From Rough Sawn to Workable TS75 and 850 Power Plane

[Per Swenson]

In the interest of full disclosure these tools were not provided to me for review purposes.

The saw is mine, and the power plane is a loaner to see if I would consider switching from my Makita.

Besides this isn't a review but a how to.

From Rough Sawn to workable, with the 850 planer and TS75

Or more aptly titled , Our method of converting rough sawn lumber

to usable stock.

The rough sawn we are dealing with today measures a nominal 5/4.

What this actually means is the stock could be anywhere from a inch and eighth

to a inch and 3/8ths in thickness. Often in the same board.

You can't just go and chuck this stock in a planer.

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You also can't throw it on a table saw, as there is never a straight or square edge.

The ideal solution of course is a industrial 4 headed planer, but if you thought

Festool was expensive.  Besides due to space, power and cost, for us it would be impractical.

Often on various forums and e-mails I have recommended building and using a sled for this task.

This works wonders for one or two select pieces of wood, if you need to do a large quantity, the sled

becomes cumbersome.

As for one straight and square edge, in our opinion nothing beats the the guide rail system.

Well, a industrial gang rip maybe, but who are we kidding. More on this in a moment.

Lets get started.

We are going to work outside, because  that's where the wood is.

This is in the true spirit of bringing the tool to the work, and its a nice day.

Yes, we are using dust collection outside. I highly recommend using it always

as these tools will clog up quickly if you don't. After all working neat

encourages a better attitude.

The object for us  is to achieve a reasonably flat surface that will ride along the planer bed.

So I place the board cup side down, as I want the cup side up for the first pass through the planer.

So there is no confusion the Woodmaster is the planer, the Festool HL850, we will call the Power Plane.

You can pretty much sight down the board and see where things went bad back at the mill.

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Chalk the high spots accordingly.

Though, a pair of squares or winding sticks are quite helpful if you are not comfortable with the

sight method.

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By lining up two squares and sighting down the length of the board as

if it were a gun sight,

you can confirm your suspicions and mark the high spots.

For this, we use nothing more then a school room box of chalk.

(Rest assured though, after you tenth board or so, you will become confident in your ability

to just sight and mark, speeding up the whole process)

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[Per Swenson]

Lets get the Festool HL 850 planer.

First impression, this baby's lite.

Second impression, its awfully quiet.

I like this already.

Third impression, its a jewel.

Wow, look at this.

Controls where they ought to be. Imagine that.

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All of the important controls of the 850 are right on the handle.

Depth of cut with a twist and the lock are right there where you want them.

And get this, it has a parking tab.

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Countless times in my haste I have placed other power planes down

prior to a complete stop. The results are never good anyway you look at it.

Before you start to think, Per maybe you should adjust your work methods, its not like that.

I need to work fast with a reasonable degree of safety. Standing around every few seconds with

a tool winding down in my hand is not conducive to the desired end result of going fishing.

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This simple ingenious piece of plastic quickens and evens out the pace.

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I have set the depth control to under a ? of a millimeter.

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With faith in Festool I just go at it. Removing all the chalk marks,

sight quickly and check with the squares. [attachimg=#]

 

[Per Swenson]

After all that writing a minute or two later I 'm done.

This board will now ride Flat on the planer bed. Cup side up.

By doing this I have solved two problems.

I have saved thickness, and the band saw waves have been removed.

If I didn't do this, we would be left with just a thinner piece of wavy wood.

As a time saver, and lets face it, there is water and a boat behind me,

The HL 850 is far superior to this task then anything I have used before.

Which include two other name brand power planes, a P/C belt sander,

a large Stanley hand plane,

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kid you not and never again,

and yes, we have done this with the Rotex 150.

At the moment I have no need to test the rebate function of this tool,

or any of the custom heads. We will leave that for a real review.
Moving along,

This is a shot of the board with a dash of mineral spirits and two

rough passes through the Woodmaster, flat bottom down and flipped once.

Its thickness is still over 7/8ths of a inch.

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You simply never know what you have

until you get to this stage.

Now lets straighten up some edges.

Before becoming acquainted with the Festool guide rail system.

This task was just a nightmare.

Ever try to joint a long board on a short jointer?

Good luck, We went so far as building out feed tables and attempting a two man

waltz.

