Planing Question

[Anthony Whitesell]

What types of planing is there? I know about hand planing, but I have also heard the term 'skip planing' lately as well. What is the planing called that the 'lunchbox' planers do?

[john frank]

crappy? Just kidding! generally people would use a lunchbox planer to finish plane something.

[David Duke]

A skip planed board would simply be a board that had been passed through the planer with a light pass being taken that didn't "clean-up" all the way. This is normally done to get a good clear look at the grain/figure of the wood.

[J.R. Rutter]

Maybe a better term for this machine is thicknesser.

Skip planing is sending rough lumber through a surfacer set to hit the high spots and miss the low spots. Hence the other term for skip planing - hit and missing. I buy my thin lumber 4/4 H&M to 15/16". It is a good compromise between having enough thickness to be able to flatten it and still be able to see the color and grain when it arrives.