has anyone used this planing method??

Trigs · 28 Aug 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UONmuQt_98

just saw this video, looks a little time consuming but he seems happy with it. Im looking at a planer thicknesser, but wondered if this would save a few ££....... though generally I'm a believer of buy cheap buy twice

cheers

marcros · 28 Aug 2015

the principal is ok, but i think he is making a meal of the sled itself.

i bet that you wouldn't save as much as you think, money wise, and the lunchbox thicknesses are noisy. That said, I use on and it is a workhorse.

Adam9453 · 28 Aug 2015

I must admit that does seem a long winded way of getting one flat flat.

I'd be tempted to just plane off the high points on one side until it was flat (not smooth but flat) and then just run it through the thicknesser as normal. I think it would be quicker than all that faff with glueing wedges in.

rafezetter · 29 Aug 2015

Adam9453":x1h2ni4v said:
I must admit that does seem a long winded way of getting one flat flat.

I'd be tempted to just plane off the high points on one side until it was flat (not smooth but flat) and then just run it through the thicknesser as normal. I think it would be quicker than all that faff with glueing wedges in.

This depends entirely on your hand planing skills. I used to do it this way with a sled and wedges because for a novice handplaner you can go too far and end up making more work. Now that I'm a bit better with handplanes I scrub off the highest points, but still use a sled and hot glue to hold the item down through the thicknesser, then flip as per the video.

The only addition I made to the sled design is that the sled I use is 6ft long and I hot glue sacrificial blocks to both ends to remove the chances of snipe.

custard · 30 Aug 2015

If you've got the space and the money then get a planer/thicknesser, in fact if you've got the space get a good planer and a good separate thicknesser and a good sliding table dimension saw and a...

But if you haven't then you can still do great work with a bandsaw and a lunch box thicknesser along the lines demonstrated in the video. That's all I had for many years and I turned out plenty of furniture that I'm still pleased with.

The worst thing is to fill a small workshop with cheap rubbish machinery and then wonder why your output is poor and your investment in kit is worthless.

No skills · 30 Aug 2015

What Custard said.

If I get to keep my "workshop" I will be selling the junk off and concentrating on having a good lunchbox thicknesser/sled plus an edge jointing solution (table saw sled prolly). I have no room or patience or money for anything else, I need to be making stuff not wasting time fannying around with substandard equipment.