worth considering. e.g. Spiral Cutterhead for Metabo DH330 Thicknesser OEM size |Sheartak Tools

Thanks for the detailed reply. The jig looks like a good option to look into further.

Cheers

 

[Lukeyr1]

You have to plane one side flat before putting it through the thicknesser so you need a proper P/T .Otherwise you are down to using an electric planer or even a router flattening jig. Really any secondhand P/T will do the job as long as it will accept the width of the boards. It is however hard work pushing heavy boards over a planer - a second pair of hands or a roller stand would help.
Lastly don't forget to budget for an extractor or you will be up to your ankles in sawdust.

Thank you. Yeah an extractor is a great idea!

 

[Against_The_Grain]

Pop down Screwfix and get a cheap Titan planer thicknesser and use the surface planer function to flatten them. I wouldn’t bother getting anything decent for cleaning up scaffold boards as even when you try your best to remove the debris you will still have remnants which will ruin a nice machine in short order as the timber itself will have picked up an abrasive characteristic from years of cement wash and so on, buy the cheapest piece of junk that works.

It’s a pet peeve of mine seeing nice old cast iron machines ruined by morons shoving pallet wood and scaffold planks with nails and stones embedded in which scratch the beds to death and in some cases end up chipping the ledges on the surfacing tables around the cutter block. Good machines turned into scrap for the sake of some silly “rustic” tables which look terrible.

 

[Jameshow]

Id avoid the cheap Chinese clones and go for a second hand DeWalt, kity or metebo.

Much nicer machines to use.

 

[recipio]

Thank you. Yeah an extractor is a great idea!

I'd consider it essential to keep the machine running nicely. Check out the old Scheppach HMS 250 or 300 P/T s - they often come up on #bay and are pretty well bulletproof.

 

[Lukeyr1]

Pop down Screwfix and get a cheap Titan planer thicknesser and use the surface planer function to flatten them. I wouldn’t bother getting anything decent for cleaning up scaffold boards as even when you try your best to remove the debris you will still have remnants which will ruin a nice machine in short order as the timber itself will have picked up an abrasive characteristic from years of cement wash and so on, buy the cheapest piece of junk that works.

It’s a pet peeve of mine seeing nice old cast iron machines ruined by morons shoving pallet wood and scaffold planks with nails and stones embedded in which scratch the beds to death and in some cases end up chipping the ledges on the surfacing tables around the cutter block. Good machines turned into scrap for the sake of some silly “rustic” tables which look terrible.

Thank you.

Only issue with a cheaper surface planner, they only go up to 152mm and the boards are 220mm.

 

[Bod]

"lot of reclaimed scaffold boards,"
Machine wreckers, if you do buy a machine, be guided by the price of replacement blades, you may be changing blades every 3-5 boards, one missed nail = new blades.
Also look at how easily the blades can be changed, and what tools are needed, spanners, maybe a dial gauge.
More expensive machines may have resharpenable blades, can you do this, or will they have to be sent away?
Finally can the profit margin for each table stand the cost?
(redesign to make a feature of the current board shape?)

Bod

 

[Against_The_Grain]

Thank you.

Only issue with a cheaper surface planner, they only go up to 152mm and the boards are 220mm.

I seem to remember that they did some 10” wide models, you can certainly still pick up lesser brand ones like a Woodstar in 10” for not a lot of money.

 

[Luke Barnard]

I used to volunteer at a wood recycling center that made furniture, including dining tables, out of reclaimed scaffold boards.

Their process to make a table top was:
- Random orbit sand the scaffold boards all over with 40g, then 80g. Primarily to clean the boards off and get a feel for the grain and color match.
- Cut to length.
- Pass the boards through the thicknesser, not a surface planer, on one side only, skimming only enough off so that the boards lie flat enough, where flat enough is perhaps a few mm across the boards width and a few cm across the boards length.
- Rip the edge off the boards that need gluing up (all except the two external edges) - thicknessed face down on the saw table, to give squarer edges for the glue up
- Glue up the boards with polyurethane glue (being somewhat gap filling, at least in an aesthetic sence rather than structural), using as many clamps as you can, and cauls over the faces to pull everything into line as much as possible.
- Fill any large defects in the boards with epoxy
- 40g sand to level out the worst of any ridges in the glue joints and the epoxied parts, then 80g and 150g ready for finishing
- Finish with Osmo oil.

