Planing with the table saw?

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:52 am

I have a jointer, but no planer. But, I often need to plane wood. Typically it's to get more than one piece to the same thickness. Today, I needed to get two hardwood boards to the same thickness for building my dad's military medals display case.

I jointed one face, getting it flat and smooth, then jointed an edge to get it flat, smooth and 90 degrees to the jointed face. I then put that edge against the rip fence and ripped the board to length. I did this for both boards. Pretty standard procedure, right?

Since I don't have a planer, I build a jig to use the table saw to get both boards to the same thickness. I made the auxiliary fence on my table saw about 6" high. The boards I cut were a little under 4" wide, so I had room to clamp a guide above the board to keep it held against the table. I clamped a couple of featherboards to the table to press the boards against the fence. I set the fence so that the thinnest of the two boards was just being shaved.

I started with the blade only about 1/2" high and ran the board through. I then raised the blade about 1/2" for each successive run of the board until I had cut a hair over half through. Then, I turned the board over, lowered the blade back down, and repeated it. I did this same process for both boards. I used a push stick and a push block to keep my hands away from the blade at all times.

This picture shows the setup with one of the boards in position, but after it had been "planed."
[ATTACH]6835[/ATTACH]

This did make me a little nervous, especially as the blade got higher. I did stop a couple of times and assess the situation and try to think of a safer way to do it. Having an outfeed table would have helped a lot. And I think a better blade would have helped too.

I was very pleased with the results, but is this procedure safe? What could I have done to make it safer?

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 9:29 am

These still work very well.
[ATTACH]6836[/ATTACH]

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:39 am

I've seen one of those before, but I couldn't find the "On" switch. There was no power cord so I'm assuming it uses a battery, but I couldn't find where to put the battery either.

But seriously... I have an old Stanley #5 plane that is in bad shape. I've disassembled it and removed the rust and gunk, but that's as far as I've gotten with it. Having never used one before... I understand how it gets one piece of wood smooth and flat. But how do you get two pieces of wood to the same thickness with it?

edflorence · Post by **edflorence** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 11:24 pm

Lots of books on hand tool use out there...and any one worth its salt can answer your question. The procedure, in brief is: Flatten a face then flatten an edge. In other words, the same two steps you did to your stock before taking it to the saw...If it were me doing it, I would use the jointer for these steps, just as you did. Then, to minimize the amount of planing you will need to do in the final step, rip the second edge parallel to the first and cross cut the stock to length or a bit over to allow for finishing. Now, here comes the hand work part...using the flattened face and a marking gage, scribe a line on all 4 edges at the desired final thickness. Plane away the material above these lines. Typically the material is "hogged off" using strokes diagonal to the grain and a coarse blade exposure and then finished with strokes parallel to the grain and a finer set to the blade. Then you do the same thing with the second piece, using the same setting on your marking gage.

I have gone through this process a few times in building small tables. The slight "waviness" in the table top adds to the piece's charm, imho, but if you really need an absolutely dead flat surface on a board of absolutely uniform thickness, you will either have to discard your first few attempts while you serve your apprenticeship, add the SS planer to your shop or wait until HD puts a benchtop planer on special!

dickg1 · Post by **dickg1** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 6:41 am

Heath,

Do a Google search using "Wagner Safe-T-Planer". This was my first planer and although I now have the SS version, I still use it for some jobs. Very effective and a lot safer than that exposed saw blade.

Dick

dwevans · Post by **dwevans** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:04 am

I just used the Wagner for the first time this past week, it is a very good tool for a low price. It only does 2 1/2 " at a time, but that is sufficient for most aplications. you just need to keep moving the wood. I am using it to thickness guitar parts, I would not want to put this expensive wood through my planer and have it explode

. Apparently this can happen with guitar woods.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:26 am

I actually have a Wagner Safe-T-Planer that I got with my recent Mark V acquisition. I sharpened the blades and tried it a few times, but I've had a lot of problems getting consistent results with it on my practice pieces.

dickg1 · Post by **dickg1** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:56 am

heathicus wrote:I actually have a Wagner Safe-T-Planer that I got with my recent Mark V acquisition. I sharpened the blades and tried it a few times, but I've had a lot of problems getting consistent results with it on my practice pieces.

Heath,
The results are based on the relationship of the planer to the worktable and/or the settings of each blade within the planer body. If these are correct, your results will be significantly better than that exposed saw blade.
Dick

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:33 pm

heathicus wrote: . . .

I was very pleased with the results, but is this procedure safe? What could I have done to make it safer?

"Conical sanding disc". Watch yer pinkies!!!:eek:

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Archives/SS114/SS114_Thickness_Sanding.htm

You would still have to rough it out, but the jointer could do that. At least the jointer would have a guard on it! Need to make sure to not overcut an area with the jounter. Mark the workpiece all the way around as suggested with bench plane.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 3:07 pm

Just can't pass up an opportunity to enumerate the method of hand planing a board to any given size using only a hand plane and a try square.

No need to scribe the piece using this method, but you will have to measure the desired thickness, width and length. If this method is done with care, all sides of the board will be flat and square.

Start with a board that is slightly larger than the desired size. Make this at least 1/4" wider than desired and close to the desired length (about 1/8" or so).

1) Plane the one face to make it flat.
2) Plane one edge to make it square to the planed face.
3) Plane one end to make it square with the two planed surfaces. (In order to avoid splintering, chamfer the corner at the unplaned edge and the end to be planed.)
4) Plane the other end square to the planed face and edge using a chamfer at the corner of the unplaned edge. Also plane to the desired length.
5) Plane the unplaned edge, making it square to all planed surfaces and to the desired width.
6) Plane the unplaned face making it square to both edges and ends. Also plane to the desired thickness.

This is why it took us so long to make a project in High School shop. All wood had to be squared this way. Oh Well! After doing this method 20 times or so, I'll never forget!