Electric hand planers?

[Jeff Lewis]

Never was interested in them before but have a job coming up to build a 10 seat table and chairs. Will be starting with 5/4 rough cut pecan planks 20-23” wide aiming for true 4/4 for the top. Without a large capacity planer or drum sander I wondered if an electric hand planer would work to rough dimension the planks and level any twisting, cupping, etc. I expect it would only get me roughly where I want and require further work with hand planes, belt sander, etc.


Anyone had experience using one in that kind of situation? How did it work for you?

[Clint Schlosser]

I have a hand held electric planer and I believe it certainly has its uses. I use it to roughly get the job done and as you mention finish the project with handplanes or sandpaper. This significantly reduces the effort and/cost.

[Josiah Bartlett]

If you understand the techniques and skill required to hand joint and plane boards, then yes, it will do the job of rough dimensioning. However, it is pretty easy to get yourself in trouble with one. A power plane is to a well set up Bailey pattern plane what a chain saw is to a nice dovetail backsaw.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's another way to face-joint big planks, often called a router bridge. Compared to the power plane, it will probably be faster, and almost certainly give you a flatter surface. Here's a link to one thread about it --- http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=97018&highlight=router+bridge

[Damon Stathatos]

I just finished a project that required flattening a number of 'slabs' which were too wide for me to do on my 20" Porter surfacer (basically a large, automated jointer).

I was aware of the technique of flattening a surface with a belt sander (insert portable planer) using a cross-hatch pattern, similar to the pattern of using a hand plane, so I gave it a try and it worked surprisingly well. They flattened width-wise almost perfectly. Length-wise they were only very slightly undulating (under a straight edge, not visible to the naked eye). The slabs I worked on were very hard wood and I would imagine that taking a 1/4 inch off with the belt sander would be nearly impossible but the concept of using a portable planer should work just the same.

The pattern consists of sanding at a 45 degree angle down the length of the board and then switching sides and again at the cross 45 degree angle. After you're reasonably happy with the surface doing that a couple of times, begin adding the third step of a straight pass, with the grain on a vertical.

I seem to remember seeing a jig used for the belt sander which basically acted like a sled, effectively increasing the surface size of the base and also protecting against inadvertent gouges. I did not bother with the sled but if I were going to do it on a regular basis would probably consider one.

I can't for the life of me remember where it was that I saw this technique but it was most likely an article in a wood mag somewhere. If it comes to me sometime soon, I'll repost.

[Will Blick]

Jeff, if you plan to use 20 - 23" wide planks as the basis for the table top (i.e. not cut them down), that is a beast. I would suggest an electric hand plane is NOT a good tool for this task. Even a hand jointer planer 24" long is not ideal to get a flat top that is this long. But like our forefathers, anything is possible if you spend enough time and have the patience and a lot of good viewing sticks...

Here is my suggestions to ease the burden...

1) Bandsaw as close to flat as you can.... find a shop with a wide belt sander, pay them to sand it flat....you are assured a flat top.

2) Cut planks down to manageable sizes to fit your jointer / planer, and re join them. With thin BS kerf, this will often not be noticeable in the final assembly.

3) If those ideas are not effective, I agree with the planing sled. If you have a router, you can either build or buy a nice sled like this one at Woodhaven...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VekiquWbL._SL400_.jpg


My question is, how will keep this table top FLAT over time... my guess is, at that thickness and length, it will wanna move (twist, cup, crack, etc.) Not sure how stable pecan wood is, maybe you already investigated this....?

[Damon Stathatos]

It's taken me awhile to get to my home computer but here is the photo of the finished slabs. The mahogany slab (far right) was 22" wide. Center wood is ziricote, and the other cocobolo.

[Hans Braul]

I recently killed a cheap Black & Decker planer trying to do exactly what you describe on a cherry table top 75" x 38". Just couldn't handle the work and burned out. I guess I could have gone slower but the whole idea was to get close relatively quickly. I'm now in the process of hand planing, requiring buckets of elbow grease.

Hans

[Myk Rian]

THIS is how you use a router to do the job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51SSP12Gk8

[Bill White]

My Makita power plane is so old that it's red. Use it when needed, and then I'm glad I have it.
Bill

[Will Blick]

Myk, that video is impressive...
very clever approach....not sure what is gained though vs. using a side to side sled.... both methods will produce flatness to a level that matches the coplanar-ness of the side supports. The further the router extends away from the its base, the more potential for error, as errors are magnified with distance...