Almost all of these dining tables have either fairly chunky cross members screwed to the underside (in enlarged holes to allow for expansion) in an effort to keep the table flatter, or a full apron.

They've been doing it this way for years and the process is effective at making a rustic dining table from scaffold boards that can be sold for a modest profit.

Regarding the thicknessing, Bod is right. This place used a Kity 638 and newley sharpened blades lasted a day maximum before they were seriously dulled and normally chipped in a few places, and blades would be sharpened maybe twice a month? You cannot ever clean the boards well enough to treat the thicknesser respectfully. It's been a hard life for that Kity 638. You just need to accept it will be abusing whatever planer thicknesser you take to it. Because they are expecting to do so much sanding after the glue up, a low quality finish from the thicknesser isnt a concern for them.

 

[Lukeyr1]

I used to volunteer at a wood recycling center that made furniture, including dining tables, out of reclaimed scaffold boards.

Their process to make a table top was:
- Random orbit sand the scaffold boards all over with 40g, then 80g. Primarily to clean the boards off and get a feel for the grain and color match.
- Cut to length.
- Pass the boards through the thicknesser, not a surface planer, on one side only, skimming only enough off so that the boards lie flat enough, where flat enough is perhaps a few mm across the boards width and a few cm across the boards length.
- Rip the edge off the boards that need gluing up (all except the two external edges) - thicknessed face down on the saw table, to give squarer edges for the glue up
- Glue up the boards with polyurethane glue (being somewhat gap filling, at least in an aesthetic sence rather than structural), using as many clamps as you can, and cauls over the faces to pull everything into line as much as possible.
- Fill any large defects in the boards with epoxy
- 40g sand to level out the worst of any ridges in the glue joints and the epoxied parts, then 80g and 150g ready for finishing
- Finish with Osmo oil.

Almost all of these dining tables have either fairly chunky cross members screwed to the underside (in enlarged holes to allow for expansion) in an effort to keep the table flatter, or a full apron.

They've been doing it this way for years and the process is effective at making a rustic dining table from scaffold boards that can be sold for a modest profit.

Regarding the thicknessing, Bod is right. This place used a Kity 638 and newley sharpened blades lasted a day maximum before they were seriously dulled and normally chipped in a few places, and blades would be sharpened maybe twice a month? You cannot ever clean the boards well enough to treat the thicknesser respectfully. It's been a hard life for that Kity 638. You just need to accept it will be abusing whatever planer thicknesser you take to it. Because they are expecting to do so much sanding after the glue up, a low quality finish from the thicknesser isnt a concern for them.

Thanks so much, really useful info there.

I've seen on some other YouTube videos people just running the boards through a box thicknesser to the same affect.

When the boards were skimmed on just one side to get them relatively flat, did they not have any issues with them all being of different thickness?

 

[julianf]

Have you considered using a hand held belt sander to flatten them on the rear just where you need to flatten them?

It would sound like more effort, but, as others have said, you might find that a thicknesser is more bother than you expect.

You will find that the blades won't last long, and then, in softer wood, they will start to tear.


If you are sure you want a thicknesser, I have one in the forsake section! Blades are not expensive for it, and, for a not so good finish, it's possible to sharpen them without so much effort.

But, again, I would think about just using a hand held sander to get the flats where you need them and leave it at that.

Our lounge floor here is scaffold boards. This was before I got the thicknesser but I just used a hand held belt sander for them.

 

[recipio]

It's an aesthetic choice using scaffold boards. You could just use 2 x 8 planks but they wouldn't have as much character. I think I would pressure wash them and then use a Wizard 5 detector to check for nails. Character costs money,

 

[Chief Sawdust Maker]

