Planer thicknesser? Is that what I need?

[Wuffles]

So, about to make a dish thing for the wife's birthday, successfully done a few on a lathe but was going to use a bowl bit in a router and make something less "round" this time.

Bought a few types of reclaimed hardwood timber from a place nearby and was intending to chop it up, plane it down and glue it together in segments before making it bowly.

The planing it down (Bosch power plane) didn't go as well as I had hoped. In fact, it was dire. So I decided perhaps I need* a planer/thicknesser to manage this type of task now and in the future.

Is this the right tool for the job? The timber is all over the place, no flat side to speak of, so will a thicknesser (something "portable" like the Makita or Metabo bench mounted ones) flatten both sides in one hit? Never used one, so am confused.

Essentially I am trying to get it all nice and flat so I can glue it up. In the future I can imagine wanting to dimension timber myself for edging and what not. Sort of thing I have managed without in the past, partly down to not having whatever tool it is I probably need.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mar_mite]

Hand plane?

 

[Wuffles]

I know what you mean, but no, that won't be any good in my hands. There's lots of thinnish strips of varying woods that need to be flattened for glue up.

If this goes well I'll most likely make a few more too.

 

[RobinBHM]

Yes a planer thicknesser is the machine is for this task. Something like an elektra beckum 260 or equivalent.

You cant safely surface plane or thickness very short pieces, I personally wouldnt try anything shorter than about 600mm. It can be a dangerous machine, the usual precautions about safety apply.

 

[Wuffles]

Thanks Robin.

Yes the METABO DH330 is the one I was looking at. Should have though this through as the pieces are now cut and are about 400mm in length - would that be ok to chuck through it do you think? There's not much to take off them really. Is it two passes per piece or do these machines tend to take an equal amount off top and bottom to achieve a preset thickness?

 

[Mar_mite]

If you just want to flatten small pieces for glueing and don't fancy hand planing, maybe this is what you need
http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/s ... POK1IkgHCQ
That metabo you mentioned isn't for flattening wood.

 

[Wuffles]

Close call then, thought I had the right box lined up. I will look deeper and see what I can figure out. I did find this beauty on gumtree the other day, perhaps I should be looking at something like this instead:

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/plane ... 1100811015

 

[RobinBHM]

The metabo dh330 is a thicknesser rather than planer thicknesser and unfortunately wont solve your problem.

Making a piece of timber square on 4 sides needs the following process:

1 surface planer: plane one face flat
2 surface plane: take your piece of wood and place the flat face against the fence and plane edge. You should now have a piece of wood with 2 adjacent faces planed and square to each other.
3. Thickness plane with edge face, from 2 above down.
4. Thickness plane with face side from 1 above down.


You may to able to obtain a pl/th 2nd hand for similar money to a new metabo.

 

[Wuffles]

Appreciate everyone's help on this. I've realised my fundamental error in mis-reading what these things do and can now understand how it works. Either stump up for the box I ideally need or get planing.

And I'm not very good at planing.

Thanks all, I can temporarily call a halt to any purchase being made erroneously. I'm sure I'll get it wrong on my own in due course.

 

[DennisCA]

Feeding shorter pieces isn't a dangerous thing for a thicknesser as long as the infeed and outfeed rollers can grab onto the piece, that IMO determines the minimum safe length. Planing is different though.

 

[fluffflinger]

Wuffles, you can happily flatten your stock on a lunch box thicknesser buy running it through whilst on a sled.

Simply level the board on the sled using hot glue, couple of passes detach and flip and flattened the other side.

Square your edges with a table saw, router and edge guide or hand plane.

Two links below will show what I mean.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLagyxbJHFyL11iTef4c6ALIDsD--nXkel

http://www.jpthien.com/ps.htm

I have used this method for years and it is very useful. Especially for those with limited room or funds.

 

[Wuffles]

The offset of time vs cost is against me on this one. The right machine for me appears to be in the region of £500, whereas a portable thicknesser seems about £150 less, plus time to make a jig etc. Whilst it'll work, it does 'seem' a bit more of a faff per piece than the exact tool for the job.

I built a JPThien cyclone a couple of years back and love it though. Clever chap.

 

[fluffflinger]

I agree this may appear a fussy way to do things but I'll explain what I do and it is really quick.

Space and money not withstanding the best solution is two separate machines to plane and then thickness your stock but most of us don't live in ideal situations.

I use a sled whose top surface is a melamine board (hot glue doesn't stick to it very well at all and it comes off really easily). So I simply lay the stock on the sled see where it needs support to stop it rocking and areas where the pressure rollers may distort the board as it passes through (they do press down quite firmly). I then attach a few small sections of wide masking tape to the underside of the stock. Squirt a few blobs of hot glue on the bits of tape invert and place on the sled.

The last thing I ran through was four drawers for a bedside cabinet. I set up all four roughly dimensioned pieces on the sled (160mmx450mm) and ran all four at the same time, knocked them off the sled (glue will 99% of the time stay on the tape) then popped them through to bring to final thickness. Honestly I think it was quicker than planing each piece then thicknessing each piece.

Dimensioning stock is usually a one shot deal at the beginning of a project and I have a planer but often don't bother to use it at all.

I don't know your circumstances but if you are building your array of machines over time a thicknesser will do what you need now and will not be redundant if you eventually invest in a dedicated planer. You can do both tasks with a thicknesser but only one on a planer.

I do agree the video and website I linked to show it as a fussy long winded process, trust me it isn't.

There are two other advantages of the sled system.

Firstly for those of us who don't have the space/cash for a long bed planer you can run through stock of quite long lengths and get perfect results I have done boards of 10ft (yes it was cumbersome, no I wouldn't want to do it every day) but the results were perfect. Hobby/benchtop planers only have short beds and if you are trying to plane long boards these machines can't really cope as the stock doesn't remain fully supported by the beds of the machine throughout the cut. People who have these machines will know what I'm talking about. Long boards on a short bed planer a total faff/dark art.

Secondly you can flatten boards up to 12in wide at a single pass. Try doing that on a planer you can afford or accommodate.

I think you were talking about multiple small pieces, gang them up and run as one pass on the first side then individually to bring to final thickness.

Finally in praise of the humble lunchbox thicknesser they take little or no set up.

However on the down side they are noisy little beasts.

I would throw away a lot of kit before I parted with my thicknesser. I have a major issue with my shoulder which doesn't allow me to undertake too much hand planing but maybe for what you need right now a couple of bench planes would suffice?

 

[Wuffles]

Appreciate the clarification Richard, I've plumped for a planer thicknesser second hand from a user on the FOG and will see how much use I get from it before potentially upgrading in the future.

Could end up gathering dust like the router table and the old Kity table saw I bought with similar intentions.

Didn't see the video, the link (for me at least) went to the entire playlist for Simon's Cat movies (I'm not kidding). Can you check it and repost if you get a second - or tell me what to search for, am keen to get an understanding for the future.

 

[fluffflinger]

Sorry about the Simons Cat Link (which I have to say is brilliant). I sent it from my tablet and I obviously got the wrong tab when I copied the url.

Video link is here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UONmuQt_98 it's the usual long winded American waffle but it's clear, just overly fussy with all the wedges and trimming etc. All you need is a melamine board some masking tape and a hot glue gun.

If you need more information then let me know.

I think my part Jewish roots are such that I try to help if there is money to be saved

Trust me if had the cash and space permitted than I'd love a long bed wide planer and seperate cast iron thicknesser. But for my humble hobby needs I've have had damn good service for the DW733.

Glad you are sorted.