That Father Son team on Orange County Choppers is tame and

faking it compared to the snot flung around here after that duet..

Your other option, is the table saw. Two ways with this method,

both worse then the next. Screw a straight edge to each and every board,

or build a sliding jig that can handle 10 feet or better.

I keep mentioning time. Every one of the above methods just eats it up.

Now some of you folks are sure to be thinking sliding table saw.

Not for us. A twenty thousand dollar tool would have to run all day to pay for itself.

Of course I would also have to hire someone to run it. Then pay and insure him.

Twenty thousand dollar table saw's actual cost is now sixty thousand a year.

That's expensive.

Enter the TS75. The most economical system for completing this task we have encountered.

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few of the boy's from down at Clancy's came snooping around.

Midday, mind you, kind of says a lot for the building situation here in the

North East. They took one look at the saw and exclaimed it

was the coolest thing they had ever seen. Asked if there was any work,

then headed back to the rail. See why I don't worry about competition.

Enough with the anecdotes, back to work.

Used here, and connected together are the 8 foot guide rail and the stock 55 inch rail that comes with

the TS55.

And the stock universal 36 tooth saw blade.

 

[Per Swenson]

I can't make this any simpler.

Plop that rail on there and cut it straight.

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At this stage you only need one square right angle and a flat bottomed board.

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One guy, (me) can process 500 board feet of rough sawn in a morning.

When finished the value of the lumber has increased 400 percent.

If you do the math, I just paid for the planer and the saw before lunch.

Now its back to the drawing board. Literally.

This lumber is destined for our OF2200 router review.  So, I am going

to have to go find those napkin sketches.

When we are done with that, (the thinking part) we will find out if the 2200 is a portable shaper,

or if I 'm this years winning contestant in the Darwin Awards.

Per Swenson

 

[Per Swenson]

Sorry double picture,

Close up of that amazing plastic foot is missing.

It just slides out of the way with forward motion.

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Per

 

[Brice Burrell]

Thanks for sharing Per, this is great stuff.

 

[Per Swenson]

I just noticed that my Avatar picture

and todays pictures are strangely similar.

For the record I have changed my cloths and taken a shower

at least once since both were shot.

I rarely change my ensemble, well there is the out to dinner,

Sunday go to meeting and visit the Magistrate look.

But thats just a different color pair of overalls and tie of course.

;D

Per

 

[neoshed]

Nice semi review there Per. I'd love to spend a week working with you and your Dad.....probably much better than an apprenticeship

 

[Michael Kellough]

I just noticed that my Avatar picture

and todays pictures are strangely similar.

For the record I have changed my cloths and taken a shower

at least once since both were shot.

I rarely change my ensemble, well there is the out to dinner,

Sunday go to meeting and visit the Magistrate look.

But thats just a different color pair of overalls and tie of course.

;D

Per

So... you only wear the pear when meeting new people?  ;D

 

[Per Swenson]

Michael,

I think I will carve one and wear it around my neck like Flava Flav's clock.

Patrick,

Thanks.

About that apprenticeship, on these here intertubes I may come across as a

fairly normal fella.

Truth of the matter is I am a down right bat rastid when it comes to this stuff.

Completely humorless.

Per

 

[Les]

Per,

Why the TS75?

Did you need the extra umph?

Shirley you have a TS55.

 

[dltflt]

That's some great information Per.  That is exactly why I want the TS-75 and guide rail.  Well that and breaking down sheet goods.

The planer info will come in handy next week when I start a project with 8/4 oak.  I don't own the HL850 but I do have a power planer.

Thanks for the how to

 

[chagall]

Per,

Great tute and pictures. Cool setting as well. Thanks for taking the time to post these.

David

 

[Brice Burrell]

I'm not Per but I'll give you my opinion about the TS75. I think it's about having the better tool for doing the amount of cutting a professional may have to do. I can provide a good return on the investment because it can be used to cut thick hardwood stock or be used to cut sheet goods. It give the professional user more options to use a single tool to do the most kinds work.

Don't get me wrong, I decided to buy the 55 over the 75 and have not regretted it, I believe Per also owns the 55 too. The TS55 isn't well suited to rip thick hardwood, it can do it but it strains. The 75 can do the job, cutting hundreds of B/F with no problems.

