How to control a power planer?

[lukeuk]

I bought some very nice reclaimed oak boards for a great price. The only "problem" is that I have to plane them. Let me say that my experience with planing on a scale from 0 to 10 is about 1. I though that the best idea would be to buy a power planer and it's going to be a straight forward job... how wrong I was!

I got the "Titan TTB291PLN" and this is the most angry tool I've ever came across. It destroys everything I touch with it (most likely my fault). I can set cut depth from 0 to 3mm but even on 0mm it's capable of (randomly) taking few mills out of the workpiece.

Problems I'm having are:
- on a broad board (3 widths of the plane) when I go from the bottom to the top the plane will make "stairs" between parallel passes
- when I start from the bottom (and I really try to make sure the plane is straight) the first inch of a boar is going to be much thiner then the rest. The depth of cut appears to be gradually thinner and thiner along the board. That completely ruins the geometry of the workpiece.

Is it only a matter of experience or I've chosen a wrong tool for the job?

 

[paultnl]

How many and what size boards do you have to deal with? I think a thicknesser may be a more suitable tool.

 

[rafezetter]

Hand power planers are a PITA to control, absolutely no use for fine work, I've experienced all of the same issues as you and I've tried hard to persevere with it. IMHO hand electric planers are only good for removing rough stock when you need to do it quickly and roughly before finishing with a hand plane, and even then only in cases like sizing doors and such like.

If the wood is good reclaimed stock that you want to use for a furniture piece, I'd suggest buying a #5 jack plane for roughing to size and a #4 smoother for the final touches.

This is about the only way you'll get consistently controllable results in the places you need it - the power planer is too much of a "blunt force tool" for this kind of thing.

 

[custard]

I'd always thought of a power plane as being a joiner's site tool, but recently I came across a cabinet maker who was faced with surfacing a table that was far too wide to pass through the workshop's planer/thickneser. He did most of the work with a power planer (and not a particularly fancy one either) leaving only the final cuts for a hand plane. Pretty impressive stuff. Basically he identified the high spots with a straight edge and winding sticks then used the power plane selectively in individual areas, often going across the grain, and rarely working along the full length of the boards in unbroken passes.

Still, faced with the same challenge, personally I'd prefer a power sander with 40 grit paper!

 

[Mike.S]

Luke

If you can't sort it and the size quantity of boards isn't excessive and you fancy a trip up the A3 to Worcester Park then I may be able to help with loan/use of a planer/thicknesser (max 8" board width) and/or belt sander or ROS and/or hand planes. Cost will just be that of any consumables consumed!

Mike

 

[lukeuk]

Thank you for your replies. It sounds like I wasted money on the tool.

rafazetter - it's a good suggestion, I think I won't get away without a decent planer anyway.

Mike - thank you for the offer. I only have 2 boards so I will hold on with a trip to London

custard - I have a small power sander not suitable for the job. Would it be possible to get though the rough part only with a sander (see photo below)? If yes, should that be orbital or belt sander? On the same note, the boards I have feel wet. I'm assuming they have to dry our before I will try to plane them?

 

[heimlaga]

Power planers are terribly difficult to control. I use mine as a motorized scrub plane.