Home Made Thickness Planer

[Daninvan]

G'day everyone from Vancouver.

I've had the good luck to acquire quite a few wide planks over the past couple of years. With an Alaska mill attachment (home made, naturally) for my chainsaw I have been able to cut boards up to 32" wide from urban trees. Most are under 24" wide, but I can only really work in my shop with 12" wide stuff, as that is how wide my Dewalt planer is.

So my idea is to build a 24" (~60 cm) planer. I'll build a jig to go with it (the one from Fine Woodworking that I also saw on this forum) to allow it to be used as as a jointer as well.

I can find nothing on line about homebrew planer plans, so I appealing to this group for ideas. There are numerous plans for thickness sanders though, mainly from the luthier community, and some of these have some good ideas. The main one I like deals with adjusting the thickness of the cut by hinging the table at one point, then simply tilting the table to control the thickness. Gravity can even be used to advantage in this case.

Here is one example of a primitive thickness sander. http://www.blackcreekstrings.homestead.com/Sander.html
A better one is in Fine Woodworking #85 (Dec 1990).

I've scored an old concrete countertop that I think I can use for the table. I figure I can buy a standard 24" cutterhead. A motor should be easy to scrounge. The frame I can make with some heavy timbers or weld it up.

The things I am most concerned about are safety and feeding. I don't think I can expect to hand feed a 24" wide board, some kind of mechanical feed will be required.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dan

[Daninvan]

Well I picked up one lead on this, which was a planer plan allegedly in the Aug 1979 issue of Popular Mechanics. A quick visit to my local library's dusty magazine archives located the issue, but there was no plan that I could see. A disappointing red herring.

If anyone could point me in the direction of some plans I'd be greatful.

Thanks,

Dan

[CameronPotter]

My guess about the lack of bites here is that a home-made planer would be terrifying... A sander is one thing, a planer is quite another. Still, if you do do it (and don't kill yourself in the process) I am sure that a lot of people would love to see the results.

Too big a job for me though... :o

Cam

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

My guess about the lack of bites here is that a home-made planer would be terrifying... A sander is one thing, a planer is quite another.

Bingo! :D

[echnidna]

If I wanted to true slabs I'd do it with a router.
Or plane it roughly flat with an electric plane and finish off with a hand plane.

[E. maculata]

Home made 24" single head planer:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: , not unless you're a real dab hand with engineering, and while I'm a timber Bloke, no way would this little black duck build a wooden frame for one, wooden trust it, I like my life way too much. A wooden stand yeah, no worries, even a wooden floor in a trailer to take it to someone who could do it for me.

[Hickory]

I'm ready to make about anything that I haver the goods to do it with but a Planer is a bit out of league for this old WWer. I figure that by the time you buy the materials and add labor and the tools to make it plus the ouch factor. You are better off buying.

If you feel you need a 24" then look into ripping down the work and running through a 12" and then using biscuits join back the two halves and sand the seam. Don't want a seam or you have a 24" wide board (Timber)? Then rip at a grain line and orient the pieces so that you glue back in the same orientation, slight cuts on the joiner and a thin rip blade will minimize the waste and the seam will be almost invisible. Flat sawn wood? Grain pattern in the middle? Then rip in 3 pieces leaving the curved grain intact then orient the wood and slight cuts should again hide the seam. Using the Biscuits should help in aligning the pieces for a "needs sanding only" fit.

But for the sake of your hands , eyes or any other vital parts I would reconsider building a homemade planer.

[danielpalm]

Hello!
I have an idea that may work. When scarfing planks for lapstrake boatbuilding some people use a jig. I've tried it and i think its stupid. However it may be possible to use a jig that works in the same way as a homemade thickness planer. The stuff you need is:

1. a flat workbench a bit larger than the wood you want to plane
2. straight battens of different sizes (ex. 15 mm thick for planing less than15 mm thick) and as long as the workbench (you need 2 of each size)
3 a plane that has been modified so that it has arms extending at 90 angles from it

This is how you do it:
Place battens of the correct size near the edges of the workbench and tack them down so they dont move. Then place the piece you want to plane on the workbench between the battens. Then start planing, when you reach the desired depth the extending arms rides on the battens.

It think it will do the same job as a thickness planer. What do you think?

[Malcolm Eaton]

G'day everyone from Vancouver.

I've had the good luck to acquire quite a few wide planks over the past couple of years. With an Alaska mill attachment (home made, naturally) for my chainsaw I have been able to cut boards up to 32" wide from urban trees. Most are under 24" wide, but I can only really work in my shop with 12" wide stuff, as that is how wide my Dewalt planer is.

So my idea is to build a 24" (~60 cm) planer. I'll build a jig to go with it (the one from Fine Woodworking that I also saw on this forum) to allow it to be used as as a jointer as well.

I can find nothing on line about homebrew planer plans, so I appealing to this group for ideas. There are numerous plans for thickness sanders though, mainly from the luthier community, and some of these have some good ideas. The main one I like deals with adjusting the thickness of the cut by hinging the table at one point, then simply tilting the table to control the thickness. Gravity can even be used to advantage in this case.

Here is one example of a primitive thickness sander. http://www.blackcreekstrings.homestead.com/Sander.html
A better one is in Fine Woodworking #85 (Dec 1990).

