Is it just me? Seldom use the planer

[Shawn Pixley]

So, I was working in the shop and realized it had been well over a year since I used my planer. I have built many projects since then. What I have found myself doing is resawing boards so as not to waste the wood. I then plane to thickness with handplanes - blended woodworker. I've got a stack of 1/8" thins of pretty nice wood. I'm sure this adds time to my projects. I don't own a jointer and prefer to joint using handplanes. Flattening slabs can be a bit tedious though.

Am I the only one doing this?

[Peter Quinn]

I'm sure it's not just you, but it's definetly not me. My planer gets a pretty regular work out, drum sander is always ready too. I love using hand planes....but not so much I want to flatten all my stock with it. Bravo those that do though.

[Jay Jolliffe]

You're a better man than me Shawn. I have no desire to flatten boards by hand when I can use a jointer & planer. I just don't have the time or ambition. I did it a few times & it was not an enjoyable experience for me when I can use machines to get the same result.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My planer gets used on every project. I have a limited number of hand planes and often the wood I buy won't be the same thickness from board to board, thus I plane everything to insure they are the same thickness.

[J.R. Rutter]

Mostly for planing on edge to width, but we still do a fair amount of solid wood door panels that get sent through.

[Brian Williamson]

I use both handplanes and the stationary planer frequently. I like the power planer because I get results quickly. I like the handplanes because they're elegant and a joy to use. They each have their place in the way that I go about my projects. If time were no object I would dimension more of my lumber by hand.

There was a video posted by another user a week or so ago that really captured the sensations of handworking. Loved it. http://www.woodworksbb.es/ (http://www.woodworksbb.es/)

[paul cottingham]

I tend to rough flatten by hand. So I don't use my jointer much. I dimension thick stuff with my planer, when I need to. But when I think about it, I don't think I have pulled it out in a long time. If I was younger, and my hands hurt a lot less, I suspect that I would hardly ever use it. That suits my temperament and sensibilities.

To be honest, I don't worry too much about what the non show surfaces of my work look like. I have even left tearout and (gasp!) bark-like junk on surfaces where you can't see them. All i worry about is flat and straight where it matters. So that really limits how much I need power, I guess.

I do use my bandsaw a lot, even though it is just an old 12" Craftsman. I just can't face the prospect of long rips by hand in thick, heavy wood.

Interesting topic, I will be fascinated by how people respond.

[Shawn Pixley]

I use both handplanes and the stationary planer frequently. I like the power planer because I get results quickly. I like the handplanes because they're elegant and a joy to use. They each have their place in the way that I go about my projects. If time were no object I would dimension more of my lumber by hand.

There was a video posted by another user a week or so ago that really captured the sensations of handworking. Loved it. http://www.woodworksbb.es/ (http://www.woodworksbb.es/)

Brian, hey you're just down the road from me. I am a hobbyist, so production time doesn't factor in much. But when a weekend has passed and you find that all you have done is prep stock, you do question your own sanity.

I won't get rid of the planer, but I do find I only use it sporatically. While I am Neander in many ways, my table saw is an essential!

[Jim Andrew]

I find that since getting a small widebelt sander, I don't use my planer as much. I plane my boards to 13/16, use the Hammer to straight line the edges, glue the panel up, rip it, square it, then grind it down with the sander. I'm getting amazing flat square panels.

[Art Mann]

I use my planer on essentially every project I do. I only buy rough sawn lumber and find absolutely no joy at all in hand planing to smooth and dimension the lumber. I do have an old Stanley hand plane I inherited which I use maybe once a year when no other tool will do the job.

[Dave Cullen]

My planer gets used on almost every project. It's the jointer that gets neglected, because I like to rough stock by hand and use the planer to dimension it to thickness. If I were better at edge jointing with a handplane I'd probably not need a jointer machine at all.

[Dennis Nagle]

I do glue ups for wooden burial urns so I buy rough 5 or 4 quarter wood and plane it myself. I an ensured that the glue surface is totally flat with no warpage that I see in store bought planed wood all the time.

[Bill McNiel]

Shawn,
I'm kind of the reverse of you, more power and less hand work (this probably has something to do with aging hands and stamina).

I true up my large slabs using a router sled with a 2" magna flat bottom bit (takes a while but I get more usable cross section this way and I have more time than money).

Use my planer primarily for repetitive parts that I want to have uniform (face frames, etc.)

Hand planes for specialty stuff, prelim removal of significant high spots and final truing.

[Dennis Hawkins]

I'm sure it's not just you, but it's definetly not me. My planer gets a pretty regular work out, drum sander is always ready too. I love using hand planes....but not so much I want to flatten all my stock with it. Bravo those that do though.

Ditto for me on this !

[Jim Matthews]

If you're not buying lumber in the rough, handplaning isn't much of a time sink.

There are some exceptions; lumber that takes longer because of unruly grain, but those can be difficult to get right with machines, too.
I work mostly with forgiving North American cherry which holds few surprises.

I have a co-op at the ready if I need to mill heavier stock.
Like the OP, that hasn't happened in a year or so.

