Electric hand planer good enough for 2x4 and 2x6 construction?

[Aaron Buys]

I’m looking for some advice on a planer/jointer solution for my woodworking. I would like to build my son a loft bed and I’ve purchased some plans for making one. It’s almost entirely 2x4 and 2x6 pine construction and a pretty simple build. I’m primarily a woodturner so most of my shop revolves around that and I own only a lathe, bandsaw, chop saw, circular saw, (no table saw.) I know I won’t be happy with the final product if I use lumber from the big box store and don’t mill it to some extent as I would like to bed to look as “furniture grade” as I can. What solution would you recommend to plane/joint the dimensional lumber so all my lap joints look good and the final product looks professional? I’m considering picking up an electric hand planer to true up the store bought lumber. Will this be sufficient or do I need to invest in something larger and more substantial?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Aaron, there are going to be a couple of issue.

1) the lumber you buy will not be dry enough to make furniture out of, if you're buying framing lumber

2) once dried, lumber will require jointing and planning. Framing lumber in my experience becomes so twisted and warped as to be useless.

Since you're a turner, it may be most effective from a cost and result perspective to purchase pine from a supplier of furniture grade wood and have them joint and plane it.

regards, Rod.

[Tony Bilello]

Just as a side note, furniture grade pine is more expensive than oak and depending on the market, sometimes more expensive than mahogany.

[Tom M King]

Also, blade width on these are typically 3-1/4", which will not even cover the width of a 2x4 in one pass. Taking more than one pass to cover the width of any board will leave ridges along the edges of the planer blades. It's just not the tool to do the job that you are thinking it will.

[George Yetka]

I agree with above 2x construction is good for a lot of things but not furniture unless its going to be a temporary solution. I would pick up some type of hardwood and bring it to a woodworking school that has hourly rates for open shop use about 23$ an hour by me. Or buy it S4S

[Stan Calow]

jointing and planing are two different things. I don't think you could joint with a hand planer because its bed is not long enough to establish a flat surface over a length. IMO.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Construction lumber will work fine for a loft bed, you don't need to go out and get Honduran Mahogany for this. But, you need to be picky on the boards you buy, straightness is key, and I would recommend buying 2x12s and ripping the edges off into the 2x4 or 2x6 sections, discarding the centers. You can use your bandsaw or circ saw with edge guide for the ripping. 2x12s are cut from bigger, straighter trees so have a bit tighter growth rings and less defects. Ripping them will also help get rid of the roundover they put on all construction lumber. Removing that roundover is very important, both for looks and for being able to mark out joinery.

If you have time, stack and sticker your rough-cut parts for a few weeks at least. Construction lumber is a bit wet still (only partially kiln dried) and it does shrink and move a bit as it completes the air drying process.

Regarding handheld electric planers, they will only be useful on the edges, and even then most of them are not super accurate. For face milling, you can take out some high spots with them but if you try to mill the whole face you'll get grooves that will need to be taken out with something else.

Short of buying a jointer and planer, the way I would do this is with a hand plane. They work very well but there is a learning curve for sharpening and using them, and knotty pine/fir is not so fun to plane for a beginner. You could potentially build a router sled, but you didn;t say you had a router. If none of that appeals, then I think you are down to either taking your parts somewhere else for milling, or just making sure you buy very straight lumber, and keep it stacked and stickered until acclimated.

[Andrew More]

Going to descent a bit with some of the previous comments.

First, my father has made a number of pieces of furniture from framing lumber. He did not joint or plane the boards, and in some cases didn't even sand enough to remove the various stamps. It's not museum quality furniture, but they're not warped, twisted, or otherwise deformed. Naturally you're going to want to be careful with moisture count, so bring a meter, pay attention to the grain, and go to an indoor lumber yard. I believe he sourced all his lumber for various big box stores, though some of it is so old those stores have since closed.
Second, I've bought furniture grade Eastern Pine from a couple of sawyers here locally (Ohio midwest), and paid $2.50-$3.00 a board foot. The biggest issue was finding a place that carried it.

Aaron, you might consider a hand plane or two, or do what my father did and not worry about it.

[Andrew Hughes]

I also think you should pass on construction lumber. It’s just too wet. Not only will it warp and twist when it dries some pieces might weep sap.
Klin dried popler is my suggestion.

[Robert Engel]

I agree with everything said. IMO a belt sander would be a better tool to surface than a planer if dealing with knotty wood.

That said, the issue you're going to have with joinery is slight thickness variations. But this can be dealt with by custom making each joint.

Sorry but I disagree re: don't use construction lumber. It can be done if you start with the straightest lumber you can find, with the least number of knots, and sticker it for a couple months for additional drying.

