Hand held electric planer

[transatlantic]

I've done a panel glue up of multiple 1.5m 45x100mm boards (bog standard pine) and as they weren't all the same thickness, I now have to do quite a bit of flattening. 1.5mm I'd guess I'd need to remove off both the top and bottom.

So I'm wondering if I'd be able to do it move effienciently with an electric planer (a new purchase)? mostly as a builk removal tool. I'd still work up through the grits with my belt sander.

Or would it be just as easy to start with like a 40 grit on the belt sander?

I'm worried that by using the planer, even with fine cuts, it may produce a lot of deep tear out that will then take just as long to sand out? .. unfortunately I didn't pay attention to trying to match the grain direction (I'm learning ), so not all boards grain is pointing in the same direction.

Although I have a hand plane, I find it very difficult to use with my disability (can't stand/walk so use a wheelchair). Power tools are much easier for me.

 

[Myfordman]

Power planers can be a bit aggressive but set very fine indeed can do the job. get the special blades with rounded corners though.

 

[Mark A]

1.5mm isn't too much for a belt sander to deal with, especially if you start with a course belt (40 or 60 grit).

Work on the raised boards first so that you achieve a levelish surface before attempting to sand the entire panel flat. Once the high spots have been taken down, sand diagonally over the entire panel, starting at one corner and and stopping when you reach the opposite corner. Then begin again but from a different corner, so that the sanding marks intersect at right angles. Continue doing this while working through the grits until the surface is acceptably flat, then give it a few more passes along the grain to remove the cross grain sanding marks before finishing off with an orbital sander.

A light squiggle with a pencil across the surface before each pass with the sander will let let you know how much progress you are making.

If your sander has a sanding frame then that will help with digging in, but as long as you're patient it should be fine.

Of course, don't let me get in the way of a new tool purchase - if you desire a planer then by all means use that to do the bulk of the flattening (set the depth of cut to very very shallow) before proceeding to the belt sander.

 

[blackrodd]

I would plane off the worst area's with the planer then finish with the sander
The main reason is the belts can be expensive in this situation and also the dust system in these belt sanders can clog easily and don't work too well. and you'll possibly be wheezing for days!
Get outside and do it if you can.
Regards Rodders

 

[Jelly]

I was about to suggest going across the panel perpendicular to the grain with a (longish to long) hand plane with a slightly cambered iron until all parts of the panel are level, then sand/plane the slightly scalloped surface, as I did this with a friend recently on a really massive panel he'd glued up in a similar (grain opposing) manner.

However, your OP makes it obvious that you're probably not up for that, my reason for still posting is that I'm not sure if a similar approach with the electric planer is feasible or not, In principle it shouldn't give a finish any worse than a tennoner head would, but I'm not sure... Does anyone from the forum have experience of trying this?

Planing perpendicular helps establish a single unified plane (geometrically) which you can then plane (physically) smooth, (or sand smooth, works fine, ruins the pun).

 

[Flynnwood]

Watch your fingers with a hand held planer - especially once its done the work and you've released the trigger and the blades are slowing down. A momentary lapse of concentration - I was lucky that more damage was not done.

Healed fine - but be careful!

 

[whiskywill]

And check that the cutter blades are tight every time you use it. I didn't, a blade slid forward and ...........bang.......... the baseplate disintegrated.

 

[AndyT]

Mostly in response to Jelly, who has said what I would have said, - there's a big disadvantage with power planers compared to hand planes. Their disposable, carbide blades are (naturally) dead straight with square corners. That's ok when planing an edge, but if you need to take successive passes across a wide surface you are almost certain to get track lines across the surface. Maybe that's ok if it's only a roughing cut before a belt sander, but a hand plane can have a nice gentle camber so successive passes merge invisibly into each other.

1.5 mm is not a lot to plane away by hand, especially in pine, as many videos of bench builds (eg by Paul Sellers) will show.