Planing 2X4's on edge?

[Bryan Rocker]

I have a quick question for you, are there any issues with planing 2x4's on edge?I am looking at building a work bench out of 2x4's stacked together on edge. I am thinking of taking them together in 16" widths and running them through my 20" planer to make a nice flat and even top. I am however concerned with blowout. I am looking at running 2 16" x 8' through. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.

Bryan

PS the snow is FINALLY melting YAHOOOOO

[David DeCristoforo]

Done all the time... Should be no problem. Ok... maybe one problem. If the edges are not square to the faces, planing will not correct that.

[John Gornall]

I use 2x's to make prototypes - just like any other piece of wood, joint one face and one edge, then plane - end up with flat and straight pieces 1.25 thick.

[glenn bradley]

I'll assume the wood is dried since you are making a benchtop out of it. No more or less grain issues than any other wood. As long as the faces have been jointed so they align, I wouldn't worry about edge planing as a technique.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Never tried this method until I actually read the manual to the new planner, and it specifically brings it up, and says it is ok. Use it pretty often now.

[Sonny Edmonds]

Before I had a joiner, I worked a bunch of reclaimed wood into usable boards.
First I thickness planed it so I had two flat faces. Then I used two quick clamps to hold a stack together (10") and planed the edges down.
Right, wrong, or otherwise, it worked fine for me.
I wouldn't advise doing them singly though. Clamp several face planed together with a clamp at each end to make a block of boards that will clear your planers width. :)

[Larry Edgerton]

I size all of my styles and rails with a planer but.......

I have yet to see a planer yet that will not roll a board on edge if allowed, even my SCMI. You must clamp a square wood block to the infeed table if you can, or devise your own method of keeping them vertical. You feed against the block or use two if your stock is already thicknessed.

I have a spring loaded vertical roller systen in mind but have not gotten around to welding one up, and I need a couple of good quality 6"ish rollers to work with, so if any of you have something like that laying around.......

[Greg Hines, MD]

In the latest issue of American Woodworker is a jig using a piece of plywood, routing a pair of t-slots across it, and then using aluminum angles with bolts and wingnuts to create a jig for planing the edge of a single, or multiple boards. The slots allow you to adjust it to the thickness of your individual pieces. I would put a cleat on either end to keep it on the table of your planer.

Doc

[Brian Norton]

One of my workbenches is like that. I had the same size planer. I ended up doing the 2 of them and then gluing them together. I actually did the entire bench top in stages of Gorrila Glue. It is holding up to the pounding and the garage humidity. Unfortunatly, as you know, 2x4s are not the hardest products. With a couple of coats of vinish it looks great! Have fun.

[Bill Houghton]

that planers make one face (or edge in this case) parallel to the opposite face/edge, in the short section of the stock that's in the planer at that time; but won't make either face/edge straight.

Planing them down shouldn't be a problem, but get a straight reference edge first.

[Steve H Graham]

Wouldn't this be a good job for the mighty planer sled? Clamp a bunch of two by fours together and run them through!

Or maybe this is asking for death and a ruined planer.

[Bryan Rocker]

Thanks for all the info, as always this is a great place for the exchange of information. I had not even thought of glueing them together first. I was just going to bolt 11 of them together with threaded rod but glueing them together may be a better way.

Thanks for the help!!!

Bryan

[John Keeton]

Bryan, if you can live with a tad bit less thickness, I would get 2x8s. They will probably be clearer and you are more likely to find SYP in the 2x8.

Rip them, then glue them up in sets of 4-6, then plane them. Then glue the sets together up to the maximum of your 20" planer and plane any variance from glueup.

[Steve Jenkins]

i run boards thru on edge all the time both singly and in groups. I usually run them singly first because if there is a difference in height between boards you can get one shot back at you or it will not plane evenly. A segmented infeed roller will help prevent this. Even 1/2" thick stock works fine on edge unless it is pretty wide. Of course this may vary with the planer.

[Joe Chritz]

I had thought about keeping my lunchbox planer just for this reason. It is very handy when doing a metric truck load of stiles and rails. The same works with a drum sander and if you have several you can just pinch them together with your hands until they are in and cutting then catch them on the way out.

Joe

[Andrew Joiner]

No problem planing this,but you said you want
to make a nice flat and even top.

I made a 3' wide slab of 12' 2x4's laminated face to face. It was for a room divider in an "industrial style" gift shop . Fresh from the lumber yard kiln dry 2x4's can be fairly wet and my customer was in a hurry. It started out flat, even and straight.
6 months later it was not flat or even.tightening the threaded rods didn't come close to making it flat.

If you do this I suggest you use very dry 2x4's. Even then,it's going move around a bit and you will be lucky if it's very flat.

For cheap bench tops I use layers of MDF. I have a support system on mine so I can adjust for sagging and keep it fairly flat. The bonus is you can flip the top layer after a few years to get a nice smooth top again.