[Frank Pratt]

If using construction lumber, buy at least double what you'll need, let it sit & dry for a few months & then pick out the straightest boards. Getting 2x12's & cutting them down is an excellent suggestion.

[Jim Becker]

The type of electric hand planer tool you mention is fine for adjusting door fit and things like that, but they are not designed for processing lumber for furniture projects like you describe. You'e be better off with a 12" planer and using a sled for flattening (jointing) one side before you bring the stock to thickness.

[mat price]

I have lots of stuff made from kiln dried pine from box stores none of which has twisted and warped. I have a 36x96 work bench that was 5 years ago out straight 4x4 2x6 2x4 pine and is just as good today as it was 5 years ago. Now with that said. Pick straight boards as you can. I usually rip the round edges off but difficult to accomplish without a table saw.

[Zach Dorsch]

You will be hard pressed to plane that lumber with an electric hand plane.

Anoyher option based on what you already have would be to make a jig for your circular saw and cut off the rounded edges. Something like this:

https://sawmillcreek.org/blob:https://sawmillcreek.org/11a72b3b-8aed-4cb0-93d4-ad86479211a0 408128

Just have the plywood wood cut at the box store.

Mark me down as another person who has used construction grade lumber for furniture, albeit mostly painted furniture. I’ve used both southern yellow pine and the cheap aspen/fir/whatever without issue. I did place a clear finish on a construction lumber kitchen table built for my friends who have three boys and it has survived them for 8 years.

[lowell holmes]

You really need a Jet or Powermatic Jointer. Either can do the job.

[Marshall Harrison]

Also, blade width on these are typically 3-1/4", which will not even cover the width of a 2x4 in one pass. Taking more than one pass to cover the width of any board will leave ridges along the edges of the planer blades. It's just not the tool to do the job that you are thinking it will.

OK. that makes sense. But explain how that is any different than dimensioning with a Stanley (or Lee Valley) hand plane? It seems to me that both of those techniques do the same thing. I realize that with an electric hand plainer it would be too easy to take of too much wood as compared to a hand plane. But still it is the same basic process. Isn't it?

[Carl Beckett]

I have made a couple items from kiln dried (fir maybe) 2x4's from the box store. It worked well

Sometimes I rip it on the table saw to get the thickness I want and square off the rounded edges.

If you then had a small bench top jointer (I had one for years that worked surprisingly well, Craiglist can prolly find you one) you could surface it and given it was cut straight in the table saw that might be enough.

Ideally you then plane it, but I haven't 'always' planed it and have made some decent projects

For what it's worth

[Jim Andrew]

Thought this thread was going to be about using a hand held planer doing construction. Used to use one to plane a "high" floor joist, or a rafter with too much crown before putting down the subfloor or roof sheeting.

[Phillip Mitchell]

OK. that makes sense. But explain how that is any different than dimensioning with a Stanley (or Lee Valley) hand plane? It seems to me that both of those techniques do the same thing. I realize that with an electric hand plainer it would be too easy to take of too much wood as compared to a hand plane. But still it is the same basic process. Isn't it?

If you've ever tried to do any flattening, jointing, or dimensioning with an electric, hand-held power planer you'll know that even the lightest cut possible with the power planer could create ridges that very quickly become something you have to deal with to get to the finish line. When I'm in this odd situation (on a job site probably or in one-off timber framing situations) then I'll usually clean up the ridges with a well-tuned hand plane, but then you need a well-tuned hand plane.

Conversely, doing the same operations with just a (set of) well-tuned hand plane(s) removes much less material per pass and take a good deal longer because of it, but also is much easier to keep the ridges / plane tracks in check.

The difference is really in how much wood is being removed per pass and how quickly the ridges become an obstacle to deal with.

All of this aside, you don't want to do this type of work with a power planer. It's just not worth the effort with framing lumber and it really won't serve you very much if your lumber isn't close to straight, flat, and square.

Either find a way to mill your own lumber on a jointer, planer and table saw or design your project around S4S lumber and buy that.

[Marshall Harrison]

If you've ever tried to do any flattening, jointing, or dimensioning with an electric, hand-held power planer you'll know that even the lightest cut possible with the power planer could create ridges that very quickly become something you have to deal with to get to the finish line. When I'm in this odd situation (on a job site probably or in one-off timber framing situations) then I'll usually clean up the ridges with a well-tuned hand plane, but then you need a well-tuned hand plane.

Conversely, doing the same operations with just a (set of) well-tuned hand plane(s) removes much less material per pass and take a good deal longer because of it, but also is much easier to keep the ridges / plane tracks in check.

The difference is really in how much wood is being removed per pass and how quickly the ridges become an obstacle to deal with.

