how to joint with a power handheld planer

[kristopher rowe 11 14 1982]

Hello,

I did a glue up for a pair of legs for a crib that I'm building. the legs are 3 pieces of oak face glued to make a 3in by 3in leg (the legs were over sided intensionaly to plane down durng finnishing). When clamping up the first leg the wood shifted and is a little off on the sides. I would use a jointer to fix the problem if I had one but I don't. I do have a power handheld planer. can I use the planer to flatten one side and then run the leg though the planer? I really haven't used the handheld planer so any tips would be helpfull.

Kris

p.s. I am new to this forum sorry if I missed this topic when searching the forums.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Kris,
Welcome to SMC.
In theory, you should be able to flatten one face.
In practice, I've tried and just made a wavy wreck of things w/mine.

A planer sled might be a better option.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Kris, can you run it through the tablesaw?

How about a handplane?

I find the electric planes are too short for any accuracy....Regards, Rod.

[bill mullin]

Hi Kris.
Practice with the planer on scrap wood.
The depth of cut is adjusted by raising or lowering the front "step" of the planer foot. For it to cut, the front step is higher than the rear. This exposes the cutter. Notice the rear is longer than the front. You must keep pressure on the rear of the planer and keep it flat on your work, not allowing it to rock forward to the front shoe. This rocking causes divots and waviness.
Also, every one I've used cuts a little deeper to one side or the other, so alternate directions every few passes.

Hope this helps.

[David Keller NC]

Hi Kris, Welcome to the forum - by the way, hope that's not your birthday after your name (it's a bad idea to post a birthdate anywhere on the internet).

Anyway, you likely have considerably better tools in your shop to joint a board than a hand-held power planer. That's not what they're designed to do, and you would need to attach a long wooden bed to it in some way to make it work well as a jointer.

But what Rod suggests is the way to go - you tack a board with a straight edge to your workpiece, and use that board's edge against your rip fence on a table saw. That will get you one flat face, and you can then run it through your stationary power planer to straighten up the opposing face.

[glenn bradley]

I've only had good luck with a handheld planer when using it for trimming the bottoms of doors. I did use a planer sled (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=58735) with very good results for well over a year while saving for my jointer.

[kristopher rowe 11 14 1982]

thanks every one for the help. I am going to try to flaten out the leg with the table saw and pratice with scrap on the power hand planer