Planer

[Trainer]

My brother-in-law had a bunch of pines killed by beetles. My wife and I are getting ready to build a house and will be using the wood from the trees. What I need is a planer to dimension the lumber. Does anyone have a planer sitting around that is begging for a new owner so it can get some action? If you have one you wish to sell, please let me know.

 

[randy41]

try craigslist. if you don't need to plane very wide boards those portable planers (lunchbox planers) work pretty good and aren't very expensive.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Unless you are planing only few boards, the typical $400 range planer will not be up to the task. They were not built for production.

Also, planing more than few boards will make you swim in shavings. It creates amazing amount of wood chips. I would look in dust collector too - like store bought dust collector combined with cyclone trash can lid from Rockler or Woodcraft store and a trash can.

 

[Egon]

Just curious on how you will cut the logs to lumber dimensions?

Will the lumber require inspection so it will meet specifications for your building code?

There are a number of small portable planers on the market. These will work but most only go to a maximum of 13 inches and usually cost maybe $600 dollars and down in the Canadian market.

The next step up planers have larger beds and usually start at about 15 inches wide and up. These will have 220 volt higher horsepower motors and are quite durable.

I have one of the cheapest portable planers, a Delta. 12 inches wide, two reversible blades. You do get snipe with it on the planed boards. Mine is set up so there is a six foot in feed and out feed table. It has planed many boards and has produced a lot of shavings. The drive pulley on it has required replacement.

For house building quantity lumber I'd recommend a commercial milling operation for cutting and finishing the logs to lumber. Constant thickness and square edges may be a problem for the "do it yourself" concept. Also the wider board edges may not be planable or it would be difficult to plane them.

For some portions of house building unplanned lumber may be used. " Code's"

Note: I very much enjoy planning lumber. For me it's fascinating.

Attached is a picture showing my planer set up. It may not look all that great but it does work.

 

[Trainer]

The lumber is being cut with a band mill by someone that does this for a living. Codes are not a problem. The lumber exceeds the building codes.

I grew up in the logging woods and sawmills. In fact my father, brothers, uncles, and cousins pulled sinker cypress from the Sabine River between Louisiana and Texas, milled the logs, and built my Grandmother's house. The subfloor was 26" wide sinker cypress boards.

Since I have experience in this area I am willing to take on the task.

 

[Egon]

With your background it's certainly a doable task. All it will take is a little patience.

 

[B8FISH]

I would also suggest Craigslist--if you find a good used/old hd planer with a feed unit it will help out alot. The larger in and outfeed tables the better. An old well taken care of machine will likely be better than what you can get new.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I remember your setup, Egon, from previous posts. It does not matter what it looks like - results count

And infeed and outfeed table is almost as important as the planer itself.

 

[randy41]

Egon makes a good point about whether the ungraded lumber would be acceptable to the building inspector and I would suggest checking that out before you begin.

 

[studor]

I have the DeWalt (13" three blade) that I have used in the process of rebuilding a log cabin. It worked fine on the 12" pine that I had for the outside window frames but baulked a little on Maple over four inches (very very slow). I ended up taking the maple to a local guy who does hardwood floors and he planed it and edged it all for "shop time" of $75 . Look around for a sawyer that has one of the big commercial jobs -- I still would not be without my planer but can't justify buying one of those -- jmho

 

[scott_vt]

Good Mornin Trainer,
I pretty much agree with the advice the others have given you, the portable planers offer alot of bang for the buck but have their limitations ! I have been building furniture for years and when you get into the harder woods and thicker and heavier boards you need more HP and a good rigid machine ! I have a 15" Grizzly planer that I bought years ago and it served me well ! I built a white oak kitchen extension table a couple years back and that planer just breezed through that wood easily. The other piece of good of good advice was from Prokop about your infeed and outfeed tables, they are VERY important !

I would keep and eye open in your local classifieds, Craigslist and E-Bay. Something may pop up, but a real good piece of equipment wont come for free !

 

[WayneB]

Check around for local sawmills you might find someone that will do the work for you and in the end it will be much cheaper.

