How many of you own surface planers?

[LFS19]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the idea to, if using standalone units, go to the planer first (desktop One i’m refering to, not hand-held) and get one edge and one face square and then send it through a thicknesser to square the other face, before finally; once having three square sides, going to whatever you use to rip wood and running the square edge against the fense to square the other edge. Giving you a result of four square sides.

In an ideal workshop, you would have both. But for poor people (me and you) the thicknesser can be used as a jointer/planer for boards up to 6" wide.
Stand the board on edge on the workbench, Hot Glue some scrap wood to both sides along its length to keep it vertical, then run it through the thicknesser. If you have several boards to edge at the same time, even better, Just make sure they are securely hot glued, or if several, even a couple of small clamps at each end. I must stress the SECURE on this trick, theres a lot of force on the planks from the knives and you dont want them fallling sideways half way through.

Nice tips, good to know. So does it work in reverse? Could you get a planer and use one as a thicknesser? I’m guessing if you could this would be considerably more complex, requiring a jig to press down the wood from the top.

Thanks

 

[sunnybob]

A "GOOD" planer will cost you double the price of a lunchbox thicknesser. And not be liftable around the workshop.

Trust me, I have spent the last 4 years on a very steep learning curve with woodworking machinery, and anything that looks a "reasonable" price, will need major work to get it to function properly.
But its down to what you want to do. If its basic construction, cheap is cheerful. If its precision cuts for good furniture and the like, cheap is wasted money.

 

[LFS19]

To be honest, then, I might just grab the Jet that you have if you consider it decent.
I noticed it’s out of stock on the site you linked, so I’ll have a look for it elsewhere.
Is there anything else tou’d recommend at the same price point? And Would you ever buy a second hand one on eBay that’s over 10 years old?

I think the thicknesser while also utilising the hot glue trick you mentioned will be my best bang for buck. A combination planer/thicknesser is too much money and separates would also be.

Cheers

 

[memzey]

The first link in your post above is to a planer thicknesser, although not a particularly good one. The second link in your post above is to a thicknesser. I would say the description of that listing (the second one) is misleading.

I think at least some of the confusion arises as a result of American English versus standard English. What in the UK might be called a planer or surface planer is labelled a jointer in the US. What is referred to as a thicknesser in the UK is called a thickness planer in America. All a bit confusing at first but simple once you know.

Thanks for the reply. What is it about the Triton one that makes it not particularly good? I know they’re a budget brand, but surely the cheaper ones must still at least fulfill the requirement of being able to square the wood and get the job done. Is it quality of the blades?

And yes, a lot of Americans were using the phrase “jointer”, which did make it confusing! :lol:

I don’t have that particular one but if you do a search on here you’ll find a number of threads complaining that the tables are often out of true and there being no way to adjust them back into square. Some others have also complained about the noise as being particularly high. You might pick one up from screwfix that’s absolutely perfect but the number of folks on here cursing that machine put me off it and others like it.

When I had to make a decision on buying a planer thicknesser I decided I wasn’t interested so much in the bells and whistles that adorn many of the new, made in china machines and went for an older, made in England professional machine with fixed beds and solid construction. It wasn’t cheap by any standards but it worked out well for me and I’d do the same again in a heartbeat if I had to. As the saying goes you pays your money and you makes your choice.

 

[LFS19]

Hmm. Out of square issues like this irk me greatly. The prospect of this happening is enough to put me off to be honest. The amount of machines i’ve owned that have been slightly out of square rendering them useless is the reason I use mostly hand tools. This is the first time I’ve tentatively been interested in machines in a while since my Bosch blue mitre saw that was ever so slightly off despite being set up perfectly.

I shall do a search, thanks for the heads up.

 

[sunnybob]

I cant recommend any others because the Jet is the only one I have had. Apart from the snipe at the end of each plank, i think its the only machine I have bought that has not had to be "fixed" before use.

The snipe though is common to all thicknessers, even heavy duty commercial ones, although you can work at reducing it.

 

[LFS19]

Probably better just go ahead and get the Jet, then. Confirmation of it being plug in and go is enough.

Quick querie on using it as a planet/jointer: Can it be used to square all four sides?
I understand how you can plane one edge square using the method you described, but wouldn’t I still have to plane the opposite edge square first? Considering the thicknesser would surely have to use a square edge to reference the other.
I’ve also seen some other jigs online whereby people build a sled to then put the unplanned board on top and add wedges underneath any cupping to make it flat - then sending it through the thicknesser to get on flat face to reference the others.

 

[sunnybob]

you seem to be going round in circles with your worries.

If the board is twisted, you wedge it (or hot glue it) so that the twist is minimised on the top surface. you plane it.
You adjust it again with wedges and glue so that the top side is flat. you plane it.
You now have one flat side.
turn the wood over and you plane it. You now have two flat parallel sides.

Now if the board was very twisted, youre going to have a very thin flat board, but thats what happens after multiple passes.

From there you can use a hand plane on the edge if you wish, or you can run it through the thicknesser again edge wise (PROVIDED you make sure it is VERY secure with glue, or even screws to secondary pieces of wood to stop it tipping as it goes through) and go through the above procedure again. This is something that needs to be done carefully, but it is possible to get flat edges this way.
Each time the wood passes through the thicknesser it registers on the bottom edge. Once one edge is flat, turning the wood over automatically ensures the other edge is flat.

A standalone planer / thicknesser is best, but is beyond my budget and apparently yours as well.

 

[LFS19]

you seem to be going round in circles with your worries.

If the board is twisted, you wedge it (or hot glue it) so that the twist is minimised on the top surface. you plane it.
You adjust it again with wedges and glue so that the top side is flat. you plane it.
You now have one flat side.
turn the wood over and you plane it. You now have two flat parallel sides.

Now if the board was very twisted, youre going to have a very thin flat board, but thats what happens after multiple passes.

From there you can use a hand plane on the edge if you wish, or you can run it through the thicknesser again edge wise (PROVIDED you make sure it is VERY secure with glue, or even screws to secondary pieces of wood to stop it tipping as it goes through) and go through the above procedure again. This is something that needs to be done carefully, but it is possible to get flat edges this way.
Each time the wood passes through the thicknesser it registers on the bottom edge. Once one edge is flat, turning the wood over automatically ensures the other edge is flat.

A standalone planer / thicknesser is best, but is beyond my budget and apparently yours as well.

I know; sorry for the confusion.

So long as I'm able to get a board squared on all sides (even if it's with work arounds) the machine doesn't need a lot of fiddling with and it's of good quality, I'll go for it; all of which you've confirmed.

Seems everywhere that's selling the Jet is selling at £388, so I'll wait a bit and see if it comes on sale at around £300 as listed in your link.

Thanks for the help.