How many of you own surface planers?

[rafezetter]

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.

LFS - do yourself a favor - set fire to your electric planer.

Now - right now, even if you are at work, drive home and destroy it.

They are an abomination meant for construction grade "woodwork" and will give you pinapple poor results almost every time. Sure people use them, quite often for shooting doors to fit, but it's the main antagonist why you've got massive gaps around your internal doors when they should be 2mm all round (tuppence test).

Setting it upside down in a jig with a small fence etc has been done, but will only really be useful for squaring off toothpicks or going into business making artisan matches out of the best and finest hardwoods.

If set inside a LARGE and LONG jig to give a LONG fence to run against, you might have a moderate chance - but the time it'll take you to make such a contraption will be long and you're better off learning latin, or pole dancing with that time.

If you are hellbent on doing that, google Matthias Wandel. - The planer not the pole dancing.

As I said before about the 12 version (or a 10) is just that it gives you more options down the line - this isn't a small outlay and you'll not be wanting to buy twice if the one you buy is good quality but a bit too narrow - see my above as to wide boards etc.

Wider also has the added advantage of not using the same section of blades over and over - to mean you can pass stuff through - left side / right side - of the blades so they last longer between sharpenings, and until you get proficient with sharpening them, you'll be paying each time to have them done.

I know it seems daunting to have all this added stuff to consider, but for the occasional hobbyist they save a LOT more stress than they create

 

[sunnybob]

got to agree on the hand help electric planer, deep six it. My son is a 20 year shopfitter, and even he sneers at the damn things.
got one in a job lot of tools, tried it once, its ready now to be sold on when I get a mug (oops, friend) to buy it.

 

[Ttrees]

I was actually considering a hand held planer if I happened across one for cheap...
They look useful for knocking down a few spots regardless if you had a surface planer or not
I would imagine only effective if you can use a hand plane well though.
Shannon, "the renaissance woodworker" has a video on hybrid planing and it looks an asset to me.

I just wonder if my fingers would be able to hold on to a vibrating tool like with a sander, as this isin't an issue
with hand planes whatsoever.
Tom

 

[sunnybob]

running a power hand planer is like taking an untrained rottweiler for walkies. Youre just there as an observer, wondering how long its going to take you to repair the damage.

 

[DTR]

When I built my workbench I needed to flatten two lumps of Ash, 7' long by 1' wide. One of them had a fair bit of twist in it. I took them to a local business to run them through their industrial, 3-phase thicknesser. When the ash came out the other side they were still twisted, just a little thinner. I then tried using a powered hand planer, and marvelled at how much mess it could make. Finally I resigned myself to flattening 14 sq ft* with a no. 5. It wasn't that hard, and I would have saved a lot of time and effort had I just done that in the first place.

* I cheated by not flattening the whole underside, just the bits that sat on the bearers. Otherwise it would have been 28 sq ft!

 

[Yojevol]

No! don't get rid of it. Keep it at the back of the cupboard - you'll find a use for it on day. I've had a Draper for 18 years and used it only 4 or 5 times. They can save a lot of time and effort in the right situation.
Brian

 

[sunnybob]

I do have ONE use for an electric hand planer. My workbench has a throwaway top. Its just a layer of 22 mm t&g pine boards. I'm very rough with it, glue, paint, other unnatural substances, saw and knife cuts all over it. Every once in a while when the surface is so rough that I cant lay a piece of wood flat anymore, I use the hand planer and take it all off, then put a coat of clear varnish over it.
It looks like an old eroded skate board park after planing. About every 4 or 5 planes, I just buy new boards.

 

[Just4Fun]

Every once in a while when the surface is so rough that I cant lay a piece of wood flat anymore, I use the hand planer and take it all off

How flat do you get it when you do that?
I use a bench in a shared space and the top was awful. I re-surfaced it with hand planes. It took a few hours but that included getting it really flat and true. I'm not sure if that was really necessary.