Last time I had some done around here it was around .25 a board foot to dimension wood. I hauled it there and went back and they loaded it on my trailer for me so it was a good deal for me.

 

[MrWoodChips]

Unless you are planing only few boards, the typical $400 range planer will not be up to the task. They were not built for production.

I'll very much second this statement. Those small planers will be limited in what they can handle, how much they can take off, and how fast they will do their work.

Invest in a metal detector. They are cheap and a good way to protect your knives.

Also, be careful if you are using wood that is known to be bug infested. You may not want to find small piles of dust emanating from your beautiful case work next year. Or, perhaps you like the idea, as it adds character to your work.

John

 

[escavader]

Check around for local sawmills you might find someone that will do the work for you and in the end it will be much cheaper.

Last time I had some done around here it was around .25 a board foot to dimension wood. I hauled it there and went back and they loaded it on my trailer for me so it was a good deal for me.

Also us PLANER MEN can put sides on the boards to your liking ,such as v-match,shiplap,square edge etc etc.The machine i run goes up to 300 feet per minute [which is slow in todays modern mills],id be willing to bet we can plane it faster then you can unload it
ALAN

 

[WayneB]

Also us PLANER MEN can put sides on the boards to your liking ,such as v-match,shiplap,square edge etc etc.The machine i run goes up to 300 feet per minute [which is slow in todays modern mills],id be willing to bet we can plane it faster then you can unload it
ALAN

Yea I had about 1800 feet, loaded on my trailer, for some reason I had put a few 4x4's underneath.

So I ended up leaving the trailer there loaded. When he called me to come and get the wood it was on the trailer and ready to go. I never had to touch it until I got home. For a little over $400.00 it was done and no sawdust or chips to deal with. Worth every penny!

 

[ToadHill]

Thinking about this reminds me of the time I was responsible to sell off the machinery of a foundry that was closing. They had a planer in the pattern shop that was 36" wide and would handle anything up to 18" thick, I think it sold for about $75.

 

[EddieWalker]

I read a tool comparison in Fine Home Building magazine a few years ago that said the Rigid planer from Home Depot was the best deal for the money. I had never owned a Rigid brand tool before, but based on that review and the ease of blade change in the review, I bought one.

Overall, it doesn the job, but I'm not impresed with it, nor would I recomend it. For the money, it's probably about as good as the others, but this is the only one that I've ever had or used. The problems with it are the height wont lock into position. With the lock set, it will still move and work it's way up.

It doesn't pull the wood through evenly, so sometimes I get a straight cut, other times, it will come through at an angle, then sort of bind up and then straighten out, before going all the way through. The finish cut is affected by this.

There is a noticable difference in cut at the end of the board. You pretty much have to through away the last six inches of the wood since it will be at a different height.

Blades are easy to change and about half price on ebay for brand new compared to Home Depot.

I don't use it enough to justify a better one, but when I do use it, I wish I had spent the money on something better.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[scott_vt]

Thinking about this reminds me of the time I was responsible to sell off the machinery of a foundry that was closing. They had a planer in the pattern shop that was 36" wide and would handle anything up to 18" thick, I think it sold for about $75.

Good Mornin Paul,
Of course you need a crane to lift something like that, and 440 volts 3 phase to power it ! But just the thought of owning something like that makes me excited !

 

[Trainer]

Eddie,
I read somewhere online that Rigid was getting out of wood tool business.

 

[richardbro]

I have dimensioned around 2500 linear feet of pine (mostly for building furniture) using Delta consumer tools such as the benchtop 12" portable planer and the floor-standing 6" jointer. The rough pine came out of bandsaw mills and were 'relatively' straight.

To get straight boards you need to start with a jointer on one face and one edge, continue with a planer on the other face, and optionally finish off with a tablesaw for the last edge. Each face or edge straighten by one step in the process becomes the reference plane for the next step. Using the planer by itself will probably leave you with even-thickness sprialed or twisted boards.

The jointer is the main factor limiting final board width. 6" jointers are relatively cheap - 12" jointers are monsters in both weight and cost.

The 12" planer will do fine with pine - dust and chip collection are a good idea with this tool. You can easily give the waste chips to horse people.