Power Plane -The hand type

[George Bokros]

Does anyone have one? Do you use it much and for what tasks? What brand do you have?

I am thinking of getting one to surface rough lumber that is to wide for my 6" joiner. What are your thoughts on using one for that purpose?

Another question, how do you handle rough lumber that is to wide to surface on you joiner?

Thanks

George

[Andrew Joiner]

I use a cheap Harbor Freight power plane to view and select the grain on rough lumber. It would be time consuming to flatten one face of a rough board with a power plane, and it would still have ridges in that face.
I use a thin lightweight sled to flatten large slabs.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?134633-A-Lightweight-8-Foot-Planer-Sled

[Dale Cruea]

I have one from Sears. I could never get it to work smoothly. It did some nice rough cutting.
I use a hand plane to plane my wood on one side then run it through a planer.

[ian maybury]

Mine is a Makita. Similar thoughts - OK for cruder work, but hard to get much precision/straightness from it. The blades are square ended and leave steps, and the sole is very short and hence it's not that stable. The depth of cut is determined by pulling the infeed section (which is only about 4in long) up with a screw against a foam pad - not sure that it even stays square if it's not evenly loaded.

ian

[Tom Scott]

I think the only time I've used mine in the last 15+ years was to surface some old barn beams that were to be used in the house we were building. It worked great for that, but is not a substitute for a real jointer...it is much too short.
If your current jointer is too small, then I would used the planer (with a sled if needed).

[David Nelson1]

I borrowed a Makita. I used it to pre joint 9 - 12 foot long boards. The idea was to get it close before jointing an edge since I didn't have a straight line saw. Worked good for that, but as mentioned it works best for rough work.

[Victor Robinson]

As others have said, probably not the best option for decent face jointing. Look to a planer sled or a router surfacing sled.

[Mike Henderson]

Yep, those power planers can take a lot of wood off in a hurry. Good for rough work but you could really mess up some fine work.

Mike

[Larry Edgerton]

I have several. I use an old Skil for ridges in swelled subflooring. Don't care about that one at all.

I use a Dewalt for removing paint on a board that I want to run through the planer.

I have a Bosch that I use on site, and I disagree that they can not do nice work. They are not good for doing anything over their width, but a good edge can be done once you have some miles on one. It is a tool that you need to learn how to use.

I have a 6 1/4" Makita that I use for beam work.

And I have a Porter Cable door plane, 126 maybe, that does an awesome job doing what it is made for. Doors.

Look for one with a large adjustment knob so that you can adjust depth as you run down a board, and an fence.

They are not the answer to everything, but not a bad tool to have around either.

Larry

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Does anyone have one? Do you use it much and for what tasks? What brand do you have?

I am thinking of getting one to surface rough lumber that is to wide for my 6" joiner. What are your thoughts on using one for that purpose?

Another question, how do you handle rough lumber that is to wide to surface on you joiner?

Thanks

George
I have a Bosch with carbide blades. It's great for all sorts of things. I use it to plane finished door bottoms, works better than a Skil saw. I also use it to square up edges on sheet goods, especially useful on MDF, particle board, PVC and polypro. Back when I fabricated countertops it was very useful on solid surface. I've used it to rough surface wood, but it's very hard to flatten anything wider than the plane.

I also have an old very small Rockwell power block plane. It has a spiral carbide blade. It's also extremely scary. There is very little shoe length and almost no handle. A mostly useless tool except for very rare situations.

[michael osadchuk]

I have a Black & Decker portable power planer that was made in West Germany (old but well made).

I only time I used it over 'manual' hand planes was a situation where I need to shave off some wood from overhead joists...... there was virtually no leverage available to me in using a manual hand plane over my head.

But apart from such unique situations I would always choose a 'manual' handplane over a portable powered planer.... a hand plane with a "scrub plane" blade (ie curve in blade edge) would be faster or just as fast as a portable planer and without the noise, mess and, most important for your health, without forcefully ejecting into the air a lot of wood dust in addition to chips.... I wouldn't use a powered hand plane indoors without a particulate face mask.

Your second question about surfacing rough lumber wider than an available jointer.... hand planes or if you have thickness planer you can make a jig to have the thickness planer to perform the function of flattening one side... google something like "thickness jig for wood wood jointers".

good luck

michael

[William C Rogers]

George

I have the Bosch power planer. I bought it a long time ago thinking I would use it for large glue ups. I had my hand planes in a state of repair (and still are) and thought it would speed up the process. Ended up buying a drum sander and didn't use it for that. I have used it to plane a 80 year old table and worked very well for that. It was oak, and after I stripped it tried sanding, but there were many burn marks and gouges that would have taken forever to sand. It worked great for that. Now about the only time I will use it is if there is a small twist in a 8/4 board i want to join. I wouldn't buy it again, however I will keep it for those special jobs it will help to have. Basically I agree with all of the comments above.

For the second question you can google how to join wood wider than a 6 in jointer. The method I used was the one where you remove the guard. I would never recommend using a jointer without a guard. I first looked at the euro guard, but way too expensive for a $300 dollar jointer. I ended up making a poor man's euro guard, but attached it to the fence with a clamp instead of from the operators side as it would only be temporary. I put two pieces of wood at 90 degrees and clamped it to the jointer fence with one length covering the blades full length and width. So if you if you have a 9 inch board, with the pork chop guard removed and temporary euro guard you would proceed to join it as you normally do. You then end up with one side that is 6 in joined and 3 in not joined. Now switching to the planer, you need a sled that is slightly longer than the planner infeed and outfeed. The 6 in join part rides on the sled and the 3 inch unjoin part overhangs the sled. I used a piece of pre-finished plywood as you need a slick surface for the joined surface to slide on. I put a 3/4 stop on the underside of the infeed to keep the sled from pulling through with the board. Placing the 6 in joined face against the sled you then plane the 9 in side. After this is planed you remove the sled and plane the 3 in that was not joined. I usually save the wide boards and do them all at the same time and when the 6 inch is joined I put the normal guard back on and join the edge before planing. I know pictures would help, but I bought a 14 in jointer and no longer have any of this set up. This I believe is much easier than to build a planer sled as seen on FWW as you only need a flat board for the planer and a guard for the jointer. I had done quit a few boards this way, but would not do more than 9 in wide board. I tried to explain this best as possible, but let me know if you have any questions.

Bill

[Mike Cutler]

I have a DeWalt. It's a nice tool for what it is, but I don't think I'd want to use one to face join a board on a regular basis.
Mine has mostly been used to true the studs and joists in my 1919 house. It works great for that and if I catch an odd nail or so it doesn't bother me so much. You can hog a lot of material off with one of these.
You can actually do a surprisingly good job at edge jointing with one, but I'm not sure about face jointing. I'd probably make a face jointing jig for a router first, before buying one specifically for that task.
If you already have a planer, just make a sled for it to do the initial face jointing.

[Keith Weber]

I have a Bosch. I mainly use it when framing. You pick through the pile and get the nice straight 2x4's for the studs in your wall. You build the wall, but then a month or two goes by before you get around to putting up drywall. It never fails that there's always a few 2x4's that have developed a potbelly and are now sticking out compared to its neighbors. If I don't have any straight spares to replace them with (read as not having been bought in the last 24 hours), the power planer quickly allows me to knock them back to being straight. With all the knots in 2x lumber, and the contortions that you'd have to put your body in to get leverage, a hand plane is just not practical for that.

Keith