using the makita power planer

[damian]

Hi all,

Recently I've been doing a lot of reading and picking up handy hints here and there. It has occurred to me that while I've read extensively over the years on the tablesaw, router, bandsaw etc I've never come across a book or a really comprehensive article on the hand held power planer, like the makita 1900 and similar machines. There is heaps on hand planes use tuning and so forth.

Is this because the tool is a rough/carpentry only thing or is there something I've missed ?

I've tried to search back on the forum to no avail. Very happy to recieve a pointer to old posts or any other source of information. A book would be great....

It just seems to me my little makita works quite well and in skilled hands (not mine clearly) some precision might be achieved.

Anyone ?

[Groggy]

Damian, I suspect a lot of people get them thinking they behave like a motorised hand plane. They are great for roughing down a door to fit and similar tasks but I don't see a lot of use for it in cabinet making work other than for fitting out. Carpentry is the real realm of this beast.

Having said that, I am sure there are those people who are very skillful with them and can get a lot of varied uses out of them.

There are a few interesting links here (http://www.thetoolwebsite.com/FAQs/Planers.pdf), here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f13/electric-hand-planer-1653/)and here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f13/using-electric-planer-21815/).

[damian]

Thank you for the links. I'd found one of those two threads and I think I've read the info sheet before many years back.

I guess I thought that like so many other tools over time people had found new and better ways to use it. People do things with routers nowdays you never would have thought possible years ago, and of course there is the pistol drill.... I thought perhaps the planer might be the same but as I said I've found virtually nothing on it.

I guess it is a limited machine...or maybe ripe for development...:)

[Handyjack]

Electric tools do the same job as hand tools except with less effort and often a lot faster and some times better but they can also do a lot of damage not only to the job but also the operater.

An electric plane will shave material a much faster rate than a hand plane but if you are not carefull take off too much material. The waste can make a lot of mess if you do not plan for it. If the blades hit some thing by mistake damage will occur.

Read instruction manual that comes with the machine including safety instructions, practice on scrap. Set the machine to remove small amounts and make multiple passes rather than one pass taking a lot and the machine becomes a joy to use.
Practice and patience.

[Uncle Cletus]

When i was shopfitting/kitchen fitting it was an invaluable tool in my arsenal, ripping down plinths to suit uneven floors, fitting end panels to walls, so much quicker than using the jigger or circ saw when you only need to trim up to 10mm (yes 10mm)
with a bit of practice you can leave a really neat finish, i remember when i first started subbying to the shopfitting co the guys laughed and thought it was a bit rough, by the time i left most of them were at it to:U

[Cherp]

The man I saw get the most precise results with one of these used it in an unconventional way. He took a pattern off it somehow and made a stand. Then he laid the tool in the stand and used it as a sort of bench plane - cutting edge facing up. He then ran the work over it, rather than holding the plane to the work.

[markharrison]

They do have their uses. I have one and I use it as a power scrub plane to true up a board for finer work.

For instance, I had boards for bed rails that were warped at one end so I planed off the warp so I could put it through the thickness planer to reduce the board to its planned dimension.

I just used the same techniques as you would with hand planes. A pair of winding sticks and a Mark I eyeball.