PTO driven planer?

BrettW · Nov 18, 2004

Anyone ever heard of a thicknessing planer that is powered off a PTO? Used for woodworking// Getting tired of my 12" planer and removing 1/32" per pass.
thanks, Brett W

jimgerken · Nov 18, 2004

I have seen a big old unit that was belt driven from a four cylinder gas engine. If you end up with a stiff enough mechanical connection between the engine and the planer, I am afraid you will also get vibration-induced waviness in the finished lumber. But maybe you are not making furniture. I think its a good idea if you can make it work.

hobbyfarm · Nov 18, 2004

Hey Brett,
Seems like I have seen somewhere in Europe that there was a PTO driven planer. I believe it was on some forestry or wood processing website. Did you search Google yet?
phil

Cliff_Johns · Nov 18, 2004

There were a lot of belt driven woodworking machines in the early days. The shakers had a nifty set-up at Hancock where an underwater stream drove a big wheel with a huge leather belt (24", I think) and the whole building had sub-belts and PTOs all over the place driven off that. Worth the trip if you're ever in that part of NH. Anyway, I think that a jointer would be a more likely (and easier to implement) machine to drive from your PTO on your tractor, but there is precedent for all types from lathes too gang saws. I'd look to some very old woodworking machinery books. Perhaps Dover has republished a few?

Cliff

rsatter22 · Nov 19, 2004

A standard electric planer spins at 4K-5K RPM's typically. One would need to have a 9 or 10X step up from the tractor PTO shaft. As has been said, the old ones I have used run a flatbelt and step up the RPM with pulleys.

texbaylea · Nov 19, 2004

This something that could be done but I think that the economics are against you. Grizzly, for example, has 4 or 5 15" planners in the $600 to $1000 range. Unless you luked on to a bargain, I doubt that you could find or build what you wantat anything near that cost. Also to keep the power ratio reasonable at about 5 to 1, you would need to start with a tractor with a 1000 rpm PTO.

My opinion for what it is worth.

Vernon

Cliff_Johns · Nov 19, 2004

( A standard electric planer spins at 4K-5K RPM's typically. )

Depends on your application. Finish planers run fast, but if you're surfacing timbers for a frame, they can run much slower. Also, you can feed the log slower (which is likely if you are doing rough work anyway).

There are many uses for a rough planer (or jointer) that's not fed fast, but has lots of torq and can handle very large timbers. Once you get the wood square, than you can have at it with a hand plane and get it smooth pretty fast or take it to the resaw and get nice slabs.

But I agree with your point about getting finish planer speeds from a 540 PTO..

Cliff