a reason for 2 planers?

[John Grabowski]

I just got a new to me 3hp planer and was thinking about selling my old 13 in 1.5 hp planer. can anyone think of a good reason to have 2 of them?Thanks,John G

[John Coloccia]

Well, 2 is more than 1. You have more than one fork, don't you? Do you just have one sesame seed, or a whole dang jar full of them. I'm not sure what you're looking for here.

Or you can sell it and get something you REALLY need, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WC6EbRQmJ0&feature=related

[Sam Babbage]

Not as useful as two jointers, but you could set one up as your 'first pass' planer. IE: any sand, rocks or whatever in rough-sawn wood would be eaten by the knives in the 'lesser' planer. But unless your workflow is voluminous or you have space to burn, it's probably not worth it.

[Mike Heidrick]

I have two - one for a planer and one for the molding capability - had a 12.5" 734 as well but sold it - it had cobwebs on it.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Your 13" lunchbox planer will more than likely put a smoother finish on the wood than your new one. They are commonly called a "finish planer". Heck, if you've got room, keep it. I can see you running them in tandem.

[Ronald Mancini]

If a lunchbox planer puts a better finish on wood than a 3hp planer either replace the 3hp blades, adjust the 3hp planer, or get rid of it. I sold my lunchbox planer when I moved up, but a smooth finish is not a problem because I run the planed wood through a sander.

[Maurice Ungaro]

A sander is not a planer - obviously your bigger planer can't put the finish on the wood that your sander can. How did your lunchbox do?

[Art Mulder]

As a hobbyist, my answer is a firm "no".
Sell it, and put the money in the tool budget.

[george wilson]

I agree with the idea of having a roughing planer to get the crud off.I always thoroughly vacuum off any wood that is suspect,though. Sometimes to the annoyance of others who came into my former shop at work. Sometimes,if unsupervised,those clowns were caught running wood through our planer with sand jumping up and down on it. They didn't have to do the maintenance on the planer!!

But,I digress. Unless you do have a lot of wood to plane,it probably wouldn't be worth it,unless you have a lot of extra space.

[Kirk Poore]

Your 13" lunchbox planer will more than likely put a smoother finish on the wood than your new one. They are commonly called a "finish planer". Heck, if you've got room, keep it. I can see you running them in tandem.

I have two planers--a Dewalt 734 and an Oliver 399 (18" cast iron machine). I initially thought I'd use the 734 as a finish planer because the resulting surfaces are a little better than the Oliver. As time has gone on, I use the Dewalt less and less--only for little jobs where it 's easier to put the Dewalt on the Workmate and plug it into the wall than to pull the Oliver out from the wall and plug it into the phase converter.

I'm building a shop now, and when it's done the Oliver will be set up permanently and the Dewalt will go. The difference in finish isn't enough to justify the space and infrequent use, particularly with finish sanding hitting most surfaces anyway.

Kirk

[Joe Jensen]

If a lunchbox planer puts a better finish on wood than a 3hp planer either replace the 3hp blades, adjust the 3hp planer, or get rid of it. I sold my lunchbox planer when I moved up, but a smooth finish is not a problem because I run the planed wood through a sander.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/1.jpg

[Philip Rodriquez]

Sell it and buy something else. I sold mine on CL when I got my 15" w/a SC. I've never looked back.

[Ronald Mancini]

I can set up my Grizzly 15 inch planer so that it has a better finish than you can get on any lunchbox planer because I have more controls and hp to work with. The lunchbox planers are limited on setup capability.

[george wilson]

My 15" Bridgewood gives very beautiful results,better than the heavy duty 20" Powermatic we had at work. A lunchbox planer would give better results than the big planer at work,possibly because the head ran faster.I never could get the large planer to give as chop mark free a finish as the little planer.

[Larry Edgerton]

I keep a portable planer around with carbides in it for questionable stock [Dirty]so I don't heve to screw up the tersa knives in my main planer. On pass to clean it up and then to my stationary......

[Jim Watts]

Not as useful as two jointers, but you could set one up as your 'first pass' planer. IE: any sand, rocks or whatever in rough-sawn wood would be eaten by the knives in the 'lesser' planer. But unless your workflow is voluminous or you have space to burn, it's probably not worth it.

So what are some of the benefits of having two jointers?

[Sam Babbage]

You can have the primary jointer set to dead straight and the secondary jointer set for sprung joints. I do come from a machine heavy environment though, so I like dedicated machines!

[Maurice Ungaro]

I can set up my Grizzly 15 inch planer so that it has a better finish than you can get on any lunchbox planer because I have more controls and hp to work with. The lunchbox planers are limited on setup capability.

Yeah, but you just stated that you run your boards thru a sander after your Big Grizz planes 'em. What's up with that?

[Tony Bilello]

If a lunchbox planer puts a better finish on wood than a 3hp planer either replace the 3hp blades, adjust the 3hp planer, or get rid of it. .........

+2

I just bought a 12 year old or so 20" Grizzly planer. If you run your fingers across the blades they are obviously dull and have to be sharpened and yet I still get a very smooth cut.