# planing/ finishing wood



## Mikecutstrees (Jan 6, 2008)

I havn't yet tried milling wood but I am very interested in it. I have good sized saws for it and an ample supply of wood. I took down a beautiful 32" Sugar maple last year that unfortunately had to be made into firewood. I own a small tree service. My question is what kind of jointer or planer is needed to finish wide boards? Do you use roller sanders too? A good chainsaw mill seems to cost about $200, but what about other machines to finish the wood? Just wondering what others might recommend or use. Thanks... Mike


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## oldsaw (Jan 6, 2008)

Once you go past 13", the price of planers goes up pretty quick, but the build quality usually goes up with it. They are much "burlier" than their portable counterparts.

I "get by" with a 13" Delta, but would love an 18+, just can't afford it at this time. It's okay, because I don't often have a board over that.

Get started, it's a great experience.

Mark


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## woodshop (Jan 6, 2008)

Mikecutstrees said:


> I havn't yet tried milling wood but I am very interested in it. I have good sized saws for it and an ample supply of wood. I took down a beautiful 32" Sugar maple last year that unfortunately had to be made into firewood. I own a small tree service. My question is what kind of jointer or planer is needed to finish wide boards? Do you use roller sanders too? A good chainsaw mill seems to cost about $200, but what about other machines to finish the wood? Just wondering what others might recommend or use. Thanks... Mike


Actually, if you have lots of time, and the skill, and a good set of hand planes, you can do it by hand. The majority of woodworkers use a thickness planer. Like chainsaws they range from basic weekend warrior homeowner benchtop planers, to serious benchtop planers, both in the 12-13" range... then on up to larger stand alone units usually in the 15-20 inch wide range which also range in price depending on type of cutters used and power of the motor, and of course there are even larger planers than that. There are few uses to even serious woodworkers for a planer much over 24 inches though.

You can certainly use even a basic benchtop planer to thickness your rough lumber. The catch is most of them are not designed to handle large quantities of rough boards all day long. Not only do they lack the power, but you will wear out a benchtop quickly doing that. 

Basic stand alone 15 inch planer like the Grizzly G0453 for around $800 is your starting point if you want to run more than a few boards a day through one and have it last at least a year before you burn out the motor and beat the bearings to death. From there your options are larger motors, 20 or 24 inch widths, spiral cutterheads... the list spirals upwards $$$$$. 

I see used planers on Craigs list from time to time, you don't have to drop the better part of a grand. Make sure you push a board or two through that used one though before you plunk down money.


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## Ianab (Jan 7, 2008)

A cheap way to finish wide boards / table slabs etc is to use a router bridge.

Basically you have rails on each side of the board, and some sort of bridge between them. The router gets run from side to side and moved down the board and everything above the heigth of the bit is shaved off. A large bowl cutting bit seems to work best.

The finish wont be perfect, but it will be totally flat which is the hard part. Then you can just break out a hand sander and finish it off.

For boards under 12" a portable planer is a better option. I have a DeWalt 733 unit that has served me well. There are cheaper options out there that work fine as well. 

A jointer is usefull if you are trying to do any precision woodworking as they let you put a perfectly straight and 90 deg edge on your board before you start planing it. But a jointer by itself is pretty useless as it has no way of getting the opposite faces parrallel. You can joint a board by other methods if you need to, hand plane, router / straight ege / bridge or buy building a sled for your planer.

Here is some pics of my router setup - I have cheated and just mounted the router on my sawmill, but you can make a simple version in shed 


















This is a fish tank stand with a 24" wide top finished with the router setup above.






Cheers

Ian


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Jan 7, 2008)

Ianab said:


> A cheap way to finish wide boards / table slabs etc is to use a router bridge.
> 
> Basically you have rails on each side of the board, and some sort of bridge between them. The router gets run from side to side and moved down the board and everything above the heigth of the bit is shaved off. A large bowl cutting blank seems to work best.
> 
> ...



Awesome rig there! I got to build on one of those soon. I have several orders for slab furniture coming in. My old method of a belt sander and straight edge just won't cut it.


