Do I need a planar?

[unknown user]

I'm just getting started and my first project is to build multiple raised garden beds for my back yard.
The material is 2x4 & 2x6 pressure treated lumber. The lumber I was able to pick out it is pretty rough. I am not looking for perfection but I would like to smooth out the 32 front exterior facing 2x6.
I was initially thinking a HL 850 might work until I learned benchtop planers may be an option.

What would y'all recommend I should do to smooth out the faces of the lumber?

 

[luvmytoolz]

I'm not keen on the benchtop planers myself, I had one and it was as loud as a jet engine but was just "adequate" in performance and results, sold it straight after the first and only use.

The HL850 is a seriously awesome planer (the best!) and you would never regret buying one, but a thicknesses might stand you in far better stead, with very shallow finishing passes to avoid chipping out any grain.

 

[denovo]

Pressure treated lumber is not meant to be planed or sanded.  Either process would remove the pressure treated coating and defeat the purpose of buying pressure treated lumber.  Pressure treated lumber also usually has a high surface moisture content that would make planing or sanding difficult with poor results.

Cedar is what you want to be using if you don't like the look of the pressure treated surface

 

[Peter Kelly]

You wouldn’t want excessive amounts of dust and particulates from pressure treated materials flying around, pretty unhealthy to breathing in any of those pesticides. Per above, there’s lots of alternative materials for outdoor use eg: white oak.

 

[Steve1]

I'm just getting started and my first project...

Unlikely a planer is appropriate at this point.

 

[kevinculle]

Not for working PT lumber but you will eventually want one for higher quality materials.  The pricing, selection and quality of woods like maple, walnut, white oak, etc. are very poor at large home centers like HD and Lowes.  When you want select examples of these species for furniture grade products you will really want to source them as rough sawn or skip planed from a specialty hardwood supplier and a planer then becomes a very useful addition to your shop.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Pressure treated lumber is not meant to be planed or sanded.  Either process would remove the pressure treated coating and defeat the purpose of buying pressure treated lumber.  Pressure treated lumber also usually has a high surface moisture content that would make planing or sanding difficult with poor results.

Cedar is what you want to be using if you don't like the look of the pressure treated surface

The treatment goes far enough in on even crappy quality stuff to plane off the surface fuzz without any issue.

 

[live4ever]

If the exterior appearance is important, you could clad the outside with a good outdoor wood such as cedar, white oak, etc.  That way you’re not trying to dimension/plane PT lumber, which is generally not done due to reasons mentioned. 

As to whether you’ll need a planer if you go the cladding route, it depends largely on the stock you’re able to obtain and your aesthetic goals for the project.

 

[Cheese]

Over the years having produced many raised bed planters using treated wood, only to revisit and reconstruct the planters every 10-12 years, I've since taken a different approach.

For small individual planters, I'll take clay chimney flue liners and cut them with a diamond blade to whatever length I want. The lifetime is 20+ years, I'm still using some that are over 30 years old.

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For larger planters I've installed COR-TEN items. I gave them many water rinses so that the protective oxide layer would grow on the outer surfaces. Then I placed each one and filled them with good topsoil. The lifetime should also be 20+ years but we'll see. Certainly that's double the service life of treated 2x materials.

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For relatively short height walls, I've used 4 x 4 black plastic landscape timbers sold by Menards. Made in the USA from 97% recycled post-consumer plastic and containing no wood products. "BestPLUS warrants to the original purchaser that, for a period of fifteen (15) years from the date of the original purchase at retail the Product will not crack, rot, corrode, or suffer structural damage from insect infestation."

It's easily worked with traditional woodworking tools and I've staked it in-place with 1" galvanized pipe driven 40" into the ground. With some attention to hole placement and careful measurement, everything fits together well, probably because there's no warping or twisting to factor in.

They also make traditional sized 2x boards.https://www.bestpl.us/products

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[Packard]

To professional photographers who operated in the 1980s, “planar” takes on an entirely different meaning.

