Small workshop alternative to a Planer Thicknesser

[nicguthrie]

Hey fellas (and ladies)

I've been humming and hawing for utterly ages over the issue of a P/T for my home workshop. I'd all but settled on the woodstar pt85 when I found out that they are monumentally noisy, and a particularly thorough review I found mentioned just how much maintenance it took to get and keep it running true and smoothly. I live in a housing estate with many close neighbours so the noise would not be popular, and I'm not great with fiddly machine maintenance either so that's maybe not such a great idea.

I've been wondering if I might be able to get away with "just" a Thicknesser? I intend to be able to resize and reuse old timber, possibly prepare timber myself from old branches that the local tree surgeon donates, but all mostly pretty small sizes and not exactly heavy duty materials. I have a good bandsaw for ripping and basic sizing, so the thicknesser wouldn't be asked to take large amounts off.

I'm basically asking the more experienced folks here, would it be possible to do virtually everything I could do on a P/T on nothing but a thicknesser, perhaps with a couple custom jigs to help with straightening timber or something? I can't image in my head how it could be done, but then, that's why I'm asking.

Any ideas or has anyone heard of it being done?

Nic.

 

[blackrodd]

Hey fellas (and ladies)

I've been humming and hawing for utterly ages over the issue of a P/T for my home workshop. I'd all but settled on the woodstar pt85 when I found out that they are monumentally noisy, and a particularly thorough review I found mentioned just how much maintenance it took to get and keep it running true and smoothly. I live in a housing estate with many close neighbours so the noise would not be popular, and I'm not great with fiddly machine maintenance either so that's maybe not such a great idea.

I've been wondering if I might be able to get away with "just" a Thicknesser? I intend to be able to resize and reuse old timber, possibly prepare timber myself from old branches that the local tree surgeon donates, but all mostly pretty small sizes and not exactly heavy duty materials. I have a good bandsaw for ripping and basic sizing, so the thicknesser wouldn't be asked to take large amounts off.

I'm basically asking the more experienced folks here, would it be possible to do virtually everything I could do on a P/T on nothing but a thicknesser, perhaps with a couple custom jigs to help with straightening timber or something? I can't image in my head how it could be done, but then, that's why I'm asking.

Any ideas or has anyone heard of it being done?

Nic.

If you have no means of facing, edging and straightening the potentially "rough" timber by facing and edging on the overhand part of the planer, how will you manage this?
The most noise is amplified by the extractor on the thicknesser, in many cases. Possibly Sound deadening the workshop maybe be a better idea. regards Rodders

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Move over to the dark side. A fore plane (yes, one of those strange tea and biscuit powered tools) coupled with a thicknesser sounds like just the ticket.
Use the plane to take the wind out of the cupped face before running through the thicknesser, then learn to true the edges...really not difficult, and eminently neighbour-friendly.

 

[Jacob]

Move over to the dark side. A fore plane (yes, one of those strange tea and biscuit powered tools) coupled with a thicknesser sounds like just the ticket.
Use the plane to take the wind out of the cupped face before running through the thicknesser, then learn to true the edges...really not difficult, and eminently neighbour-friendly.

Yes.
You can also get away with thicknesser alone to some extent, depending on the condition of the wood, if you pass it through alternating sides up. Each pass will straighten it a little. You have to make sure that, if it is at all cupped, it goes in concave side down, otherwise it will rock and give a poor cut. You can improve this by hand planing away the high points, without necessarily producing a perfect face, as Steve says above.
I've been doing this with sawn timber for floor boards (restoration job matching old stuff). Impossible to flatten the face of a 7" x 4.2metre board but alternate passing through the thicknesser works well. One side can be less than perfect for floor boards.

 

[Paul Chapman]

If you have a good bandsaw and only make small stuff, I wonder if you need a planer or thicknesser at all. It would be possible to manage quite well with hand planes. If your bandsaw is set up well, the amount of planing would be minimal - but maybe you don't enjoy hand planing :-k

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[marcros]

There were a couple of jigs that were discussed- one being a sled for a thicknesser to flatten a piece. It was in fine woodworking I think and may be free to download from their site. I looked at this for a project that was wider than my planer.

I think that better options would be a hand plane to flatten the face and edge or a router sled to skim it and then a hand plane to finish. You can use the same to thickness it. However the "lunchbox" type thicknessers are brush motored and notoriously noisy.

 

[Cottonwood]

Or you could get tipped right over the edge and do it how P Follasbee does it? (You mentioned using logss off the tree surgeon.)
http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/hand-tools-green-wood/

 

[RogerS]

A thicknesser is just as noisy as a planer.

 

[Lons]

I've been wondering if I might be able to get away with "just" a Thicknesser? Nic.

Absolutely, yes you can as long as you're happy hand planing a face and an edge, but.... that won't solve your noise problem as the thicknesser will emit just as many decibels as a surface planer.

Only course of action I think is to soundproof your workshop or do it by hand.

Co-incidently, I was asked the question recently aspart of a survey on choice between the seperate machines.

Bob

 

[RogerP]

I think the point being made is that brush machines are much more noisy that induction machines. As far as I'm aware there are no small induction thicknessers. So if you want a quieter induction thicknesser, but space is limited, the only route is to get an induction PT and and remove the planing beds to leave ony the thicknesser.

 

[Lons]

I think the point being made is that brush machines are much more noisy that induction machines. As far as I'm aware there are no small induction thicknessers. So if you want a quieter induction thicknesser, but space is limited, the only route is to get an induction PT and and remove the planing beds to leave ony the thicknesser.