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## BlueRider (Jan 7, 2008)

*indexable insert tooling for routers*

You might want to check out the bits made by these guys;

http://www.hersaf.com/

the link under tooling will take you to what I am thinking might be more usefull than a regular router bit. I have a friend with a CNC router who uses tooling form Her-Saf because he can put new carbide inserts in without changing the height set up. 

they have some nice looking panel routers too but they just look expensive, besides the fat that I don't have the room or te need for one.


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Jan 7, 2008)

BlueRider said:


> You might want to check out the bits made by these guys;
> 
> http://www.hersaf.com/
> 
> ...




THANKS!!!!

Ive been looking for those for a while but only found machine tool equipment.


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## irishcountry (Jan 7, 2008)

*For what its worth*

Cools pics of your setup just thought i'd throw this out there not sure if it will be useful for anyone but may be a cheap alternative to play with. Go to www.stewmac.com and look up wagner safe-t-planer it works in a drill press and I remember when I was building a guitar that lots of hobby builders used it due to the size of guitar body blanks. If you could get a cheap small drill press maybe remove the bottom of it and the safety planer and mount it in a similar way as the router and run it on tracks too might be a good way to flatten a slab. I have also wondered about using a fly cutter or shell end mill used in metal working mills mounted on a spindle or in a drill press to so the same thing.


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## zopi (Jan 7, 2008)

That's cheatin', right there. 

I like it. 


watch for high schools being demo'd....scored a 16"x12" powermatic planer...

now if i just had the juice to run it....


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## Backwood (Jan 7, 2008)

I have had a 12'' benchtop, a 15'' machine and currently have a 20'' planer. If you are going to be doing more than a couple pieces at a time stay away from the 12'' benchtop planers they will not hold up running several hundred feet at a time. Most 15'' and bigger planers are made to run all day so its a matter of how wide of a board do you need to plane. If you are going to be planing figured wood and dont want a lot of tearout a sprial cutterhead will give a better finish. What ever planer you get if you keep a good coat of wax on the bed it will plane much easier.


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## Sawyer Rob (Jan 7, 2008)

I've had guys bring some boards in, and i'd plane them for then for a reasonable price... Maybe that's a way that would work for you too...

There's bound to be a cabinet shop or a mill shop in your area that will plane lumber for you...

Rob


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Jan 7, 2008)

irishcountry said:


> Cools pics of your setup just thought i'd throw this out there not sure if it will be useful for anyone but may be a cheap alternative to play with. Go to www.stewmac.com and look up wagner safe-t-planer it works in a drill press and I remember when I was building a guitar that lots of hobby builders used it due to the size of guitar body blanks. If you could get a cheap small drill press maybe remove the bottom of it and the safety planer and mount it in a similar way as the router and run it on tracks too might be a good way to flatten a slab. I have also wondered about using a fly cutter or shell end mill used in metal working mills mounted on a spindle or in a drill press to so the same thing.



I have looked into all of those before but none of them were made to take the RPMs of a router. The drill press idea is interesting.

I called the hersaf folks and they have exactly what I have been looking for. They make a 2 1/2" wide cutter head that uses replaceable carbide inserts specifically for routers that spin up to 20k RPM.


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## irishcountry (Jan 7, 2008)

Sounds like thats the way to go especially if it will take the RPM's and you already have the router. Carbide inserts sure make life easier too I have a set for my metal lathe and they cut nice and fast I also had some HSS blanks and wanted to learn how to sharpen them the right way so I ended up using them the most. I'll keep that website in my favorites for down the road. As far as inserts go I would check Enco they have lots of machine shop stuff including carbide inserts I have only used a few tools for the metal lathe most of the prices are cheap but I suspect its imported and some of it may be junk but may be worth checking into.. Happy milling!!


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## spencer13cat (Jan 7, 2008)

Depending on where you are you can...
1) call a planing mill. 
2) Make a small version of the router box. A great Idea.
3) Find someone in a woodworking club with a belt sander, Performax or other brand, My guess is this would be the least expensive option. They have an open side so an 18" belt sander will sand a 36" board
4) I hand plane a lot. The plane you start with for ruff wood is a stanley #40 scrub plane. It is the easiest of any plane to use. Lie-Nielson Toolworks makes much improved copies of the common Stanley plane designs. I use mine for just this purpose. If you are interested in trying this let me know and I will give you more specifics. 
5) Try one of the small hand held planers then use a belt sander.


