Hand plane wood then use a thicknesser - does it work?

[Andy Kev.]

I read somewhere that if you hand plane one side of a board flat, you can then run it through a thicknesser to get the other side flat. Then I read somewhere else that if you run a piece of wood through a thicknesser, it comes out with the shape it went in with but just thinner. Although I've never seen a thicknesser in action, I find that latter claim to be a bit odd. So does the first idea actually work?

I ask this as someone who wants to keep use of machines to a minimum but the thicknesser idea might make sense for projects where you've got to flatten a lot of boards (I certainly am not prepared to consider a planer-thicknesser).

 

[Jacob]

Depends on the details but if you put a piece through with concave face down it may well come through flat on the other side. The idea is that it sits steady on the bed without rocking. You can assist this by taking off high points with a hand plane, without necessarily flattening the whole of the concave face.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Depends on the details but if you put a piece through with concave face down it may well come through flat on the other side. The idea is that it sits steady on the bed without rocking. You can assist this by taking off high points with a hand plane, without necessarily flattening the whole of the concave face.

So would it work if you planed the concave side flat i.e leaving the unplaned side "humped" and then put it through a thicknesser?

Edit: I'm getting mixed up. That's essentially what you've just said, isn't it?

 

[RobinBHM]

There would be a tendency for the pressure of the feed rollers to flatten out a cupped board and there is a chance that trying to thickness a cupped board may give you feed problems as thicknessers like a nice flat surface against the table to feed smoothly. It depends really what material you want to machine, most sawn boards in hardwood are likely to have bows or twists needing to be flattened as well as cupping.

 

[dp341]

It will be fine, if you flatten one side either manually or on a planer then the thicknesser will do its job and make it a consistent thickness.

 

[Jacob]

Depends on the details but if you put a piece through with concave face down it may well come through flat on the other side. The idea is that it sits steady on the bed without rocking. You can assist this by taking off high points with a hand plane, without necessarily flattening the whole of the concave face.

So would it work if you planed the concave side flat i.e leaving the unplaned side "humped" and then put it through a thicknesser?

Edit: I'm getting mixed up. That's essentially what you've just said, isn't it?

Plane the concave side flat enough to make it sit on the bed without rocking . Flatten the convex side, turn it over and finish flattening the concave side.

 

[bugbear]

I read somewhere that if you hand plane one side of a board flat, you can then run it through a thicknesser to get the other side flat. Then I read somewhere else that if you run a piece of wood through a thicknesser, it comes out with the shape it went in with but just thinner. Although I've never seen a thicknesser in action, I find that latter claim to be a bit odd. So does the first idea actually work?

I ask this as someone who wants to keep use of machines to a minimum but the thicknesser idea might make sense for projects where you've got to flatten a lot of boards (I certainly am not prepared to consider a planer-thicknesser).

A thicknesser makes the second side more or less parallel to the first side. So if the first side is flat...

BugBear

 

[fluffflinger]

Basically what goes in will come out the other end cupped twisted concave convex etc.

If you have a thicknesser but no planer then simply make a flat sled. Level your board so it doesn't rock (either hand plane or use wedges secured with a dab of hot glue and then pass through the thicknesser, when it's flat dispense with the sled flip it and flatten the other side. I have two such sleds and use them regularly in this fashion. When you have wide or long boards and you can't use your planer (or maybe you don't have one) this is a great solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UONmuQt_98 This nice American chap will explain and demonstrate.

I used my thicknesser this way as I didn't have a planer at the time.

Lunchbox thicknessers are noisy but useful machines.

 

[fluffflinger]

Just watched the video and to avoid confusion remember our American Cousins call a thicknesser a planer and a planer a jointer, weird!!!

Also you can dispense with all the shims if the board is thick enough to avoid being deformed by the pressure rollers and rely on a large blob of hot glue to level and secure the board. It's a really cool technique and I think it has alot to recommend it if you have limited space or budget for machines.

The board in the video could easily have been levelled and secured by two large blobs of hot glue.

 

[custard]

I read somewhere that if you hand plane one side of a board flat, you can then run it through a thicknesser to get the other side flat. Then I read somewhere else that if you run a piece of wood through a thicknesser, it comes out with the shape it went in with but just thinner. Although I've never seen a thicknesser in action, I find that latter claim to be a bit odd. So does the first idea actually work?

I ask this as someone who wants to keep use of machines to a minimum but the thicknesser idea might make sense for projects where you've got to flatten a lot of boards (I certainly am not prepared to consider a planer-thicknesser).

Good plan. A portable thicknesser and a bandsaw takes almost all the drudgery out of woodworking, toss in a router and there's not much you can't achieve.

You don't have to manually plane one face of the board completely flat over the entire surface, you just have to get sufficient flat areas randomly distributed so it'll ride through the thicknesser well supported by those flat areas. Then you flip the board over and machine your initial hand planed face completely flat and at a uniform thickness. Yes, you need to take account of the roller pressure on thinner boards, so you can't be too cavalier about it, but in practise it's not hard to achieve. The critical piece of kit is a decent long straight edge (at a pinch the manufacturers original edge from a sheet of MDF will do if the budget's tight), and the critical skill is knowing how to use that straight edge properly!

