Life without a thickness planer

B

Bluenose

Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
40
As I have posted before I am building a small shop (10x12). One of the reasons that I have embraced Festool is the idea that I can move the tool instead of moving the wood. In my space I just couldn't find infeed and outfeed room. Now that I am mostly enclosed I have started moving in a bit and the space feel pretty good. My expectation is that I will have an MFT and a second fold down assembly table with room to still move around. But getting to my question. Is there a good alternative to having a thickness planer? This is one more of the traditional shop tools that I just don't have the infeed or outfeed room for.

I am brand new to woodworking so I would appreciate any experience the group is willing to share.

Thanks, Bill

I just added the boom arm to my TS 55, CT 22 and 1010 router and it is quite amazing. One nice thing about having a small space is that the boom arm can almost reach anywhere in the shop.
 
Bluenose said:
As I have posted before I am building a small shop (10x12). One of the reasons that I have embraced Festool is the idea that I can move the tool instead of moving the wood. In my space I just couldn't find infeed and outfeed room. Now that I am mostly enclosed I have started moving in a bit and the space feel pretty good. My expectation is that I will have an MFT and a second fold down assembly table with room to still move around. But getting to my question. Is there a good alternative to having a thickness planer? This is one more of the traditional shop tools that I just don't have the infeed or outfeed room for.

I am brand new to woodworking so I would appreciate any experience the group is willing to share.

Thanks, Bill

I just added the boom arm to my TS 55, CT 22 and 1010 router and it is quite amazing. One nice thing about having a small space is that the boom arm can almost reach anywhere in the shop.
Click to expand...

Bluenose you do have the room. There are many ways to get around the space issue. The simplest. Plane up the lumber outside. But your space as small as it is can definitley accommodate a lunchbox planer. I would also get a little jointer. I have a small craftsman jointer as a backup and it is surprisingly nice. Until I got a planer and jointer  I was floundering as a woodworker. Without the planer you are excluding yourself from getting some of the greatest deals on lumber.

IMHO if you are a beginner you need to learn what a truly squared board is and how to make one with a planer and jointer, you need both. After you understand and can do this second nature than maybe you can do without them, but I doubt you would give them up at that point. You can get a workable planer and jointer for less than 600.00 for both. And I really feel you are over emphasizing the need for the in feed and out feed tables. Both can be as simple as couple of pieces of wood in a pinch.

Tip, just cut the wood to your shortest lengths you need, then plane use the planer or any tool that requires infeed/outfeed support. I do not see what tool can replace a planer and give the instant, accurate results you get from one.

My 2 cents.

Nickao
 
I have a lunchbox planer, Ridgid.  It used to have it's own dedicated stand but it took up too much room.  Now, when not in use it sits in a corner, without the stand, takes up very little room.  Easy to set up, use and put away.  12 x 10 should be plenty of room unless you had hopes of planing 18 foot boards.  ;D  8 footers should be no problem.  There's always room for more tools, especially benchtop models that can be stashed away.
 
Steve that is a nice planer! You can get a refurb with warranty for 250.00 on eBay. I paid 500.00 when they first came out and was very happy with it.

Could you live without it?

Nickao
 
It has worked great, right out of the box.  As you mentioned that and a jointer open up a lot of options.  There are always work arounds but I'd rather have these two tools than have to come up with creative solutions that these two routinely handle.
 
I got a planer that my Dad let me borrow before he passed. I don't know alot about it, maybe someone can inform me more about it, but know that I have been using it, I wouldn't do without it. Mine is a Craftsman planer/molder 12 in. contractors model. It ways a ton, ain't no way a contractor would be lugging this thing from job site to site. I also remember reading about someone strapping one to a skate board, then you don't really need in and out tables.
 
That was me. It was good for a one-off, but you could come up with a better method easily.
 
bluenose,

I think you should really try to make room for the thickness planer at least.  I don't have a table saw and use mostly festool products.  However, I not only use the planer to make the faces parallel but when I want to make something like a door I rip the rail and stile lumber a little thicker than needed then run them through the planer to get a very consistant width.  there are many uses for a planer I really don't think that I could live without one.  I went for a year without one and you are very limited by what you can do.  For me the local lumber house only has a few species of wood and a limited number of thicknesses in S4S which is pretty flat.

JJ
 
Bluenose,

My shop is 11x18, so I don't have much on you. Six feet of the length is reserved for a metal machining making us nearly equal in woodshop space.

I bought a DW735 planer and put it on a Rigid Miter Saw Cart from Home Depot. I got the planer on sale and with a rebate for $360 with Free shipping and paid $120 for the Miter Saw Cart. Now I can store the planer on the collapsed cart in a floor space 2x2 and wheel it outside for planing or to get it out of the way. I just mounted it yesterday so I haven't tried it out yet.

The DW735 is avail at toolking.com for $419 factory reconditioned (http://www.toolking.com/dewalt_dw735r.aspx).

I bought the MFT1080 and the TS 55 EQ as a substitute for a table saw until my budget can accommodate a cabinetmakers saw.

 
Problem in preplaned wood that you buy from your merchant is the accuracy, say for example I bought grade A black alder in size 28x90 (in millimetres). Guess twice if it really was that to any kind of standard? It's normal for that kind of preplaned wood to change in size upto +-1 mm. In furniture level joinery that is a really big problem actually, you can see that kind of changes. The only way to get really wood in exactly same size is to plane it yourself.
 
If I were just starting out and knew what I know now I would
get a thickness planer before a joiner. 

