Planer(jointer) feed direction

[machone]

Hello

Been reviving my tools while the children are away! I have been planing boards to make a bathroom cabinet. Some of the stock isn’t great so has taken many passes to flatten a side - to get down to the hollow at the non feed end. Thing is, I end up with ‘wedge‘ shaped planks with the feed end the thin end. Does it make sense to swap feed direction or will this not help? I have been round in circles thinking about this.

 

[Jones]

First cut a bit over the required lengths to make the planning easier. Then run over the planner with any bow up so the wood won't rock on the tables. If you have a lot of bow and twist you may need to run just the ends over the cutter while holding at an angle if necessary to remove the high spots. Do this with the planner set for a deep cut lifting off as needed till its nearly right by eye . You will need to do both ends. Then adjust to a modest cut and plane the full length to flatten before thicknessing.

 

[Jacob]

Depends on how bent it is but probably yes keep turning it and try to remove roughly equal amounts from each end

 

[peter-harrison]

You don't say for sure that you're using a planing machine rather than a hand plane, but I'm assuming the former. It sounds very much as if you have the outfeed table set a bit too high (or if it's fixed, the knives are a bit low). This results in there being a tiny bit too much wood resting on the outfeed table, which is cumulative, resulting in your wedge-shaped workpiece.

 

[machone]

Thanks for the replies. It is a machine HBM 10. I have employed all techniques mentioned and increased the knife height(was fixed on minimum difference in/out table) and am pleased to report better results. Thanks

 

[MikeJhn]

I set the Blades level with the outfeed table, using a piece of glass, nothing fancy, pull the work through after the piece has first passed the blades keeping pressure on the outfeed table, this has always worked for me and many others I have set up for people, try it.