How many of you own surface planers?

[LFS19]

Quite a pricy but of kit. I’m wondering whether or not to take the plunge and get one myself.
Up until now I’ve done all my stuff with a No.5 Stanley which I love.
I work a lot with heat treated pallet wood though, as I don’t have a lot of cash to spend on wood with there not being any reclaimed wood shops in my area.

More recently for bigger projects however, the act of sorting and planing pallet wood has become a pretty laborious process; often taking far longer to do than building whatever it is i’m building.
I was wondering how many of you used a surface planer and the pros and cons of owning/using one?

In some ways I’m reluctant to drop a considerable amount of money on something that with time, I could do myself with the hand plane. Part of me feels lazy for wanting to get one, but on the other hand, it would mean I could use pallet wood for bigger projects as I wouldn’t have to spend hours and hours hand planing.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[sunnybob]

I have a jet lunchbox thicknesser which will take 12" wide planks.
Its bluudy loud, but it aint arf quick to get a rough sawn plank to something that is good enough for most work and only needs light sanding to be perfect.

But if youre using pallet wood be prepared to have to sharpen / swap blades quite often

 

[deema]

The three most used and useful machines in my shop in order or priority are

Table saw
Planner Thicknesser
Spindle Moulder.

Having said that, for hand planing for most things you only ever need to make two sides square and true. With my machines I often only do this and use the table saw to thickness (it’s quicker), which is also strictly not necessar. If you look at old furniture most pieces only have the show side of the stuff planed, the sides not seen are rough sawn and not thicknessed. Adopting this approach for hand tool work literally reduces the effort by half.

 

[DTR]

My reply will probably be in the minority, but I don't own a planer/thicknesser. I do all my stock prep with a no. 5. The noise and dust from a thicknesser would drive me nuts

 

[Just4Fun]

I don't own a thickness planner but I do have access to one. I use it sometimes but not on every project. Rather than buying one I would rather spend the money on better wood and prepare it by hand, for one project at least.

 

[AJB Temple]

I bought a used Axminster pro planer thicknesser off the Bay as my first one for £230. Cast iron tables. Now upgraded but if you buy a decent used one they are super useful and quick.

 

[custard]

For the price of a decent quality lunch box/bench top thicknesser you can buy a rubbish planer/thicknesser.

Unfortunately most newbies get seduced by the P/T, thinking it'll spare them having to learn the skills of edge jointing and spare them the effort of getting one face true enough for thicknessing. They don't realise that cheap P/T's are some of the worst machines out there; inaccurate, unreliable, flimsy, and difficult to maintain.

Get the thicknesser and even though it may not remove the need for your 05 plane, it'll cut down the amount of hand planing by at least 80%.

 

[LFS19]

I have a jet lunchbox thicknesser which will take 12" wide planks.
Its bluudy loud, but it aint arf quick to get a rough sawn plank to something that is good enough for most work and only needs light sanding to be perfect.

But if youre using pallet wood be prepared to have to sharpen / swap blades quite often

Thanks for the confirmation.
Are new blades expensive?

 

[LFS19]

The three most used and useful machines in my shop in order or priority are

Table saw
Planner Thicknesser
Spindle Moulder.

Having said that, for hand planing for most things you only ever need to make two sides square and true. With my machines I often only do this and use the table saw to thickness (it’s quicker), which is also strictly not necessar. If you look at old furniture most pieces only have the show side of the stuff planed, the sides not seen are rough sawn and not thicknessed. Adopting this approach for hand tool work literally reduces the effort by half.

Yeah, that does make sense doesn’t it. Something to think about, thanks for the insight.

 

[rafezetter]

About four years ago I bought a 3rd or 4th hand old dewalt DW1150 P/T (still cost £450) and used it primarily for small personal stuff, but I've also used it to clean and dimension reclaimed boards to make a tabletop.

Just before xmas last year I put over a 100, rough as rough can be, old salvaged boards through of all different thicknesses to dimension and clean them up for flooring. Took days but the result was great.

It's still a workhorse that takes everything I throw at it, and spits it back all clean

Take the time to find a sturdy old model P/T (check the forum for recommendations) and don't skimp either, try to find one that is wide enough to take anything you might want to do, personally I'd avoid the 6 inch versions - having one will open all sorts of possibilities.

 

[LFS19]

My reply will probably be in the minority, but I don't own a planer/thicknesser. I do all my stock prep with a no. 5. The noise and dust from a thicknesser would drive me nuts

I can imagine!
I do love my No. 5. As I say though, using it becomes much less of an enjoyable activity when you use a lot of pallet wood!

Cheers

 

[LFS19]

I don't own a thickness planner but I do have access to one. I use it sometimes but not on every project. Rather than buying one I would rather spend the money on better wood and prepare it by hand, for one project at least.