 

[Per Swenson]

Thanks Brice,

I couldn't have said it better myself.

And I would have tried, if not for the Great Satan Micro Soft.

More on that in a moment.

Les, the 75 is a hardwood rippin machine.

Not seen in the pictures is the nominal 8/4 that came next.

You really need the 75 for that application.

Frankly Folks it gets hot out there, those raybans are not for looks.

They defeat that nasty reflection from the guide rail.

Anyway when these saws get real hot from use and baking in the sun

the mmc slows you down.

And ya know what, it may look like I am having a blast, heck,

that I actually like doing this on a lazy afternoon, no.

It was fun the first time years ago.

It was fun when I could say, "Hunter pull that tarp and load that bench"

Unfortunately the one thing they taught him in high school is the benefits of

scarcity, a low profile, and important places to be, else where.

Per, what's with the tone?

Back to Microsoft. Thats it! I have almost had it!

$4000 dollar water cooled machine here so we can edit video,

with the operating system from hades.

I am typing faster so I can beat the inevitable crash.

Screw the Kapex, next big job, I need a MacPro.

Welcome back everybody

Per

 

[Michael Kellough]

Thanks Brice,

I couldn't have said it better myself.

And I would have if not for the Great Satan Micro Soft.

More on that in a moment.

Les, the 75 is a hardwood rippin machine.

Not seen in the pictures is the nominal 8/4 that came next.

You really need the 75 for that application.

Frankly Folks it gets hot out there, those raybans are not for looks.

They defeat that nasty reflection from the guide rail.

Anyway when these saws get real hot from use and baking in the sun

the mmc slows you down.

And ya know what, it may look like I am having a blast, heck,

that I actually like doing this on a lazy afternoon, no.

It was fun the first time years ago.

It was fun when I could say, "Hunter pull that tarp and load that bench"

Unfortunately the one thing they taught him in high school is the benefits of

scarcity, a low profile, and important places to be, else where.

Per, what's with the tone?

Back to Microsoft. Thats it! I have almost had it!

$4000 dollar water cooled machine here so we can edit video,

with the operating system from hades.

I am typing faster so I can beat the inevitable crash.

Screw the Kapex, next big job, I need a MacPro.

Welcome back everybody

Per

Per, one of my regrets at the demise of the Yahoo archive (the original site of the FOG) is that I failed to copy one of your early posts wherein you described your first encounter with the ATF 55 (or was it the 65?) as you effortlessly and efficiently straightened another stack of mahogany. That text was full of poetry and it's what has kept me on the lookout for your posts even more than your skill with woodworking tools. Keep it up.

On the other thing, I don't know how anyone who can figure out Festool is better than EZ...
can continue to use a computer running MicroBrittle  :

 

[Per Swenson]

Thanks Michael,

It is my understanding,

most likely incorrect,

that nothing truly dies on the internet.

So if one had the capacity,

combined with veracity,

could not one resurrect?

Per

 

[Steve Jones]

Per,

Should you wish to escape the clutches and control of the Evil Empire, I recently switched to Ubuntu (which is free) is not prone to attack by hackers (mostly disgruntled ex and current MS employees) and have found alternatives to almost all the software I used to use while still enslaved (also free) I still have one application that seems to require a slow, bug ridden, hacker friendly operating system, so I made my system dual boot.

My point is that all this was astonishingly easy and total investment to date has been ZERO, NADA, NIX, NOTHING, ZIP.

And I'm talking about replacing complete office suite, accounting, graphics, audio, movie viewers, everything I used to use occasionally, (between lockups, freezes and reboots) under sentence of Windows. My system has not frozen or misbehaved in any way since the changeover - this is a definite upgrade.

Come-on in, the water is lovely, and the peace of mind once outside the Evil Empire is bliss! - Anything I can do to help one more survivor escape to freedom will be gleefully given, feel free to ask questions or for any help I can provide.

 

[Overtime]

Good stuff , thaks for the info.

I have been fortunate to get rough stock that is flat enough to net 3/4 - 7/8ths form 4/4
Lotta work to dig thru piles to find nice flat boards.

But there have been times  : when I have turned a 4/4 rough stock board into a perfectly flat almost useless 5/8" with a few too many passes on the jointer then into the planer.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Let's not detract from this great thread by going too far off topic with the MS talk.