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## Ianab (Jan 8, 2008)

With a big variable speed router you can drop the revs a bit when you are using a big bit. I have a 2" standard straight bit that I use in mine rig and just drop the speed back 2 clicks, mosly for peace of mind 

Cheers

Ian


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## curdy (Jan 8, 2008)

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> I have looked into all of those before but none of them were made to take the RPMs of a router. The drill press idea is interesting.
> 
> I called the hersaf folks and they have exactly what I have been looking for. They make a 2 1/2" wide cutter head that uses replaceable carbide inserts specifically for routers that spin up to 20k RPM.



Aggie, how much? 

Does anyone else on here have pictures of a set up for planing large slabs with a router? I know BobL has posting something before, but it looked like it was designed for smaller pieces. Sweet set up though if I remember correctly.


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## Ianab (Jan 8, 2008)

This is an Aussie company that makes a commercial slab planer/sander. An 8" cutter disc like they use would be much faster than a router bit, and then you replace it with a sanding pad to finish it off.

http://workcentresaustralia.com.au/home.aspx

It's a bit beyond my budget though  

Might give you guys some ideas though 

Cheers

Ian


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## stonykill (Jan 8, 2008)

if your just looking to get started planing, the benchtops are hard to beat. My Ryobi (same exact thing as a Rigid, ryobi build Rigid) 13 inch planer does not live an easy life. Its 2 1/2 years old, sits outside under a tarp 6 to 7 months a year, gets run A LOT ( I'd say the average is 8 hours a week, some weeks virtually none, some weeks 3 to 4 days a week, 5 hours a day), depending on what I'm doing, and still runs like new. All I've ever done is change blades. Ryobi has ZERO parts availability most of the time, yet Rigid has great availability, and every part is the same, cept for the color of the plastic. So for $200, it can't be beat. This thing has paid for itself so many times over. I have an antique cast iron 500 lb at least, planer waiting in the wings as I expect this thing to die, but it wont. Ryobi tells you you can't sharpen the blades, but I get 2 to 3 sharpening before replacement.

This replaced my Belsaw professional planer that was just getting old. The ryobi is faster, quieter, and easier to move around. 

Just my .02. The benchtop will serve you well, and besides if your using your wood for furniture, anything over 12 inches is so unstable, that is a gamble to use anyway.


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## irishcountry (Jan 8, 2008)

*out on a limb*

This may be going a little out on a limb but I just thought of a company that sells lots of "old time" books that cover things like building blacksmithing equip. metal spinning stuff and homemade metal melting furnaces ect. anyway one of the seires of books had step by step instructions on how to build a planer/shaper or drill press out of more common things that you may find in a junkyard. Example a metal knee mill that used a semi-tractor piston as the main body of the drill. Well if anyone is interested I think it was lindsy or lindsey publications. Some of the stuff would be dangerous but i'm sure theres some lost info in some of the books!! take care


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## irishcountry (Jan 8, 2008)

*Ok I was wrong!*

Wrong spelling I should have looked it up first before I mentioned it. The actual site is www.lindsaybks.com sorry!!


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## Ianab (Jan 9, 2008)

> Just my .02. The benchtop will serve you well, and besides if your using your wood for furniture, anything over 12 inches is so unstable, that is a gamble to use anyway.



Depends on the timber. Some I agree with you, wide slabs are pretty unstable and difficult to even get dry in one piece.

But with many softwoods (cypress and redwood etc) and some hardwoods like walnut, they are stable enough to use for table and bar tops as a single slab. There is just something cool about a single board table top, a section right through a tree.

They may of course cup or twist a little as they dry, which is why you need something more than a sander the get them level again.

But I agree, a 12" planer is fine for normal woodworking, then use a router jig if you need to surface anything bigger. It not like you make several tables in a day, so spending an hour or so surfacing a top with a router isn't a big deal.

Cheers

Ian


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