Good luck!

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Given the choice of jointer or thicknesser, I'd go with the jointer. It is much less difficulty thicknessing with handplanes than flattening one side of a large board. Further, one can flatten one side (with the jointer), thickness with a bandsaw, then handplane.

Noisy lunchbox thicknessers are Hell.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Corneel]

Maybe Derek, but thicknessing by hand is a lot more work! And a lunchbox thicknesser may be develish but it occupies a lot less space then a decent jointer plus bandsaw.

 

[Jacob]

And with a toaster thicknesser you can tackle long lengths e.g. planing sawn timber for skirtings - they may not be dead straight but they will have flat and parallel faces

 

[Trafalgar]

In the U.S. we call a jointer a jointer for it does the same job a jointing plane is supposed to do - flatten faces and straighten edges. A power thickness planer, often shortened to simply "planer" is for planing a board to final thickness after it has been processed on a jointer.

You certainly can flatten one face of a board manually and then let the thickness planer do the heavy work of bulk removal. Keep the flat face registered down for the first two or three passes then flip the board as you come to final thickness. If you had to remove a lot of bulk in order to get the board flat then keep the flat face registered down through the whole process. Your goal whenever possible is to end up removing about the same amount of wood from each face across both processes -- jointing and planing.

Cheers.

 

[bugbear]

Just watched the video and to avoid confusion remember our American Cousins call a thicknesser a planer and a planer a jointer, weird!!!

A jointer flattens, same as the hand plane of the same name. Seem natural enough.

Jacob appears to have made up "toaster thicknesser". Everyone else uses "lunchbox thicknesser"

BugBear

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Perhaps it is down to what we are used to working with - much of the boards I get are lengths of about 2 - 3m and have a twist. They may also be slightly cupped. These are not short lengths for boxes but long lengths that will be used in furniture (currently working on a lingerie chest).

The first step is to make one side coplanar. By coplanar I am referring to using a handplane to create the same height at the ends and middle of a board so that it may be sent through a thicknesser .... as one does when rubbing a board on a bench to see the high spots and remove them until there are enough points on the board to stabilise it on the bench top.

It is a simple matter on a jointer to do this. It just strikes me that marking off the lines for the reverse side of the face is now an equally simple matter of using a marking gauge. Planing to these lines with hand planes does not require a lot of head-scratching.

The converse is to get that first side coplanar with a jack, which does require checking highs and lows, as well as wind. All those are taken care of in one hit on a power jointer. With the side coplanar, you run it through the (generally noisy) thicknesser. You still need to flip the board and plane the first side flat.

With short lengths I just use handplanes for all. I used to own a Delta lunchbox thicknesser, but avoided it because it made so much noise. For long lengths I preferred using the 8" jointer I had on one side, and then hand planes, as described above. If the wood was particularly hard, or I was less patient, I would simply resaw it on the bandsaw, and then hand plane to final dimensions. The hardness of the wood has not changed and I am getting older (65 now). About 18 months ago I bought a Hammer A3-31 Thicknesser-Jointer with spiral blades. Amazing machine. Takes up little space. I still prefer to do short lengths by hand, but it is wonderful for getting through the grunt work.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Corneel]

Perhaps it is down to what we are used to working with - much of the boards I get are lengths of about 2 - 3m and have a twist. They may also be slightly cupped. These are not short lengths for boxes but long lengths that will be used in furniture (currently working on a lingerie chest).

I suppose you do cut them down to near the size you actually need first? I am working on a small wall cabinet at the moment (should be working....) and make it from a 4 meter long cherry board. But I don't plane the entire board!

My machine is also a combination jointer-thicknesser. But it is one of these cheap hobby machines from Metabo. To go from jointing to thicknessing means some retooling work. And the jointer part has very short tables of crappy alluminium. The thicknesser isn't too bad so I let it usually assembled in that configuration.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thank you all very much for the replies.

I take Derek Cohen's point about noise. One of the reasons I'm learning to use hand tools is that I generally dislike noisy machines and I find hand planing to be a pleasure. However, there are limits: I'm currently trying to make a tool chest and have been doing battle with a lot of pine and it did occur to me that one session with a thicknesser at the start of bigger projects might make sense and would represent an acceptable level of machine use.

Bugbear: I think Jacob's "Toaster" wins out. There's poety in that.

Incidentally for those who may be interested: the leading German woodworking mag has done a test of five thicknessers and the Makita 2012NB and the Metabo DH 330 came out on top. They're not exactly cheap though (€730 and €720 respectively).

 

[custard]

currently working on a lingerie chest

Some people have all the luck.

 

[dickm]

currently working on a lingerie chest

Some people have all the luck.

Well, if it needs 2-3 m boards, someone must have BIG pants