I've scored an old concrete countertop that I think I can use for the table. I figure I can buy a standard 24" cutterhead. A motor should be easy to scrounge. The frame I can make with some heavy timbers or weld it up.

The things I am most concerned about are safety and feeding. I don't think I can expect to hand feed a 24" wide board, some kind of mechanical feed will be required.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dan
I suggest you check out the thread in the section " Router Jigs" and the subject submitted by BobL "Router Mill", this is a set up by which you could adapt the principal to plane timber planks to a level plane and then turn the piece over and plane to a common thickness. I have actually seen a commercial set very similar by which a company in the timber recycle business in Perth has a unit which is around 2.4m long by about 1.2m wide consisting of 2 longitudal rails on which a carriage runs with a heavy duty router mounted which traveses across the width of the carriage . The timber or material is placed between the rails and fastened down so that it is below the carriage. The carriage then runs along the full length of the rail. The router is then able to traves accross and down the full length of the material to be faced or planed. After the surficing the face is sanded .
The recycle company uses this system to reface timber slabs, panks, 2nd hand panel doors, sashes , etc to bring it back to their original glory.
Mac:2tsup:

[Malcolm Eaton]

G'day everyone from Vancouver.

I've had the good luck to acquire quite a few wide planks over the past couple of years. With an Alaska mill attachment (home made, naturally) for my chainsaw I have been able to cut boards up to 32" wide from urban trees. Most are under 24" wide, but I can only really work in my shop with 12" wide stuff, as that is how wide my Dewalt planer is.

So my idea is to build a 24" (~60 cm) planer. I'll build a jig to go with it (the one from Fine Woodworking that I also saw on this forum) to allow it to be used as as a jointer as well.

I can find nothing on line about homebrew planer plans, so I appealing to this group for ideas. There are numerous plans for thickness sanders though, mainly from the luthier community, and some of these have some good ideas. The main one I like deals with adjusting the thickness of the cut by hinging the table at one point, then simply tilting the table to control the thickness. Gravity can even be used to advantage in this case.

Here is one example of a primitive thickness sander. http://www.blackcreekstrings.homestead.com/Sander.html
A better one is in Fine Woodworking #85 (Dec 1990).

I've scored an old concrete countertop that I think I can use for the table. I figure I can buy a standard 24" cutterhead. A motor should be easy to scrounge. The frame I can make with some heavy timbers or weld it up.

The things I am most concerned about are safety and feeding. I don't think I can expect to hand feed a 24" wide board, some kind of mechanical feed will be required.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dan

Further to my piece on making a surface planer using a router go to web site-
www.wealdentool.com/ and then check out " router tips and jigs
Mac

[Tolzidan]

I know this is a long dead thread but if anyone else is looking into this the popular mechanics that had an article on this was Aug 1970. Popular Mechanics - Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=j9gDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=how+to+build+a+planer&source=bl&ots=AtSwp0lA69&sig=sjNSqILu1PspLEtCNGHC-esq8wg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ja1RT4yJLc2Itwed-ZzYAQ&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20build%20a%20planer&f=false)

[pmcgee]

Thanks for the link.

Paul.

[GraemeCook]

Good Morning Dan

Making a planer or jointer, let alone a 24" one, is also way beyond what I would attempt.

If I only had a limited number of 24" slabs that needed thicknessing then I would pay a local joinery shop to run them through their machinery. From experience, charges have always been moderate.

Failing that, I would try a routerplaner as discussed by several others. However, be warned that flexing is a real big problem. Every time I have tried it has been a problem and I always resolve to do it much, much heavier in future. That truss-plank holding the router must be absolutely rigid; the slightest amount of flexing will mar the product.

Fair Winds

Graeme

[benupton]

This man here Building a jointer - part 1 (http://woodgears.ca/jointer/homemade.html) has made a joiner before. So I would be possible.

[doug3030]

"Build this wood planer for $100 - Pop Mech - Aug 1970.pdf (1.64 MB, 20 views)"

what would a hundred 1970 dollars be worth in 2012? Well when I started work in 1977 I was making $180/fortnight and doing very well. Today, for well less than a fortnights pay you could buy a very nice planer/thicknesser with all the current safety features and none of the headaches of a home-made one.

And Bupton, there's a world of difference between a jointer which is hand fed and a thicknesser where the timber is mechanically fed and held under pressure between rollers

Doug

[pete robertson]

I have wondered about this myself, and like most of you cringe at the thought of losing a finger or two, but then I thought that as long as the end result was a nice flat, clean, level piece of timber, it wouldnt really matter if it took a while to achieve (Within reason) so I started drawing up a frame with runners/slides running longitudinal, with an additional frame on top that slides laterally and working out a way to mount my Makita planer into the top frame. I know I can make this work, but as yet havent actually physically started the project. Worth a thought I reckon. Otherwise just take the timber down to your local joiner and pay them to do it for you....nice to be able to do it yourself though. Pete!

[golash]

Hi All
I built a combination planer with a inline wide belt sander in 1995. Here is a link:DIY Woodworking Machines (http://www.woodsolutions.com/diywoodmachines.html)
I had alot of fun designing and building that machine.
Regards Barry
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