 

[sunnybob]

Its flat enough for an everyday workbench. It would horrify most of the people here though. But I dont make precision high value furniture, so it just doesnt matter to me.

 

[LFS19]

Thanks for all the replies. Certainly won’t be attempting anything with that power planer any time soon :lol:.

In regards to the purchasing of a desk top planer/thicknesser; I did have a look at the Axminster one at the marketplace so thanks for the heads up with that, but despite how much I might like to grab it there’s absolutly no way I can afford £600. I don’t even think my entire collection of powertools amounts to that much, unfortunetly.

It may well mean that I’m not able to get a good quality model full stop to be honest, that is newlo, if £600 is a good price for one.
Is Ebay at all a good bet for one? There are several second hand Axminster ones that look to be 90s models (saw these two, for example: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3366296712 and https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3100159738).

All of my tools are pretty much Old Elu stuff that are about that old and have served even me a good few years so far, with me making sure to maintain them correctly, of course.
Would it be such a bad idea to get a second hand older one from a good brand?
Of course, I’d love a brand spanking new £600 one, but as I say, just no way I can afford it right now.

 

[sunnybob]

I have this model.
nowhere near 600 quid.
https://www.axminster.co.uk/jet-jwp-12- ... ser-100412

 

[julianf]

...to run them through their industrial, 3-phase thicknesser.

When the ash came out the other side they were still twisted, just a little thinner.

I think that the thicknesses did exactly what it was supposed to do! : )

I've seen people on videos fixing twisted sheets to known flat sheets, and packing out the voids, so as the thicknesses springs don't just push the top sheet flat as it goes through. That way the top face of the twisted sheet becomes flat, and then they can remove the carrier sheet, flip the work, and run it through the thicknesses again to get the remaining side parallel to the (now) known good side.


To the op -

I would suggest that, in an ideal world, you would have a small planer, that you could use first, accepting that the blades would always be half knackered. Then you could run through your secondary thicknesses, which you cared more for the blades on.

I have a combined machine, and pretty much never work with new wood. No matter how hard I inspect stuff, the blades do not last long. They're not too expensive to replace, but a separate machine would allow you to accept one machine always had flawed blades, but then it wouldn't matter too much, as then you could just run them through the other when cleaned.

...or, I guess, use your hand plane.

As per my first reply though, a thicknesses without a good face will just end up in a thinner twisted part, which might not be what you're after.


Ps. My Axminster PT 106 was £300.

Also be aware that you will need extraction for a planer thicknesser. It's not a luxury, but a necessity - without one the machine just gets clogged and you have to keep stopping ( like all the time) to clear it. So budget for one of those also.

 

[AJB Temple]

Just in defence of the hand held electric planer. As some of you know, I have done quite a bit of green oak timber framing. Mostly I imported the oak from France by the loft load, and some of it needed quite a bit of work. With heavy oak beams you can only take the tools to the timber, so a big circular saw, a big hand held planer, and a big heavy duty belt sander are all extremely useful. Mine is just a Triton, but I am happy with it. I also have one with a flip up side guard, that means you can get right into a corner when cleaning up a tenon for example. Can save a lot of time.

 

[rafezetter]

Just in defence of the hand held electric planer. As some of you know, I have done quite a bit of green oak timber framing. Mostly I imported the oak from France by the loft load, and some of it needed quite a bit of work. With heavy oak beams you can only take the tools to the timber, so a big circular saw, a big hand held planer, and a big heavy duty belt sander are all extremely useful. Mine is just a Triton, but I am happy with it. I also have one with a flip up side guard, that means you can get right into a corner when cleaning up a tenon for example. Can save a lot of time.

I rest my case - CONSTRUCTION grade woodwork.

LFS by all means look for a secondhand good model - as I said mine is AT LEAST 3rd hand to me as the seller told me he'd bought it from another guy years earlier and used it a lot making rocking horses.