My Hasselblad cameras (the same as made the Lunar landing in the USA space program) came with an 80mm Zeiss Planar lens. 

So naturally I was wondering why a woodworking site would be writing about classic camera lenses.  (“Planer” would have resolved that issue).

 

[Birdhunter]

I’d go with decking boards that are composites. No finishing required and the stuff last outdoors very well. I have used pressure treated lumber. Nasty stuff. I have built about 25 gun racks using the pressure treated wood and composite wood. I’ve had to replace most of the pressure treated wood over the past 20 years, but very little composite stuff.

 

[unknown user]

If the exterior appearance is important, you could clad the outside with a good outdoor wood such as cedar, white oak, etc.  That way you’re not trying to dimension/plane PT lumber, which is generally not done due to reasons mentioned. 

As to whether you’ll need a planer if you go the cladding route, it depends largely on the stock you’re able to obtain and your aesthetic goals for the project.

I had not thought about cladding as an option. What method and material would you recommend?

 

[unknown user]

Lots of great information. Thank you to everyone.

 

[Steve1]

I had not thought about cladding as an option. What method and material would you recommend?

I like Birdhunter's idea of the composite decking boards.

 

[cider]

Agree with everything above.  In addition: I like power tools, but even if I was a hand tool guy, I'd probably still get a thickness planer for hardwood projects.  I feel like thicknessing is the most annoying operation to do by hand (followed closely by resawing).

 

[Birdhunter]

This is a slippery slope. If you buy a planer, you will soon need a jointer. Then, a 6” jointer isn’t wide or long enough and you will buy an 8”. You will need a wider planer to match the jointer. You will not like setting planer knives so will buy a planer and a jointer with helical heads. The helical heads produce a far better finish with much less noise. Oh yeah, you will need a high volume dust collection system. By now, your shop will be far too small and you will buy a much larger house to make room for the new planer.

 

[jeffinsgf]

For relatively short height walls, I've used 4 x 4 black plastic landscape timbers sold by Menards. Made in the USA from 97% recycled post-consumer plastic and containing no wood products. "BestPLUS warrants to the original purchaser that, for a period of fifteen (15) years from the date of the original purchase at retail the Product will not crack, rot, corrode, or suffer structural damage from insect infestation."

It's easily worked with traditional woodworking tools and I've staked it in-place with 1" galvanized pipe driven 40" into the ground. With some attention to hole placement and careful measurement, everything fits together well, probably because there's no warping or twisting to factor in.

Interesting. Why the two-step drilling process, Cheese? Did the Forstner bit skate?

 

[unknown user]

This is a slippery slope. If you buy a planer, you will soon need a jointer. Then, a 6” jointer isn’t wide or long enough and you will buy an 8”. You will need a wider planer to match the jointer. You will not like setting planer knives so will buy a planer and a jointer with helical heads. The helical heads produce a far better finish with much less noise. Oh yeah, you will need a high volume dust collection system. By now, your shop will be far too small and you will buy a much larger house to make room for the new planer.

Challenge accepted  just don't tell my wife of this devious plan.

 

[kevinculle]

Jointer first...a planer will create a parallel face to an existing flat surface.  The jointer creates a flat surface where there was none before.

 

[squall_line]

Interesting. Why the two-step drilling process, Cheese? Did the Forstner bit skate?

At first I thought it was because he was using a plug cutter to cap the top row, but then I noticed that the first holes had pilots for the hole cutter.

It could also just be two different techniques taken at two different times rather than a sequential progression of shots.

When I installed a small retaining wall at my first house, we used my Ryobi chop saw to cut to length and my corded 1/2" Milwaukee drill to cut pilot holes for rebar in the bottom row and timber nails in the subsequent rows.  That was over 20 years ago, so I don't remember all of the details but I still have 10% of that tub of nails laying around somewhere after getting married and moving twice...