What tool is this?

[bkharman]

Hey All,

Take a look at the 8:20 mark on this clip and let me know what kind of machine he is using in the background.  It is like a power fed single blade stationary plane.  Never seen anything like that.
=8m19s

Hope all is well, been away for a while but trying to make my way back into the FOG.

Cheers.  Bryan.

 

[thudchkr]

Hey All,

Take a look at the 8:20 mark on this clip and let me know what kind of machine he is using in the background.  It is like a power fed single blade stationary plane.  Never seen anything like that.
=8m19s

Hope all is well, been away for a while but trying to make my way back into the FOG.

Cheers.  Bryan.

Hitachi and Makita both used to make them. Not sure if they still do. I believe they called them a “Super Surfacer”. About a 10” wide blade on them that could be skewed for the optimum cut. A rubber belt ran the wood across the cutter blade. As I remember, the blade on the Hitachi was mounted above the feed belt.

I remember hearing where one entrepreneur had for of these set up in a row and was running aromatic cedar through them to create cedar shavings which he was then marketing.

Was always fascinated by them in the day, but haven’t seen them in many years

 

[lwoirhaye]

Fixed blade planers.  The blades require a special, expensive grinder to maintain.  I've seen used Makitas for sale a few times and kind of wanted one, but when I found out about how finicky they are to set up and maintain I figured there was  a good reason they didn't take off in some markets.

 

[bkharman]

Thanks for the info chaps!  I️ almost spit my coffee out when I️ saw it as I️ had always thought that it would be slick to do something like that manually.

I️ can imagine that it would be a pita to setup.

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Job and Knock]

I thought the big name out there was Marunka who still make their Super Surfacers..#

BTW, it isn't a new concept, early European four siders (through feed planer/moulders) often used fixed blades (sometimes instead of or in conjunction with rotary cutter blocks), especially for dealing with resinous timbers such as pitch pine. The best known brand in the UK was probably White of Paisley

 

[Michael Kellough]

Ishitani uses the Hitachi Super Surfacer PF 100F as shown at 6:26 in this video.