All of this aside, you don't want to do this type of work with a power planer. It's just not worth the effort with framing lumber and it really won't serve you very much if your lumber isn't close to straight, flat, and square.

Either find a way to mill your own lumber on a jointer, planer and table saw or design your project around S4S lumber and buy that.

Thanks Philip,

So if I understand your post, the hand plane approach would have the same problem. The only difference is that the electric planer would quickly compound the problem and make things worse requiting more cleanup to fix it. That was my basic premise that the problem happens with bot methods.

I agree that if one doesn't have the proper tools then they should stick to S4S but even that isn't necessarily flat or straight.

[Frank Pratt]

Thanks Philip,

So if I understand your post, the hand plane approach would have the same problem. The only difference is that the electric planer would quickly compound the problem and make things worse requiting more cleanup to fix it. That was my basic premise that the problem happens with bot methods.

I agree that if one doesn't have the proper tools then they should stick to S4S but even that isn't necessarily flat or straight.

A smoother iron is usually ground with the sides of the edge eased a bit so it doesn't leave sharp tracks. That combined with the much shallower cut taken with a hand plane leaves a much more even surface.

[Robert Hazelwood]

An electric hand planer operates on a different concept than a hand plane, and I'm not talking about electricity. The electric planer is a small jointer that you use upside down, so there are two major differences:

1- the cutter extends the entire width of the sole, whereas on a bench plane the sole has wings on either side of the cutter. Those wings play a big role when you're working on a surface wider than the cutter. They prevent the edges of the cutter from digging in if you put more pressure on one side, they bridge high spots across the width to help create flatness, and they limit the depth of any "trench" you could make. With an electric planer you can easily create a 1/2" deep trench in the middle of the board if you keep taking passes in the same spot, with a hand plane that is limited to the cutter projection which is a couple thousandths. This also means that if you're flattening a cupped board where the middle is low, the hand plane will not cut the low middle until you plane down the high edges, but the electric plane will cut anywhere you put it and will happily make the cup even deeper if you're not paying close attention.

2- the sole of an electric planer is not flat, but has two offset parallel sections like a jointer. If the infeed and outfeed are flat and parallel and set correctly to the cutterhead then this is the ideal setup for producing a straight edge on anything narrower than the cutter, especially when the depth of cut is large. But it is not ideal for planing something wider than the cutter, mostly because it limits you to the setup described in the first point. It also means that you cannot effectively camber the blades, because it has to project above or at least be dead even with the outfeed sole. A hand plane sole is one flat surface, and the cutter projects below. While this seems like it wouldn't work as well to create a straight surface, it really does. At least for the small depth of cuts that hand planes take.

So essentially the hand planer is optimized for edge jointing, or face jointing of boards less than the cutter width. Bench planes are made for surfacing all faces and are not limited by width. I think an electric planer setup more like a bench plane would be a very useful tool for furniture makers without access to wide jointers/planers- in fact I cobbled together an experimental plane with a large plywood sole, and it works very well in the little bit of testing I have done.

[Marshall Harrison]

Thanks Fran and Robert.

That pretty much explains the difference (as well as the results) between the two.

[Richard Coers]

If I had to use big box store lumber for furniture, I'd buy 2x10s and rip 3 1/2 off each edge and use the remainder for secondary wood or throw it away. With proper selection you will get rift or quarter sawn lumber this way and a lot less stress in the drying wood. It also comes from bigger/older trees and hopefully less knots. Also gives you room to rip off the rounded edges and still keep full measure stock.

[scott vroom]

Go to a real lumber yard and look at KD Select 1 grade 2x4 and 2x6. It's a superior grade to the std #2 grade lumber used on most framing work. You may find that you won't need to plane it. I am among those that view quality framing lumber as fine for low cost furniture projects. A bunkbed would likely have cross members which will help keep everything straight. If you want to stick with pine, I would imagine there are grades that contain tight knots that would be far less expensive that clear.




I’m looking for some advice on a planer/jointer solution for my woodworking. I would like to build my son a loft bed and I’ve purchased some plans for making one. It’s almost entirely 2x4 and 2x6 pine construction and a pretty simple build. I’m primarily a woodturner so most of my shop revolves around that and I own only a lathe, bandsaw, chop saw, circular saw, (no table saw.) I know I won’t be happy with the final product if I use lumber from the big box store and don’t mill it to some extent as I would like to bed to look as “furniture grade” as I can. What solution would you recommend to plane/joint the dimensional lumber so all my lap joints look good and the final product looks professional? I’m considering picking up an electric hand planer to true up the store bought lumber. Will this be sufficient or do I need to invest in something larger and more substantial?