[Dan Karachio]

There is another way to go about this and, as he says, a good workout plus the most basic skills that an old time apprentice might have needed on his first day. Check out this video. Humbling to say the least.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg0jUWJPweg&feature=channel

P.S. Sold my Bosch electric planer a while back. I really didn't like it and rarely used it. I think it might have helped in this kind of task, but like someone said, you could get into big trouble with it.

[David Cefai]

Getting back to the original question, a hand planer is fast and unforgiving. it's easy to overdo it. OTOH if you don't take deep cuts you can remove the bulk of the material this way and then switch to a hand plane.

My mantra while doing this is "Don't get greedy, take it easy, watch where you're going, leave a lot for the handplanes"

[Jeff Lewis]

Thanks everybody. I was at a loss, now I've got several good options to choose from. The hand planing video Dan posted was impressive too, but I couldn't help noticing how much younger than I that fellow is. :D

This morning the guys at Woodcraft put me onto a shop with the equipment to handle it and suggested a couple hardwood dealers in Houston who will job lumber milling. Don't know about cost yet. The Woodhaven sled and the shop made ones too, look like workable approaches. I expect when I get my hands on the wood Monday I'll have a better idea which way to go. ;)

[Simon Dupay]

Try looking around for someone with a timesaver, they do a pretty good job of flatting big slabs.

[Rich Engelhardt]

However, it is pretty easy to get yourself in trouble with one. A power plane is to a well set up Bailey pattern plane what a chain saw is to a nice dovetail backsaw.
That a power plane can get you into trouble PDQ is an understatement....

I picked up a GMC from Lowes on closeout for $20.00.
I tried it out on a painted plywood 1950's circa cabinet door to strip off the paint.
It worked like a champ - right up to the point that the cord got hung up & the plane went sideways on the door face...

It plowed a furrow across the face in nothing flat.

A router bridge - similar to the ones above - is on my "short list" of things to make.
I've been reading up on them for the last couple of years & they appear to be just the ticket for face jointing stock that's too wide for a 6" or 8" jointer.

If no one has mentioned it so far, using a bottom cleanout bit seems to make the router bridge really perform well.

[Peter Quinn]

Thanks everybody. I was at a loss, now I've got several good options to choose from. The hand planing video Dan posted was impressive too, but I couldn't help noticing how much younger than I that fellow is. :D

This morning the guys at Woodcraft put me onto a shop with the equipment to handle it and suggested a couple hardwood dealers in Houston who will job lumber milling. Don't know about cost yet. The Woodhaven sled and the shop made ones too, look like workable approaches. I expect when I get my hands on the wood Monday I'll have a better idea which way to go. ;)

Bingo. Outsource was my first thought if this is a commercial enterprise. If you are doing this as a hobby to get back to your neanderthal roots, more power to hand planes.In the old days I think they had the FNG or apprentice do the scrub work?

On power planes I have a port-plane which is a porter cable door plane with a long bed and spiral carbide head, that is meant for edging doors for hanging but can tame an unruly slab, but you had better have a lot of extra thickness, and it is not a finish tool so other methods must be employed in conjunction with something like that.

At the shop where I'm employed (sorry, not near TX) I can flatten and plane then sand material up to 24" pretty quick. A 22"X10' slab would take less than 20 minutes to render flat and surfaced to final thickness. Maybe 30 minutes at best. At $60/hour, that is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying and setting up four hand planes of any quality, learning to use them, and then actually doing the work. Heck, the $20-$30 in milling charges would be cheaper than a good push broom to clean up the shavings from the hand planes! We have local craftsman bring in odd slabs all the time for work they cannot do in their own shops. One note of caution, if you bring wood with metal in it to a commercial shop and they find it with a machine you may wind up owning some very expensive damaged knife sets, so do check that out carefully.

[Rusty Eads]

magnate.net (not affliated) sells some real nice bottom cleaning bits at reasonable prices. Found them when looking for bits when I got my Legacy mill

[John Mark Lane]

FWIW, I've had a Ryobi hand-held power planer for 10 years. It's might damn handy when it's the right tool for the job. I've had more expensive ones in the past, but I rarely use one, so it's hard to justify the investment. The Ryobi is plenty powerful. Came with an extra set of blades and some attachments, and a case. All for about $79 as I recall.