Planer/Thicknesser

[Harry]

Can anyone enlighten me. I have number of boards being about 1" in thickness, too thick for the majority of my scrolling projects so I thought I might invest in a planer/Thicknesser. The trouble is the more I read up on these machines to more confusing things get. At first I reasoned why buy a combination why not jusy buy a planer or conversely a thicknesser surely they both do the same job.... wrong, apparently a planer does not plane evenly on both sides i.e. not 90degrees to the opposite side, whereas a thicknesser does. if this is so why bother to have a planer at all.

I purchased an Erbauer 8" Planer/thicknesser after carefull consideration, only to find that the thing would not work in the thicknessing mode, I duly returned it to the supplyer and they sent me a replacement only to find the same problem. At first I thought I had got it wrong but read the manual carefully from cover to cover, no joy. I think the blades cant have been set right at the factory, however I got a refund, but I am back to square one, will have to have a rethink. What I would like to know is there anyone who has any experience of these machines, that can enlighten me. I am limited to space so a reasonably light and portable machine is a must.

Harry UK.

Hegner multicut (2)

[Simplyme]

I assume you do not have a Bandsaw to do resawing? You are trying to go from 1 inch to what? If it is small pieces maybe you can sand on a beltsander to size.

That probally was not much help, sorry. Never heard of a Planer/thicknesser

[wood-n-things]

I re-saw first if it is needed or whenever possible on my band saw and then use my planer. Never heard of a thicknesser either. I do some planing on my jointer if it's small enough stock.

[georgewoodie]

Harry:

The problem with wood stock is that being a natural product, it is not perfect. Bend, twist cup and other defects must be dealt with before you can produce a good finished project.

For sections of material to be joined together, they should be an approprate thickness and square. That is, the edge of the board must be at 90º to the face.

First step is to clean the board of sand, gravel and possible metal particles. Therefore wipe down with a wire brush.

Next, look at both face sides and determine which way a cut goes. Next, I draw heavy pencil marks all along the board's two faces and edges.

I then run the board along one edge to the jointer with the fence at 90º. Make as may passes as required to remove all pencil lines.

Now with the board flat on the jointer so that the cup is upward or in other words, with both edges of the board down, make as many passes as needed to remove all pencil lines.

Now you have a board with an edge and one facethat are 90º to each other.

At th planer, place the newly surfaced board down on the planer bed and adjust the planer to teke lightr cuts along the non worked surface.

Repeat cutting and lightly lowering the planer head to the work and make as many passes until all pencil lines are gone.

If you are finishing more than one board, pass each board through the planer one at a time as the planer head is lowered so all will be the same thickness as you go.

Now you have two faces that are
1

[georgewoodie]

Harry:

Sorry I hit a bad key and lost my message ....

Now you have boards with two faces that are flat, smooth, square to the edge and all the same thickness.

Continue planing until you reach the desired thickness.

That is what the jointer and planer should do for you.

Re-saw will reduce the board thickness but will not true it for further work.

Note, the fourth paragraph read cut but should have been cup.

Woodie

[wiwoodsguy]

I did run a thickness planer or at least that was the common reference to the machine, while I was working in a lumber mill. It had a top and bottom head in theory the bottom head flattened the bottom of the board then the top head thickness the board. That was in a lumber company, but any planer is really a thickness machine. As far as if you are just trying to clean a few boards for crafting items you could try a lumber company to see if they could plane it for reasonable price. It could beat buying a machine you may not have room to use. As far as me at home I have jointer, planer and such I use for furniture when I need a furniture grade piece. but I got a 10" drum sander that I use to thickness stock for art woods.

[JohnB]

G'day Harry,
If you are only concerned with knocking boards down to a certain thickness for scrolling and don't intend on going over 300mm width a small thicknesser would do the the job.
I have a cheapo POS thicknesser and it does what it's supposed to. It sounds like a B52 cranking up, but I've worked it hard and it's never given up.
Now, if you intend to join boards to make them wider, a buzzer (Planer/jointer) would be a nice investment. I edge joint mine with a hand plane.

The problem with combination machines seems to be, you end up with one machine trying to do two machines jobs, and neither is done properly. There are always compromises one way or the other.

[Wood Dog]

My 2 cents Harry....you mentioned you are limited to room. I say buy the boards you need from a vendor. A thickness planner makes one hell of a big mess.
Whenever I use mine, I wheel it outside, put my ear protection, safety glasses, and mask on. I have it hooked up to a shop vac out there, and the debris is still flying all over the place, and I look like a dust bunny when done. Just my 2 cents for you to consider. It is my least favorite machine.

[sawdustus]

I have a planer and it is very useful for making unbelievable amounts of sawdust. The biggest problem is that if there is any cup or bow to the board(s) the force of the upper pressure rollers will flatten out the board as it is surfaced and you end up with a thinner board that is still cupped. Woodie has the correct procedure outlined for solving this problem with a jointer. More sawdust and noise.
Here are some other ways. Use a belt sander to flatten out one side first. You can check your progress with winding sticks or a straight edge.
Then go to the planer (thicknesser) for smooth out the board. Use a hand plane to flatten the side before smoothing it with a scraper. A lot of work but not noise.

george

[Rolf]

Woodie's explanation was right.
I have the Dewalt 735 planer, It has a very powerful blower that sucks up and blows out the chips. I connect it to a portable dust collector that I don't even have to turn on. It captures all of the chips. I resaw, joint and then plane to a min imum of 1/8. I will eventually buy a drum sander for the really thin stuff.