Porch Railing

[Daniel Boddy]

We have white spindle railings on our covered back porch and gazebo which has not been refinished in about 5 yrs. The top of the railing is 1x6 wolmanized lumber which is held on with a few screws from underneath. I'm thinking of removing them and running them through my Dewalt planer to resurfaced them and then restain and varnish them. My shop is in the basement and my D.C. is not completely hooked up yet so I'm thinking of taking the planer outside to do this job. Currently using a shop vac and Dust Deputy. Concerned about toxic dust from treated lumber. Any thoughts?

[Patrick Kane]

Cant speak to the toxicity of treated lumber, but definitely something id be concerned about myself. The beauty of a portable planer is its portability! when i did my deck railing in cedar,i got it rough cut and planed it outside with the dewalt 735. Worked very nicely with 16 footers. The 735 has a powerful enough fan that you can run it with a short section of flexible hose and direct the chip into a brute or similar.

[Mark Daily]

Just put on a good respirator and go to it!

[John Lifer]

I roll my Powermatic 100 outside most of the time. Get the wind going in the right direction, preferrably none and get a good fan blowing behind you (infeed side) and go to it!