Difference Planing Thicknessing

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Can anyone enlighten me as to the differences between planing and thicknessing?

I mean, say I bought a combined P/T and it's max thicknessing was 6" and I have a piece of timber 7". Why can I not run it across the planer blades on the top table, where there is no limit to depth of wood?
 
spud if you want to run it on the top then you can , the thickneser can be set to well( thickness your wood) to what ever you want . if you run it on the top you will have to check your wood for the thickness you want . now its got me confused :shock:
 
Hi,

Planing is making the timber square, then you run it through the thicknesser to the desired thickness...

Well you could use the planer on top, but with a thicknesser it feeds it automatically, so you don't have to push it through :p

Think that is just about it really, basically the planer is for squaring and thicknessing, thicknessing :roll:

If i've missed anything please point me out :oops:

Ta

Tom
 
Lets try and cover all the bases :wink:

OK Spud, you'll notice that the top table is good and long and has the blades in the centre of it. As the others have said, this is for planing any size workpiece that can be slid along the table. Now you can slide your piece of 7" along that no problem, then do the other side and you'll have two lovely flat, shiny sides.

However, they may or may not be 7" apart all the way along, i.e. the thickness may vary, say 7" at one end, 6.5" at the other. There's no way of rectifying that on the top bed.

Now this is where you'd normally move onto the thickneser section. Once you've got one smooth, flat face after using the surface planer (top tables), you'd pass the piece through the thicknesser with that flat face downwards. That way it runs across the shorter thicknessing table while the blades trim the top face to thickness the piece.

Obviously as you've found, you can't thickness a piece thicker than the max thickness of your machine.

Benefits of using the thicknesser include often a better finish than the surface planer section, because the workpiece can't vibrate anywhere near as much while being power fed through, against a cast iron (or other) thicknessing table. YMMV.

The P/T is very much your friend, especially once you've got the hang of it and the blades are sharp. The drill for right angled stock goes as follows:

1. Surface plane one wide face
2. Surface plane one narrow face, with the plane wide face against the fence
3. Thickness plane the other wide face
4. Thickness plane the other narrow face (order of last two not vital)

Have fun

Martyn
 
In other words, joint / plane to get two reference sides (side and bottom at 90 degrees),. Use these two sides to run on the thicknesser table in order to replicate the reference sides on the opposite sides. If milling a panel, use the table saw to get the final thin side square.
Simple....
If the timber is too large for your machines, cut, joint and glue.

Noel
 
Noely":130hhezw said:
If the timber is too large for your machines, cut, joint and glue.
And incur my wrath if I find out... :evil: Ghastly practice introduced in modern times so Normites don't have to cope with manual stock prep when their powered 'prentices can't hack it. Shame on you, Noel. :p Homily for today: Machines are there to help your work, not dictate how you do it.

Rattie":130hhezw said:
However, they may or may not be 7" apart all the way along, i.e. the thickness may vary, say 7" at one end, 6.5" at the other. There's no way of rectifying that on the top bed.
Well actually there is, but it involves a certain amount of skill and practice. Not too difficult jointing an edge that way, but it can get fun doing a face. Probably slightly easier, and quite possibly safer, to use a <gasp> plane... I know, I'm just so predictable. Doesn't mean I'm necessarily wrong though. :wink:

Don't think anyone's covered an essential point, misunderstood at your peril. It's no good putting a banana-shaped piece of stock through a thicknesser and thinking you'll get a squared off piece out the other side. You'll just get a banana-shaped piece, but the same thickness all the way along the curve. That's why you do all the face/edge stuff on the jointer/planer first, so you have a square, straight reference face for the thicknesser to work off. Stating the obvious perhaps, but as this thread seems to be gathering all the P/T lore in one place, I thought I might as well mention it. :D

Cheers, Alf
 
"Don't think anyone's covered an essential point, misunderstood at your peril"

REFERENCE Alf, one does not use a banana as a reference surface, well, one shouldn't. Much as I respect your meat powered manner of working wood I think tolerance of the various woodworking religions is called for. Even better if we can pick and mix the various aspects to suit personal needs and practices. And you can have a picture of my next glue-up of 6" boards, dictated, of course, by maximun jointer size.....

Noel, full of irony this morning.
 
Noely":3vnokohw said:
one does not use a banana as a reference surface
I'm quite convinced the likes of Sam Maloof must do just that... :roll: :wink:

Noely":3vnokohw said:
full of irony this morning.
Irony? Too much hanging around with those machines of yours. The irony has entered into your soul :lol:

devonwoody":3vnokohw said:
How many machines have you got?
Too many - mainly covered in dust. The P/T part of the Maxi is one of the ones that gets used most - ironically I hate doing stock prep by hand! :roll:

Cheers, Alf
 
Is the closet door opening, just a teeny weeny bit?

Noel
 
Noely":gyhrnes3 said:
Is the closet door opening, just a teeny weeny bit?
Drat, has the catch gone again? Someone pass me a cordle-, er, Yankee screwdriver and I'll just fix that... :roll:

Cheers, Alf
 
All very intriguing I must say! There seems to be well defined procedure, that must be followed from start to finish, and I can now see the purpose of each individual exercise.
 
spud wrote (There seems to be well defined procedure, that must be followed from start to finish) now one told me :? you might have told me ages ago :shock:

frank
 
But do remember that for fine work, this is just the preparation phase. You now have a set of surfaces with ripples all the way along them. A few passes with well tuned handplanes will leave a noticeably cleaner surface, and will take glue or finish better...
 
Shady":35i23niz said:
But do remember that for fine work, this is just the preparation phase. You now have a set of surfaces with ripples all the way along them. A few passes with well tuned handplanes will leave a noticeably cleaner surface, and will take glue or finish better...
Problem is though Shady, when I do that, my nice straight square edges quickly become wonky, cupped, twisted and bowed :shock:
I suspect I'm doing something wrong :roll:
 
LOL - I bet they don't mate.... But if they really do, try the magic of the marking gauge first... I reckon you're jokin, so I'm not even gonna say any more, but if you ain't, let me know and I'll post a quick primer on 'minimal effort' going from acceptable machine finish to perfect hand finish: for bespoke cabinet making, I aim to finish to about 2 thou accuracy.. Don't always get there, but the fun's in the trying... :)
 
Shady":9lvao6rn said:
But do remember that for fine work, this is just the preparation phase. You now have a set of surfaces with ripples all the way along them. A few passes with well tuned handplanes will leave a noticeably cleaner surface, and will take glue or finish better...
I never said a word
newangel1.gif


Aragorn, the key thing for that step is not to use a scrub plane... :p :lol:

Cheers, Alf
 
Right Shady, the stage is yours'.....Maybe a new thread.

Noel, everyday is a school day and willing to learn.
 
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