Opinion on Planer for Cleaning Rough Sawn: Repair, Buy Used or Change Knives?

[Mike Shields]

I've bought enough rough sawn to not want to mill that stuff in my brand new Minimax FS30 J/P (should be rcving very soon).

I have a DeWalt 735 that appears to have a damaged gearbox for the feed rollers. Estimate for repair is $25, and several weeks to get it done. Gearbox repair could be several hundred dollars, so says the service center.

CL has several Ridgid (new and used) for sale at less than $300.

Or, change out the FS30 knives after the cleanup cuts, before the final dimensioning?

A lunchbox will not take up any space, so that is not an issue.

Any opinions?

Thanks,

Mike

[Ethan Melad]

why not joint/plane on the good machine and see where you're at when you're done? how much do you have to do? the knives may very well be perfectly fine at the end of the 'rough' milling to do the finish work. and unless you got a head with insert cutters, a new set of knives would probably be cheaper than repairing/buying a new lunchbox. even if they're not cheaper, a second set of knives is always worth having.

[Erik Loza]

I agree, Mike. Chrome-steel Tersa knives are cheap and I think you will find that the FS30 handles that volume of stock much better than a lunchbox. In other words, it will all just be faster and easier on the FS30. Trust me: You don't need to worry about babying it.

Best,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm confused….you have a brand new full size jointer planer, and you don't want to run stock through it?:confused: Instead your thinking about buying another toy planer to run it through?

I have a full sized 16" jointer and a 20" planer that I've run thousands of board feet of rough sawn lumber through. That's what I bought them for! The idea of doing any amount of work with a lunchbox planer is not something I even want to think about. I don't know why you would hesitate to run wood through your new machine, but I would try to get over quickly. Why else would you buy the machine in the first place??? As far as changing the knives out….again I'm confused? Why do you think that you need different knives for the outside of the board than the inside? It's the same wood! Unless you happen to have come across a pile of lumber that's been painted, or recycled, or some other situation you haven't mentioned, you don't change knives from the first pass to the second.

JeffD

[David Weaver]

If you're finding wood with a lot of dirt in it, use a hand held planer to skim the top layer off if you need to, but just brush the wood off otherwise and run it through like you normally do.

If you absolutely don't like that, rather than another planer, you need another jointer to skim each side of a board until you have clean wood.

but I wouldn't do that at all. Just use the J/P until the knives are dull and sharpen them. If the finish cut isn't absolutely perfect (e.g., nicks and stuff) ....well, you're going to sand or hand plane it, anyway.

[Stephen Cherry]

The tersa head is a little too upscale for my tight budget (I can dream though), but one idea might be to get a set of carbide knives for a first pass, particularly in dirty lumber, then switch to hss for finish passes.

[Mike Shields]

I'm confused….JeffD

Sorry for your confusion.

There are a members here who have 2 planers for doing exactly what I'm suggesting, so I'm not all that out of line.

Thanks,

Mike

[Mel Fulks]

If material has grit I hit it with wire brush then run it through planer on HIGH speed taking off at least a 1/16th. That removes most of the dirt with the least damage. Then you can slow the feed for finish cut.

[John A langley]

I'm assuming you have a Tersa head if you get a nick unit all you have to do is move one knife to the left or right A little bit and you're back in business

[Jim A Walters]

You'll soon learn to love the Tersa head on the FS30. You can swap knives out in a few minutes and they are fairly inexpensive. I bought a few sets and use one set for the rough sawn lumber and another set for a finer finish. Depending on the hardness and type of lumber you can use chrome steel, M42, HSS or carbide. Chrome steel won't chip as easy so it's good for the dirty stuff.

As Erik said, you don't need to baby the machine, but you'll need a good DC to keep up with it.

Jim

[johnny means]

Why wouldn't you want to mill a bunch of rough sawn lumber on your bigger, better, quieter, more powerful planer?:confused:

[J.R. Rutter]

Another vote for just running it on the combo machine. Lunchbox planers don't do very well with uneven thickness like you are likely to see with rough lumber. You will love the Tersa knives.

[Larry Edgerton]

Sorry for your confusion.

There are a members here who have 2 planers for doing exactly what I'm suggesting, so I'm not all that out of line.

Thanks,

Mike

I wish I had two planers for that, but I want the rough one to be a Powermatic 180 with a Byrd, not a lunchbox.