There are some smaller models (non floor standing) that are good - there's several threads on the topic.

Mine is a Dewalt DW1150 and I've seen them occasionally on ebay.

 

[LFS19]

I have this model.
nowhere near 600 quid.
https://www.axminster.co.uk/jet-jwp-12- ... ser-100412

Nice. Thanks for the link, Bob.

 

[LFS19]

Just in defence of the hand held electric planer. As some of you know, I have done quite a bit of green oak timber framing. Mostly I imported the oak from France by the loft load, and some of it needed quite a bit of work. With heavy oak beams you can only take the tools to the timber, so a big circular saw, a big hand held planer, and a big heavy duty belt sander are all extremely useful. Mine is just a Triton, but I am happy with it. I also have one with a flip up side guard, that means you can get right into a corner when cleaning up a tenon for example. Can save a lot of time.

I rest my case - CONSTRUCTION grade woodwork.

LFS by all means look for a secondhand good model - as I said mine is AT LEAST 3rd hand to me as the seller told me he'd bought it from another guy years earlier and used it a lot making rocking horses.

There are some smaller models (non floor standing) that are good - there's several threads on the topic.

Mine is a Dewalt DW1150 and I've seen them occasionally on ebay.

Thats good to know then, thanks.

Other than of course checking that the item is listed as “good, working condition” before buying, is there anything else in particular I should look out for?

 

[LFS19]

...to run them through their industrial, 3-phase thicknesser.

When the ash came out the other side they were still twisted, just a little thinner.

I think that the thicknesses did exactly what it was supposed to do! : )

I've seen people on videos fixing twisted sheets to known flat sheets, and packing out the voids, so as the thicknesses springs don't just push the top sheet flat as it goes through. That way the top face of the twisted sheet becomes flat, and then they can remove the carrier sheet, flip the work, and run it through the thicknesses again to get the remaining side parallel to the (now) known good side.


To the op -

I would suggest that, in an ideal world, you would have a small planer, that you could use first, accepting that the blades would always be half knackered. Then you could run through your secondary thicknesses, which you cared more for the blades on.

I have a combined machine, and pretty much never work with new wood. No matter how hard I inspect stuff, the blades do not last long. They're not too expensive to replace, but a separate machine would allow you to accept one machine always had flawed blades, but then it wouldn't matter too much, as then you could just run them through the other when cleaned.

...or, I guess, use your hand plane.

As per my first reply though, a thicknesses without a good face will just end up in a thinner twisted part, which might not be what you're after.


Ps. My Axminster PT 106 was £300.

Also be aware that you will need extraction for a planer thicknesser. It's not a luxury, but a necessity - without one the machine just gets clogged and you have to keep stopping ( like all the time) to clear it. So budget for one of those also.

Thanks for the post.
I don’t know whether it’s just me, but a lot of these names seem oddly interchangable. Of course, the distinction between a hand held planer and a thicknesser is one that is easy to see (although, even that I seemed to get muddled with at first!), but many of the thicknessers being advertised seem to also suggest they are planers too...

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.

If not, you’d run into the problem you referenced in both your reply to DTR and me in that the thicknesser would be pushing down a non-square face down on the bottom and using it as a reference, spitting out a thinner but just as twisted/not flat piece of wood...
So why are so many the thicknessers advertised and discussed described as planers also?

If they were both planers and thicknessers, you’d be able to square all four sides on one machine. That would be something like this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3162773042

Due to the mix up with names I’ve been pressuming the planer/thicknessers (which I thought was one of these: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3575661857 as they’re titled as such) to actually be able to square my wood completely, when in actual fact an example of a planer/thicknesser would be the Titan model linked above. Is that correct? :lol:

In which case, you combination PT106 is the sort of thing I’d be after - something I can use to square all four sides and one more expensive than a thicknesser for obvious reasons.

Sorry for the confusion everyone

 

[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.

 

[sunnybob]

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.

 

[LFS19]

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: