Hi guys I need your input please, I have decided to try and sell some of my work at a couple of craft shows this year, I needed to find something easy to make and be able to sell at a reasonable price to help balance out my dog portraits and sculptured segmentation.So I am going to need some kind of a motorised plane.It is virtually imposable to buy thin hardwood in the UK and I will need to be able to smooth of hard wood for my puzzles will the power tool do both jobs so I can save some cash as I desperately need a table saw and router table and router for picture frame making. What do you guys think can I save myself some cash??? Mal
planer thicknesser or power tool planer
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MikeG.
Established Member
Mal,
do you mean a hand held electric planer? If so, completely and utterly useless, if not dangerous, for the sort of thing you are contemplating. It simply won't do it.
If you mean a machine....a planer.........(the Americans call them a jointer, I believe), then you could make that work, just.............but not as good as a thicknesser for getting stock down to an even thickness.
Mike
do you mean a hand held electric planer? If so, completely and utterly useless, if not dangerous, for the sort of thing you are contemplating. It simply won't do it.
If you mean a machine....a planer.........(the Americans call them a jointer, I believe), then you could make that work, just.............but not as good as a thicknesser for getting stock down to an even thickness.
Mike
Chems
Established Member
Thicknesser is what you need.
You can do the job with a hand plane and some practice.
You can do the job with a hand plane and some practice.
RogerB
Established Member
jigsue
Established Member
My hubby bought a planer/thicknesser last year. It's the best piece of kit he has. I can now cadge any old bits of wood and thickness them to exactly what I want. Dunno why he hasn't had one before. Go for it!
Sue
Sue
jonbikebod
Established Member
Hi Mal,
I am going to throw in another suggestion.
I also use a lot of thin hard wood and I cut the thin strips on a band saw. These strips can then be hand planed on a flat bench to remove the saw marks. A band saw is much safer than a circular saw and wastes a lot less wood than a circular saw and way less than planning a thick plank into a thin one. Depending how thin the wood is you want to plane, the thinner it is the more difficult it is to put through a thicknesser. You normally need to mount thin stuff on sheets of MDF, double sided tape is one way. If you only need one face finished, you run one face of your block of wood across the planer and then slice this off with the band saw.
If you go the band saw route, I would suggest you get the biggest most sold band saw you can afford. I can cut 12” wide veneers on mine but it was pricey. For about half the price you can buy band saws that will saw an 8” plank into veneers (and anything thicker of course).
Hope this helps,
Jon.
PS picture framing is a very competitive field. This pushes prices down. You are also competing against some highly mechanised operations. That makes it a very speedy process. I make them for myself for the satisfaction but it takes me ages, it doubtless would be cheaper to buy if I factored in my time.
I am going to throw in another suggestion.
I also use a lot of thin hard wood and I cut the thin strips on a band saw. These strips can then be hand planed on a flat bench to remove the saw marks. A band saw is much safer than a circular saw and wastes a lot less wood than a circular saw and way less than planning a thick plank into a thin one. Depending how thin the wood is you want to plane, the thinner it is the more difficult it is to put through a thicknesser. You normally need to mount thin stuff on sheets of MDF, double sided tape is one way. If you only need one face finished, you run one face of your block of wood across the planer and then slice this off with the band saw.
If you go the band saw route, I would suggest you get the biggest most sold band saw you can afford. I can cut 12” wide veneers on mine but it was pricey. For about half the price you can buy band saws that will saw an 8” plank into veneers (and anything thicker of course).
Hope this helps,
Jon.
PS picture framing is a very competitive field. This pushes prices down. You are also competing against some highly mechanised operations. That makes it a very speedy process. I make them for myself for the satisfaction but it takes me ages, it doubtless would be cheaper to buy if I factored in my time.
