Do I need a Planer

[ERLover]

I have been watching CL almost daily for about 4 years here in WI and see many SS and SPTs but just 1 SS planer, just recently, a free standing Pro Planer, and they were asking 550$, He has had it on CL now for about 4 weeks. I almost pulled the plug on it, but I was more in want then need, especially at that price.

[reible]

I don't know if you recall or ever watch the New Yankee Workshop but Norm had a sander he would use to clean off the surface of the wood to remove the surface before going to other tools so as to keep their blades sharp and from contacting embedded gravel etc. I've often thought about doing that with my sander but I normally start at 80 grit and go up so I think that would be to fine. I know they have 6o grit and maybe 40 grit if I want to cut it myself.

So out of interest what grit did you have on when you did this?

The other thing that I don't think we have mentioned here is how a sander doesn't apply much pressure to the wood so if it has a twist or warp it tends to sand it off. A planner on the other hand exerts a lot of pressure so it will force the wood down and doesn't help much in that manner unless you use a sled and special techniques to deal with the conditions. They are quite different in that respect and should be noted.

As in the example you gave of running stock through the sander and how it was reshaped and squared, a planner doing the same running through the stock will for the most part let it keeps its distortions until too thin to plane anymore.

Basically it is a surface planner, to do more then that takes other work. Just don't want you going into this thinking it is something that it is not.

Ed

Yesterday I decided to see just how long it would take to make a twisted 16 inch 2x4 board and turn it into a perfect board. Ran it through my jointer then off the the Supermax drum sander. After quite a few passes I finally got the board flat and square on all sides. It took quite a long time to complete but it came out quite a bit smaller but perfect. I can see where the Planer is going to be much faster.
I've heard good things about the SS Planer but it's been quite a long time since I've seen one on CL in our area.

[jsburger]

Yes but as Putttn said he flattened one face on the jointer first. That is the proper technique for the planer also.

[reible]

Yes but as Putttn said he flattened one face on the jointer first. That is the proper technique for the planer also.

That is "a" way but since it is unlikely you will have a 12" jointer but you will have a 12" planner there are other ways to deal with such things. A lot of cases where there are ways and there are ways.

Ed

[jsburger]

Yes but as Putttn said he flattened one face on the jointer first. That is the proper technique for the planer also.

That is "a" way but since it is unlikely you will have a 12" jointer but you will have a 12" planner there are other ways to deal with such things. A lot of cases where there are ways and there are ways.

Ed

Very true. However I have never run anything close to 12" wide through my planer. I have a 6" jointer and so far It has been sufficient. I have thought a few times that I should build a planer sled but I have never need one so it hasn't been built. I guess the day I need one I will build it.

[reible]

I too have a 6" jointer but I believe we are the exception here since a lot of members have just the shopsmith version. And yes you can use methods to do wider work on all jointers I have never found them all that wonderful.

Sleds can be pretty simple, double sided tape, some forms of hot glue and in some cases just wedges. I don't have a dedicated sled for this purpose but I should make one. I have a general purpose sled that I use for mostly working on thinner pieces or for short lengths of wood I want to flatten.

The point of the posts a few posts back is that sanders have light pressure rollers and planners have heavy pressure rollers. If you have both tools give them a feel. It should be quite noticeable, having said that I have never felt the shopsmith planner but I expect it is pretty much a thing for all such machines.

I've never seen a really good video on using planners, most are pretty basic and dealing with snipe or other issue but planners are there own special tool. Sleds do appear once in a while in periodicals but not enough for people to be comfortable seeing them and then taking the time to make and use them.

Ed

[jsburger]

I too have a 6" jointer but I believe we are the exception here since a lot of members have just the shopsmith version. And yes you can use methods to do wider work on all jointers I have never found them all that wonderful.

Sleds can be pretty simple, double sided tape, some forms of hot glue and in some cases just wedges. I don't have a dedicated sled for this purpose but I should make one. I have a general purpose sled that I use for mostly working on thinner pieces or for short lengths of wood I want to flatten.

The point of the posts a few posts back is that sanders have light pressure rollers and planners have heavy pressure rollers. If you have both tools give them a feel. It should be quite noticeable, having said that I have never felt the shopsmith planner but I expect it is pretty much a thing for all such machines.

I've never seen a really good video on using planners, most are pretty basic and dealing with snipe or other issue but planners are there own special tool. Sleds do appear once in a while in periodicals but not enough for people to be comfortable seeing them and then taking the time to make and use them.

Ed

Probably a true statement. However, those same people are unlikely to have a drum sander or maybe not.

That is true. My Performax 16-32 drum sander has spring loaded rollers on both the in feed and out feed sides. Pretty light spring tension. The SS Pro Planer has a fixed in feed roller and a spring loaded out feed roller. It is stronger than the ones on the Performax.

I still believe if you do anything with twisted/cupped/rough cut lumber you need a jointer to flatten one face first. Are there other ways? Yes of course, but if you use rough cut lumber this is the best way IMO. If you buy SFS lumber from the big box stores (none of their stock is straight)and you want a straight piece (no twist no cup etc.) you can do the same thing but it will not end up 3/4" thick piece of stock.

The other thing is don't try to straighten an 8' + piece of stock. break it down to the approximate sizes you need for the project before and then use the jointer and planer to mill it.

[ERLover]

I gotta say, this topic has been covered fully!!!!!!!!!
One of the BBS by me sells there 4S in 7/8" thickness, go figure. It is not the prewrapped stuff, each board is marked with a price.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Probably a true statement. However, those same people are unlikely to have a drum sander or maybe not.

That is true. My Performax 16-32 drum sander has spring loaded rollers on both the in feed and out feed sides. Pretty light spring tension. The SS Pro Planer has a fixed in feed roller and a spring loaded out feed roller. It is stronger than the ones on the Performax.

I still believe if you do anything with twisted/cupped/rough cut lumber you need a jointer to flatten one face first. Are there other ways? Yes of course, but if you use rough cut lumber this is the best way IMO. If you buy SFS lumber from the big box stores (none of their stock is straight)and you want a straight piece (no twist no cup etc.) you can do the same thing but it will not end up 3/4" thick piece of stock.

The other thing is don't try to straighten an 8' + piece of stock. break it down to the approximate sizes you need for the project before and then use the jointer and planer to mill it.

The infeed roller is indeed spring-loaded on my Pro Planer.

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[putttn]

Using my neighbor's planer (Ridgid) did seem to speed things up but I only used it occasionally. Compared to my SuperMax 19-38 it was much faster but what I was trying to do was compare the procedure of jointing the one side and then taking the twisted/cupped board to the sander to see if it was that much slower than the planer. It was quite a bit slower but what surprised me was I ended up with the board being dimensioned perfectly. I'm sure that wouldn't have happened on the Ridgid planer. I can see where jointing then planing then to the Drum sander would work well.