Yeah, I mean that’s certainly a viable alternative. The thing is, I don’t really have acess to anything that isn’t already smooth planed. We only have the builders merchants and that’s all they sell, which is pretty expensive.

Cheers

 

[LFS19]

I bought a used Axminster pro planer thicknesser off the Bay as my first one for £230. Cast iron tables. Now upgraded but if you buy a decent used one they are super useful and quick.

I was looking at the Axminster ones actually; thanks for the heads up!

 

[LFS19]

For the price of a decent quality lunch box/bench top thicknesser you can buy a rubbish planer/thicknesser.

Unfortunately most newbies get seduced by the P/T, thinking it'll spare them having to learn the skills of edge jointing and spare them the effort of getting one face true enough for thicknessing. They don't realise that cheap P/T's are some of the worst machines out there; inaccurate, unreliable, flimsy, and difficult to maintain.

Get the thicknesser and even though it may not remove the need for your 05 plane, it'll cut down the amount of hand planing by at least 80%.

Cheers for the insight, custard.
Agree on the above; all the power planes i’ve used have been cheap and bloody useless.
The one I own at the moment is a Screwfix own brand that I got for about £25 - waste of money.

 

[LFS19]

About four years ago I bought a 3rd or 4th hand old dewalt DW1150 P/T (still cost £450) and used it primarily for small personal stuff, but I've also used it to clean and dimension reclaimed boards to make a tabletop.

Just before xmas last year I put over a 100, rough as rough can be, old salvaged boards through of all different thicknesses to dimension and clean them up for flooring. Took days but the result was great.

It's still a workhorse that takes everything I throw at it, and spits it back all clean

Take the time to find a sturdy old model P/T (check the forum for recommendations) and don't skimp either, try to find one that is wide enough to take anything you might want to do, personally I'd avoid the 6 inch versions - having one will open all sorts of possibilities.

Thanks for the recomendations. Having read yours and the above posts, I think i’m going to take the plunge and get one. Not sure I got drop £450, though. What are you getting extra with the higher priced models vs some of the cheaper ones? Providing you buy from a quality brand, of course. AJB mentioned the Axminster Pro which seems enticing.

Also, what is it about the wider models that is better? Of course the convinience of sending wider boards through is good, but if I had the six inch and needed something that was, say, 12 inch, could I not easily just send two six inch boards through and edge glue them afterwards?

 

[Cordy]

could I not easily just send two six inch boards through and edge glue them afterwards?

Yes, that's what I do

The original post looks to be enquiring a about a planer
Most replies relate to a Planer thicknesser

My old Whitehead planer is 6 inches wide and very good; which should be OK width wise for all the pallets that I've seen

Yes I have a lunch-box thicknesser, but this may not be needed with your pallet wood

 

[LFS19]

I see what you mean, sorry; I was getting my names mixed up.
What I was indeed enquiring about was thicknessers, so I was lucky people have informed me regarding them.

Perhaps a thicknesser wouldn’t be essential, though the screwfix brand electric plane I have isn’t really very good.
i suspect i’d need to be building some sort of jig, placing the machine upside down and building a box shaped housing to act as a fence for the wood to pass through: as a thicknesser would have.
What I was refering to regarding the 12 inch vs 6 inch was in relation to having a thickness planer. I was unsure what the benifit was of having a 12 inch when you could just have a six inch and glue boards together afterwards.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Cordy]

LFS
This is my Planer; made in 1956

 

[LFS19]

Vert nice, looks a vert well looked after bit of kit.

 

[rafezetter]

I've just seen there's an axminster one for sale in the market place on the forum - yes it's £600 - which might make your eyes water a little, BUT if it were I - I'd buy it, it's even in Yorkshire.

Don't wait - just do it - at the VERY least go look at it and get a demonstration.

As for sending 2 x 6" and jointing, yes that's an option, but for some woods hiding the join will be a little tricky - this is assuming ofc that you have a 12" board to begin with, and it would be a shame to buy wider boards with lovely grain then rip them down anyway.

It seems like a large outlay, and it is, but the time saved not to mention the stress is hard to put a price on. There are several projects I've been able to do with mine that I just would not have considered doing by hand, and I'll bet that's true for many hobbyist woodworkers.

Many will say it's no stress to hand plane and joint boards, and for those with good handplane skills this is true, but I've been handplaning smaller stuff for a while 4 - 5 years now, partly to learn and partly because my P/T lives in a crate and has to be decamped and set up as I just don't have the space for it to be out all the time, and for my limited time and budget borking large valuable boards with sub par planing is not an option.

The machine will give you easily repeatable results time and again.