[Chris Padilla]

I have mostly rough lumber so the J/P gets a workout but only in spurts. I will take some largish 10/4, 12" wide, 10' long maple planks and use the bandsaw, jointer, and planer prepping everything and then I don't need them for a while and can usually get by with the table saw and drum sander and CMS using the stock on my project.

[Brian Williamson]

Hey, we're practically neighbors!

Good to know.

[Larry Edgerton]

I wish this was not how I make a living and could take the time to plane by hand, but that is not the case. I have a planer that is about as good as they get, dimensions perfectly with no tearout, and very little sanding. Its what I have to use to make a living, but.....

I have a collection of nice planes, and on occasion when I am not under pressure, I will get one out and do a job with it for no other reason than I like the sound. Besides, my granddaughter loves the plane shaving. wigs I make her.:D

[Cary Falk]

I had to Google this hand plane of which you speak. It appears to be some type of medieval torture device. After seeing the picture, I am reminded that I have one in pieces in my toolbox and is in fact a torture device.:D

[Kent A Bathurst]

So, I was working in the shop and realized it had been well over a year since I used my planer.
Am I the only one doing this?

Shawn -

Yes. It's just you. At least, up here in the electron-burner section.

The Neanders have a 12-step program for you, from what I've heard.

[jeff shanz]

Shawn,
If I understand you correctly you like to use MDF and veneer in place of solid hardwood boards.
What sort of projects have you been building?

I'm probably not understanding rightly, since I'm the only one asking. :D

[Rick Fisher]

I use it to dimension rough lumber.
Face joint and then plane.

After that I use a sander..

If I am being fussy however, I will Joint, resaw and run through the sander, skipping the planer.

[Shawn Pixley]

Jeff,

Sorry, you are mistaken. I have never used MDF and seldom use plywood. I typically work in solid stock. I just don't use the planer much. Instead of planing wood to dimension, I flatten a side and then resaw on my bandsaw. This leaves me with an 1/8"+ thin if I resaw 4/4 to 1/2" fininshed dimension.

It appears I am pretty much alone in this.

[Shawn Pixley]

I had to Google this hand plane of which you speak. It appears to be some type of medieval torture device. After seeing the picture, I am reminded that I have one in pieces in my toolbox and is in fact a torture device.:D

Cary, that was really good...

[Jim Matthews]

I had to Google this hand plane of which you speak. It appears to be some type of medieval torture device. After seeing the picture, I am reminded that I have one in pieces in my toolbox and is in fact a torture device.:D

You're holding it upside down.
You put the pointy part on the wood.

[Jim Matthews]

It appears I am pretty much alone in this.

I doubt that.
I suspect you might be one of few that is competent.

I've tried to use my bandsaw efficiently, but rarely get two usable pieces.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Hi Shawn.. How do you keep the 1/8 boards from changing shape? Or, do you start a project soon after prepping the boards?

[Cary Falk]

You're holding it upside down.
You put the pointy part on the wood.
If I did in fact turn it over, it would hammer nails better. Thanks for the tip.

[Mike Heidrick]

Id say 99% of all hardwoods I use go through the planer. All mine comes from mills or other ww's rough lumber piles.

[John TenEyck]

Man invented power machines for a reason - to make my life easier. Hand planes are nice for some finesse work but I would quite working wood if I had to use them to flatten and/or thickness stock. I chop wood for exercise.

I know people claim it can be done, but I have never seen and certainly never been able to make a big slab of wood as flat and true with a hand plane as what I get coming out of my drum sander. Boards are so flat they literally stick together from cohesion.

John

[Terry Beadle]

I'm a combo man. er....No I don't work at Burger King...hoot!

I use my transitional jack to knock off the high or thickness hills on rough stock.
Then it's a quick check of one side of the work piece to get it reasonably straight.
Then it's off to the 6 inch jointer and I make a one pass and evaluate the amount of timber needed to flatten. It may need a little more
work with the jack plane. I also joint one edge.
Then once one side is flat, it's marked and taken to the table saw for cutting the opposite edge and cutting to rough working width.
Then it's off to the thickness planer for an initial pass. If it's too out of whack I'll work on the surface with my jack plane until I'm pretty
certain it will go through the thickness planer.
Final cross cut on radial arm saw to lengths.
Hand planes are used to do the final squaring and sizing.

So my process is a combination or hybrid of hand tools and electron burners but the over all philosophy is "use the best tool for the job with the least sweat equity" and
when in doubt...use hand planes to preserve the most wood...cause it cost mucho dinero.

This advice is free and priced right !!! Hoot!

[Shawn Pixley]

Hi Shawn.. How do you keep the 1/8 boards from changing shape? Or, do you start a project soon after prepping the boards?

Here's my example from the current project. I needed a 17-1/2" x 72" panel of 1/2" thick solid birdseye maple. So, i got 3 kiln dried boards with sympathetic grain for the panel. They acclimated for a week in my garage / shop. First I flattened the boards with first a jackplane, then a jointer plane. I then resawed (is this really a word?) each of the three boards to a little over a half inch for the piece I am starting. This left a cut-off of a little under 3/16" that I could salvage. I then took the jack and the jointer to the half inch boards. The boards were glued up into panels and then flattened to even up any mismatch in the joints. The project could now procede to the next step.