We use a lot of used scaffolding boards to make a variety of furniture and also a number of other items such as coat racks, boot racks, gin bars, and storage crates.
We usually buy a large quantity a couple of times a year and take the rough with the good from the scaffold company who supplies us
we keep them outside well stacked to ensure air flow.
Prior to use we cut the ends off with the metal bands using cordless circular saw have found that its false economy to try to strip the bands off due to the time it takes and also usually the timber under the bands is pretty poor, we then usually cut into 4ft lengths which suits us for what we make and also fits well in the workshop.
We then stack them in the workshop for a few days first line of attack is a powered wire brush Makita 9741 Wheel Sander gets all the grit off and takes out some of the soft wood in the grain. One side over the spiral headed planner (its a commercial cast iron machine) then through the thicknesser then rip the edges on the table saw. I wouldn't consider anything other than a spiral headed carbide planner thicknesser and as long as you use the Makita first and keep the machine cleaned and well waxed we haven't had any problems no damage to the machine and still on the first set of carbides a good blow with the air line and we go from scaff boards to oak or ash and have been using this method a fair while with the number of boards being in the hundreds
Depending on what finish the customer wants the planks are either left planned or put through the drum sander or gone over again with the Makita with a different brush that gives a distressed look.
Not saying our way is the best but it works for us

Good luck whichever way you go

D

 

[Orraloon]

I would not put boards through a planer/thicknesser after they have been sanded. Just adding more grit to the mix. THE best tool to clean up old dirty wood is an electric hand plane. They have tungston blades that are quite cheap. When you get back to clean wood then you can take it to the planer/thicknesser.
Regards
John

 

[Lukeyr1]

We use a lot of used scaffolding boards to make a variety of furniture and also a number of other items such as coat racks, boot racks, gin bars, and storage crates.
We usually buy a large quantity a couple of times a year and take the rough with the good from the scaffold company who supplies us
we keep them outside well stacked to ensure air flow.
Prior to use we cut the ends off with the metal bands using cordless circular saw have found that its false economy to try to strip the bands off due to the time it takes and also usually the timber under the bands is pretty poor, we then usually cut into 4ft lengths which suits us for what we make and also fits well in the workshop.
We then stack them in the workshop for a few days first line of attack is a powered wire brush Makita 9741 Wheel Sander gets all the grit off and takes out some of the soft wood in the grain. One side over the spiral headed planner (its a commercial cast iron machine) then through the thicknesser then rip the edges on the table saw. I wouldn't consider anything other than a spiral headed carbide planner thicknesser and as long as you use the Makita first and keep the machine cleaned and well waxed we haven't had any problems no damage to the machine and still on the first set of carbides a good blow with the air line and we go from scaff boards to oak or ash and have been using this method a fair while with the number of boards being in the hundreds
Depending on what finish the customer wants the planks are either left planned or put through the drum sander or gone over again with the Makita with a different brush that gives a distressed look.
Not saying our way is the best but it works for us

Good luck whichever way you go

D

Cheers buddy, some great tips there.

 

[hlvd]

What you need is to pass these boards over the surfacer to get one straight flat face.

Putting these boards through a thicknesser will not achieve this.

That being said, scaffold boards are usually covered in ground in dirt, grit, sand, mortar and will probably destroy your edge in one pass, and will need a thorough cleaning and sanding before any machining.

Scaffold boards are also straight grained, knot free and a very bland whitish timber that never really looks good whatever the finish.

 

[Luke Barnard]

Thanks so much, really useful info there.

I've seen on some other YouTube videos people just running the boards through a box thicknesser to the same affect.

When the boards were skimmed on just one side to get them relatively flat, did they not have any issues with them all being of different thickness?

Good point - i forgot that detail. When skimming them they set the thicknesser to ~1mm thinner than the nominal scaffold board thickness from their supplier. Often times one pass like that for all the boards was enough to get to the kinds of levels of flattness they are working with. When it wasn't they might do another pass or two to take another 1-2mm off. So all the boards did have the same maximum thickness, but all were also a long way from "regular". It's good enough though.

Also, another detail I forgot to add, is that they almost never glued up full with boards. They'd typically rip boards in half, and for some projects thirds. This takes out a lot of the cupping, and although it makes the glue up take longer, it also made it easier to get good enough results. Sorry - that was quite an important detail to skip!

It might sounds like BS, but in some ways I found it more difficult making those tables to the required standard than I have done any of my own furniture - where i tend to aim for flat, square and not rustic. As a hobbyist, working to flat/square/not rusitc is just a case of taking the the time to follow a set of well established processes. But volunteering there, where to make a viable product they have to work at pace to very loose tolerances and use processes which go against the common wisdom (i.e everyone who has mentioned you shouldn't use a thicknesser the way they do), was a test. As daft as it sounds, working to those different set of standards improved my own woodworking.