Planer Woodworking Tips

Planer Woodworking Tips

A Planer is a multipurpose machine designed to perform several functions, it is suitable for reducing the thickness of lumber to the size needed for an project, or to smooth a rough side of wood.

How Wide Does a Planer Need To Be?

As with most things woodworking, it really depends on your personal work habits and the kind of projects you build, so you’ll find a lot of differing opinions on this topic. Some believe you should get as much capacity as possible, and others think you shouldn’t go much wider than your jointer bed. But even the smallest planer on the market is going to be about 12″ wide, which is significantly wider that most of our jointers.

Thickness Planer

Woodworking machines such as spindle molders and thickness planer are multipurpose, designed to perform several functions. Thickness planer is a professional machine suitable for small to mid-sized workshops. It is built for the heavy wear and tear encountered in professional workshops.

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After you have tried all of the woodworking tools you will start to wonder whether you can have one machine that replaces them. And if you want to reduce the thickness of a stock to a size needed for an application, or to simply smooth out a rough face of a stock than a planer thicknesser is a right machine for you. Surface Planers - Thin Your Stock Down to Size

Years ago, when a woodworker was working with a piece of stock that was too thick, they used a large hand plane to shave thin, even strips of material until the piece was the right thickness. This method was arduous and time consuming, but in the hands of an experienced craftsman, extremely effective.

Which Comes First: Planer or Jointer?

If I had to pick only one, I would get the planer first. That way you can at least get your lumber pretty darn close to flat and parallel. Furthermore, you can re-size your lumber when necessary. And for jointing tasks, you can always do a few tricks at the table saw, or use a router and a straight edge. Or just invest in a nice long jointer plane. I’ll tell ya, these days, I would be lost without both the jointer and the planer.

Flattening boards with a Thickness Planer

Methods for planing warped wood flat. I need to flatten some boards that are too wide for my 6" jointer. It seems that if I could support a twisted, cupped, bowed or otherwise warped board from below, using a fixture, I could get one side of the board flat with repeated passes through my planer. And once one side is flat, the planer can make the opposite surface parallel to the first.