But, I still have the ~3/16" cut-offs that are unnecessary for the current project. I planed off the saw marks with a jack plane. This gets them to about 1/8" in thickness. A quick run through the drum sander and they can be set aside for another project. Perhaps box tops, box bottoms, or laminated to another board? They are reasonbly flat but at a finshed thickness of 1/8", they could be trued out for any of the above uses.

288102

Here's a picture (sorry for the iPhone quality) of 4 of the 6, 1/8" flitches I have after the panel was glued up. I think the real reason I do this is that I hate to waste the figured wood. I don't mind and somtimes even enjoy the hand work. I have a small stack of things like this. Primarally, walnut, curly maple, birdseye maple and a little african mahogany. My scrap stack can get a bit big. I'll then make boxes, trays, etc for gifts. There was a thread I started in the projects section a couple months ago.

[Bill Huber]

Jeff,

Sorry, you are mistaken. I have never used MDF and seldom use plywood. I typically work in solid stock. I just don't use the planer much. Instead of planing wood to dimension, I flatten a side and then resaw on my bandsaw. This leaves me with an 1/8"+ thin if I resaw 4/4 to 1/2" fininshed dimension.

It appears I am pretty much alone in this.

Not really, I don't use a hand plane but I do use the band saw and I also have a lot of 1/8" strips around.
I will resaw on the band saw and then just run them though the drum sander to clean them up and get to the finial dimension.

I also have a lot of 1/4" strips when I do 3/8" stuff for small boxes.

With that said, I still will use the planner now and then, not a lot but in some cases.

[jeff shanz]

I see now. You guys have very nice bandsaws then with lots of HP.

If you're buying flitches or rough stock for value then I see no reason to make lots of sawdust when you can make extra boards.
I would use what's left over for veener.

[Chris Fournier]

I use the planer all the time and wouldn't be without it. I tend to resaw as well but I use the planer to get to dimension. I use my handplanes when they pay the biggest dividends but not for everyday lumber reducing grunt work. I find the roar of the planer and the stream of chips in the dust collector as satisfying as the hiss of a handplane as it cuts a perfect continous shaving. Couldn't live with one or the other, I need both.

[Bill Huber]

I see now. You guys have very nice bandsaws then with lots of HP.

If you're buying flitches or rough stock for value then I see no reason to make lots of sawdust when you can make extra boards.
I would use what's left over for veener.

All I have for a band saw is a 14" Jet, 1 HP with no riser.

I have used some of the 1/8" stuff for a veneer after putting it though the drum sander, works very well.

[Chris Fournier]

I doubt that.
I suspect you might be one of few that is competent.

I've tried to use my bandsaw efficiently, but rarely get two usable pieces.

I saw your bandsaw woes earlier. It really isn't a complicated machine and decent results should be forthcoming without much trouble. I wish that I was nearby and could drop in to check out your set up. Don't quit. Back up to the beginning. Go over everything from the start and use a fresh blade (buy two to make sure) and try again again. If you can trouble shoot your process I know that the Bsaw will be as kind to you as it is to me.

This being said, the Bsaw is not as repeatable as the Tsaw...

[Matthew Hills]

What thicknesses are your finished boards? and what thickness do you start with?

I'm in the "using planes instead of 6" jointer" camp, but still using my planer for getting uniform thicknesses.
But don't see myself getting 2 useful furniture pieces out of resaw. (most of my lumber is rough 4/4, and any 8/4 I have is usually allocated for the parts that need something finished > 1")

Matt

[Shawn Pixley]

My bandsaw is no great bandsaw - Rikon 10-325 (1.5 HP). What I did is follow the advice of many on here and tune it well. When resawing, I use featherboards and work at the rate of the saw. This place is great for practical advice!

Thanks to all who have shared their knowledge!

[Shawn Pixley]

What thicknesses are your finished boards? and what thickness do you start with?

I'm in the "using planes instead of 6" jointer" camp, but still using my planer for getting uniform thicknesses.
But don't see myself getting 2 useful furniture pieces out of resaw. (most of my lumber is rough 4/4, and any 8/4 I have is usually allocated for the parts that need something finished > 1")

Matt

The current project started with 4/4 S2S (13/16"). The finished thickness was 1/2". Four of the six offcuts resulted in an 1/8" thin in addition to the 1/2" finished stock. The other two pieces were thinner as I had to remove more material from the 4/4 to get a surface flat. One ended at 1/16" the other was 1/32" when done.

if I work with thicker material, typically I get 1" out of a 5/4 stock. For a previous project, I needed 1-1/2" finished stock. I could only get 8/4" locally. Again I resaw it if possible. It seems to be my standard method. Not fast, but efficient for wood consumption.

[Frederick Skelly]

No, youre not the only one Shawn. I do more and more resawing and less and less power planar. I also have a stack of "thins" (1/8" stock.).
Fred

[Jim Matthews]

If I did in fact turn it over, it would hammer nails better. Thanks for the tip.

That's what the round end of chisels are for.
The pointy end of those is for opening paint cans.

Planes are designed for opening glass bottles with carbonated contents under pressure.