Early on in my woodworking career I did a number of projects
with wide walnut boards that I flattened by hand with planes.

Working with hand planes will get you in really good shape, BTW.

For edge jointing a jointer machine is over-rated, it really is. 
You can get get straight edges more consistently with a  saw-guide
system like festool or even just a straight-line rippping jig for a
table saw.  This requires infeed and outfeed room though, a lot of it.

With a lunchbox planer you can use a sled to flatten boards or even
to thickness narrow boards to width if you gang them together.  Most
useful though is its ability to take a board you have made somewhat
flat on one side and bring it to consistent thickness quickly.

Of all stock prep machines it would be hard to choose between
a bandsaw and a planer.  I could do good work somewhat efficiently
with those two machines and a set of hand tools.

Don't get me wrong - a jointer and a table saw are fine things but
as far as cutting up plywood for cabinets the Festool stuff makes
them not-so necessary unless you need to make things as quickly
as possible.

 
I also have a very small (garage) shop. The first non-Festool I got was a Jet 12" bandsaw. The second was a Delta 10" drill press. The third was the Rigid 13" planer (it's sold now without the stand). I haven't used the planer as much as the band saw or drill press, but when you need it it's great to have! Also relatively easy to carry around and store.
 
I agree with Loren - you will likely need a planer before you need a joiner.  And as far as a cabinet saw - others disagree, but I make cabinets and furniture and don't have a table saw, don't forsee a need for one and don't have any desire to have one.

I do use my DeWalt planer a good bit and find it to be serviceable and a pretty good product, though the Hammer 331 is pretty nice too!
 
i do a lot of repair, restoration and refurbishment work and my thicknesser is an essential piece of kit

box sash windows were and are still built to british standards and some of the thicknesses of timber arnt avaliable from timber merchants these days so you have to make them

ripping out and replacing box sash windows is normally not an option

in conservation areas the costs are prohibitive, with a SMALL box sash 3x4 foot costing 2000 us dollars at the factory gate (excluding vat at 17.5%)  and a further 600 to install them, which excludes the costs of the internal plastering and re decoration

3x4 foot are small, ive worked on box sash windows over 10 foot tall and 3 foot wide with balance weights in excess of 150 pounds

modern building regs (codes) also require double glazing, this makes the like for like replacement in conservation areas almost impossible

the glazing bars required for 4-16-4 double glazed units look like framing timbers in relation to the delicate glazing bars of earlier times when 3mm glass was used

updating original sashes from 3mm to 6mm glass is difficult enough.

looks like i got carried away with this post  ::)

 

 
dirtydeeds said:
in conservation areas the costs are prohibitive

 
Click to expand...

DD,

How are the conservation areas determined?  Who selects them?  Who is in charge of permitting, inspections, etc?  Tell us more about how that works in GB.
 
dirtydeeds said:
i do a lot of repair, restoration and refurbishment work and my thicknesser is an essential piece of kit

box sash windows were and are still built to british standards and some of the thicknesses of timber arnt avaliable from timber merchants these days so you have to make them

ripping out and replacing box sash windows is normally not an option

in conservation areas the costs are prohibitive, with a SMALL box sash 3x4 foot costing 2000 us dollars at the factory gate (excluding vat at 17.5%)  and a further 600 to install them, which excludes the costs of the internal plastering and re decoration

3x4 foot are small, ive worked on box sash windows over 10 foot tall and 3 foot wide with balance weights in excess of 150 pounds

modern building regs (codes) also require double glazing, this makes the like for like replacement in conservation areas almost impossible

the glazing bars required for 4-16-4 double glazed units look like framing timbers in relation to the delicate glazing bars of earlier times when 3mm glass was used

updating original sashes from 3mm to 6mm glass is difficult enough.

looks like i got carried away with this post  ::)

 
Click to expand...

Not at all, I find this kind of detail very interesting, particularly the very old practices.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice on planers. I sort of had the same opinion. It is just that with my small space every tool has to fight for a home. So I picked up a slightly used Makita 2012NB planer. My next question is this. Is it practical or possible to cut boards to length and then plane to thickness? Moving the planer outside has some drawbacks so keeping the boards less than 8 ft would be helpful.

Thanks, Bill
 
Bluenose said:
Thanks everyone for your advice on planers. I sort of had the same opinion. It is just that with my small space every tool has to fight for a home. So I picked up a slightly used Makita 2012NB planer. My next question is this. Is it practical or possible to cut boards to length and then plane to thickness? Moving the planer outside has some drawbacks so keeping the boards less than 8 ft would be helpful.

Thanks, Bill
Click to expand...

It mostly depends upon how much snipe your planer produces. If it is negligible, planing short boards won't produce too much waste on the ends.

( I just checked the thread, and found that there has been no previous mention of snipe. Snipe from a thickness planer refers to a reduction in thickness that can occur at the ends of the board due to a combination of pinch roller arrangement, infeed height/support and outfeed height/support. )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
CSC SYS 50 as a replacement for a cabinet saw?
Replies
13
Views
308
tjbnwi
tjbnwi
O
Best Kapex for dust collection
Replies
10
Views
693
ChuckM
C
D
Looking for CT ASA Tube Support Part 492786
Replies
1
Views
204
nclemmons
N
S
New shop layout question
Replies
5
Views
2K
Crazyraceguy
Crazyraceguy
S
Sheet Good Storage
Replies
3
Views
218
SoonerFan
S
Back
Top