I can't remember but think the 1hp motor on my old K5 is induction type. It runs reasonably quietly until you put timber into it when blades on wood make the noise.
Kity did produce the same planer / thicknesser as a seperate machine as far as I know so there may well be some out there.

Bob

 

[RogerP]

I think the point being made is that brush machines are much more noisy that induction machines. As far as I'm aware there are no small induction thicknessers. So if you want a quieter induction thicknesser, but space is limited, the only route is to get an induction PT and and remove the planing beds to leave ony the thicknesser.

I can't remember but think the 1hp motor on my old K5 is induction type. It runs reasonably quietly until you put timber into it when blades on wood make the noise.
Kity did produce the same planer / thicknesser as a seperate machine as far as I know so there may well be some out there.

Bob

Yes, on any planer the actually action of planing the wood is noisy, but add to that the noise of a brush motor and it becomes a cacophony!

 

[nicguthrie]

Aye, the problem came up in another thread. I've fancied one of the smaller ones for a while just because of the size, but I've been a little worried about the quality. Then the brush motor thing came up and convinced me that maybe I should give up on the smaller ones, with that factor included. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that I can't fit a mid-sized one into the workshop (something like the Record power PT260) and would have difficulty finding that sort of money to spend anyway. That brought me to the idea of maybe managing to get away with the thicknesser on it's own and maybe jigs to pull off facing (if it's possible).

My reliance on machinery and power tools is largely because of health problems, my joints are somewhat faulty, and that includes my wrists and elbows, so I find planing by hand extremely difficult - which is a pain as I truly love working with hand tools - but bench chisels and turning tools are about my limit mostly. I wonder if a jig and a hand planer or router would do for facing work that might be impossible with a jig and the thicknesser? I'm sort of shooting in the dark here, hoping that perhaps someone has heard of or seen a workaround of a similar type before.

We have a large 10 or 12" planer thicknesser at the workshop I attend each week locally, and I've seen how much the noise varies according to what you load them with (Have you ever heard someone try to shave a mm off 4mm ply with one?!) I reckon I might get away with thinking ahead for times and loads, but would prefer an induction motor if possible for quality and reliability. However it's looking like I may have to give up on the induction motor anyway. My workshop was made as soundproof as I could within reason, but the wife still hears me chiselling on the other side of the house.

Any idea what the article was that you saw in fine woodworking Marcros? I've seen these router sledge thingys in youtube videos too, was thinking how handy the technique could be for cutting gradual curves, like the "backside imprint" to make a stool more comfortable.

Well, any ideas are welcome, as would be any links to further reading I could do. I'm not afraid of a bit of MacGyvering, but I'm just generally not knowledgeable enough yet to think ahead and see what problems I may hit by getting only a thicknesser, and how I might be able to get around them.

Thanks again.

Nic.

 

[Lons]

Hi Nic

I know from memory that Elgin isn't a big town but there may be joinery workshops who could be willing for a charge to allow you to use their machine occasionally. If you planned your work carefully you might be able to get say an hour at a time. The main problem I can see would be their insurance liability perhaps but just maybe another angle to look at?

Just had a very quick look on ebay and this type I think has an induction motor. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KITY-439-PLAN ... 41789dadea

Bob

 

[nanscombe]

If your needs were not too extreme, i.e. an occasional hour or so at a time with no real deadline, you might be able to sweet talk a sympathetic local joiner into running your timber through his equipment for you in return for a bit of beer money.

Maybe your tree surgeon might know someone and be able to make an introduction?

 

[mickthetree]

A note on the use of branches. They tend to contain a lot more stresses and therefore are not commonly suitable for use in furniture making. That said it completely depends what you want to do with the wood.

Trunk wood is much more suitable for flat wide stable boards.

 

[nicguthrie]

OK, thanks fellas.

I'll not be doing a massive amount of thicknessing etc. One of the bonuses I was hoping for from a P/T was that I can get 3x3 hardwood lengths occasionally as freebies from a local timber merchant, and I could cut and plane those to usable small planks for making the small stuff I tend to do. A friendly local workshop might be doable I just have a bit of a thing about being self-ufficient

Thanks for the heads up about the tensions in branches. I've never taken lumber to timber before, and the whole romantic notion of it seemed to be quite fascinating, I don't know if it'll end up practicable but I see so much gorgeous wood up here get chopped for nothing but firewood I find it quite disturbing, and wanted to save a little of the rarer stuff if possible.

I've pulled beautiful spalted chestnut from a firewood pile at a friends house, totally unsalvagable. Burr elm, gorgeous mature oak, 18inch diameter Holly trees... the list goes on, and there's little I can do to arrest any of the "wood murder" without being able to actually show people the error of their ways! Me and my imaginary P/T were to be the wood vigilante team of the north, saving virgin lumber and smuggling it off to a new life disguised as usable timber!

It may forever be a pipe dream,

Nic.

 

[rdesign]

the sled to flatten the timber is just a sheet of ply "thats ur flat surface" then put wedges in with double sided tape this allows the top get flat then flip it over and you get a flat surface to travel on the bed! the heavier a machine u get will be quieter! they r expensive but the helux heads r alot quieter! router method is more noisey than a thicknesser! if you dont have much to do and can do it at reasonable hours ! im sure ur neighbours can put up with half an hour of noise every once and a while!

Regards Richard