I have a SCM planer with a tersa head and Erik is right, you are not going to hurt it. I want to be able to run two at a time, first pass on the Byrd head, second on the Tersa, but until then I just put in a old set of knives for rough passes. Only takes a couple of minutes to change knives.

Throw the lunchbox out!

Larry

[Larry Edgerton]

If material has grit I hit it with wire brush then run it through planer on HIGH speed taking off at least a 1/16th. That removes most of the dirt with the least damage. Then you can slow the feed for finish cut.

What he said.........

Larry

[William C Rogers]

Yes I have two planers, but I don't use them the way you are suggesting. I only use the Dewalt 735 when I just need to resize a board or maybe one board. I use my mini max (which doesn't have the Tersa knives) for all of my rough lumber as it is 5 times or more faster.

[Matt Day]

Add me to the confused list. Use that machine you just blew a few grand on!

And i wouldn't be too thrilled with the service center for the 735. They say the estimate is $25, but might be $300+? It's not that complicated a machine and with some internet searching I'm sure you could figure out what's wrong with it.

[Russ Ambrose]

just clean your rough lumber with a wire brush and/or air hose and run it through the best machine possible.

[Frank Drew]

Back in1973, I bought a brand new Ford F-100 pickup (for $2650!); a friend told me to give one of the bed top edges a good whack with a piece of firewood so that I'd right away get over wanting to keep it showroom pristine -- it was bought as a tool, after all.

[Mark Bolton]

Add me to the confused list. Use that machine you just blew a few grand on!

And i wouldn't be too thrilled with the service center for the 735. They say the estimate is $25, but might be $300+? It's not that complicated a machine and with some internet searching I'm sure you could figure out what's wrong with it.

I took it to mean the estimate cost 25 (which they will likely apply toward the repair). Meaning they arent going to tear the machine down for free.

My local DeWalt center will tell you what the base fee is and what the maximum they will charge to fix anything wrong with the tool. But there is always the minimum. No free estimates so to speak.

[Mark Bolton]

Back in1973, I bought a brand new Ford F-100 pickup (for $2650!); a friend told me to give one of the bed top edges a good whack with a piece of firewood so that I'd right away get over wanting to keep it showroom pristine -- it was bought as a tool, after all.

Frank hits the nail on the head. I probably take this to an extreme and intentionally use stuff hard right out of the gate because I hate having new/shinny things. Nothing worse than walking on the jobsite with a brand new pair of boots or carhartts. Better to drag them through the mud a bit first ;-).

Im in the confused column myself as I would never phathom keeping a planer "for special" and having one for coarse work unless it was as Larry mentioned, a PM180, byrd or on board grinder would be fine with me. A real machine for roughing. But even that is luxury to be able to keep a machine with clean(er) knives on it for final passes.

Perhaps its good to remember that a thickness planer is simply a roughing tool. Its not delivering the final finish regardless of how pretty and shinny it is or the knives are.

[Mike Leung]

I have multiple sets of Tersa knives for different purposes. I use my M2 HSS knives for most of my all around jointing, Chrome knives for softwoods, and if needed M42 Colbalt knives for my finish jointing on hardwoods. Tersa does make Carbide knives but they are really expensive. I read that the Carbide version would be good for general use but does not create the same amazing glow the M2 and M42 provides. It takes me less than 2 minutes to switch out the knives and that is the beauty of the Tersa system. Enjoy your new toy.

[Jeff Duncan]

Sorry for your confusion.

There are a members here who have 2 planers for doing exactly what I'm suggesting, so I'm not all that out of line.

Thanks,

Mike

No need to apologize, nor would I say your out of line. I'm just trying to figure out exactly what your trying to do? I have 2 planers as well, but the lunchbox is for odd jobs I don't want going through the real planer. It sounds like you want to run rough stock through one planer, and then run it again through another planer but haven't given us a reason why? Maybe your right and someone else here does do such a thing, it's just the first I've ever heard of it? So are you planing painted wood or some other special situation, or are you simply running the same pieces of rough sawn stock through 2 machines? Once we know your reasoning it may make more sense to us.

good luck,
JeffD

[David Kumm]

I didn't see if you got the Tersa but they are the one planer fits all machine. I do run both insert and tersa because I like machines but am careful with the insert and run anything suspicious through the tersa. Dave

[Mel Fulks]

Mike ,you have done a good service in pointing out the superiority of the finish with M2 and M42. My understanding of the carbo chrome is it is more resistant to high acid woods than the junk that comes in many new machines,but I doubt it adds any advantage over the good steels.