Thread: New - Metabo LF724 - "paint remover", but how AMAZING

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So it's an electric planer, but the cutter is sideways...interesting concept

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

So it's an electric planer, but the cutter is sideways...interesting concept

I sense sarcasm

It seemed like a good idea to me. Sort of like those massive router bits one can get for flattening tops, but this is a bit more versatile especially for fixing up manky wood before bringing it into the studio.

Nope, it's genuinely an interesting concept.

I am curious to know how it goes in terms of maintaining/re-establishing a flat surface; the large base on this one might act like a proper planer, but the offerings from other brands all seem to have just a small ring around the cutter which I assume will just follow whatever lumps are there.

Side note, Ledinek make giant versions of this as thicknessers Rotoles S | Ledinek

I've tried using a regular electric plane set to take only a very light cuts to remove paint and it still needed considerable sanding afterwards to take the gouges out of the wood. It worked quite well but one had to be super careful as the contact point only needs to tilt the blade a "tinse" and the blade gouged the wood on the down side and didn't remove the paint properly on the up side.

Paint removal from most flat, defect free, surfaces is not that big a deal. The real PITA are things like curved surfaces and paint that has seeped into cracks etc these remain the most time consuming aspect of paint removal. I had 7 curved profile, lime green painted, jarrah door archives at our place that needed stripping. I removed the architraves and after applying paint stripper found it had a number of cracks full of old paint. I did half a door architrave and gave up and went out and bought new jarrah and had a custom splay machined into it - this was 1990 when Jarrah was available and the cost including machining was quite reasonable.

I had one of these bought new for its intended purpose. TBH, I never really found it to be that good. YMMV.

Used as a plane I reckon it would be utterly useless.

You would not use a bullnose hand plane (which this is analogous to) for flattening a board.

Originally Posted by markharrison

I had one of these bought new for its intended purpose. TBH, I never really found it to be that good. YMMV.

Used as a plane I reckon it would be utterly useless.

Me too. Bought one over 20 years ago with the intention of stripping old window frames. It's a nightmare to use and so it has been sitting in the cupboard ever since. There's no finesse with these things. They remove timber at a ferocious rate. I found it impossible to obtain a flat surface. It basically just keeps burying itself into the surface.

I watched a few videos of it operating.

One drags it backwards.

The rear of the device acts as the reference sole. The spinning head is adjusted so its a hair below the rear-flat reference surface and this is what takes that layer of paint off. I assume the head is lowered/raised via a fine winder of some kind.

As its dragged back, it skims a layer or two off.

If it were to be pushed forward it would dig itself in.


Elan, that Ledinek is FIERCE!!!!! See those feed rates! ... 150 / 200 / 230m/min .... THREE or four metres a second. Strewth.


Where I see this spinning head being an advantage, is that a "normal" rotating head such as in a planer is only ever taking scalloped gouges out. This will lift any grain and I'd imagine this is the whole premise behind segmented spiral carbide heads... they are trying to get more of a slicing action going.

The design of this parallel rotation is its slicing 100% of the time, sort of how a chainsaws blade might cut.

It strikes me as a very good idea.

Also, one broken tooth isnt too much of a drama.

For a bigger machine, like a thicknesser, one would absolutely have to have the work against a fence as its fed in.... otherwise BANG!

How very curious that this isn't a thing.....



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Originally Posted by woodPixel

I watched a few videos of it operating.

One drags it backwards.

The rear of the device acts as the reference sole.

As its dragged back, it skims a layer or two off.

I watched the videos too. Didn’t help!

It’s true, the rear of the plate acts is a reference surface. But that leaves over 100mm of surface untouched. How do you plane that area without coming at it head on?

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Elan, that Ledinek is FIERCE!!!!! See those feed rates! ... 150 / 200 / 230m/min .... THREE or four metres a second. Strewth.

They make traditional planer/moulders feeding up to 1200 m/min. 72 km/h!
https://www.ledinek.com/upload/brosu...by-ledinek.pdf

I'd love to see one in person

Copy of the old Holtzer? had one many moons ago it was great for destroying anything you used it on gave it away

I've often wondered if I could repurpose mine for something else. Like maybe mounting it on its side in a small enclosure and using it as a benchtop mini jointer for thin stock. I'm talking sub-10mm stock like you might use for box making or guitar making.

Kind of like a portable version of the (no longer produced) Delta Uniplane: Photo Index - Delta Specialty/Delta Mfg. Co./Delta-Rockwell/Rockwell Intl. - Uniplane Model #22-300 | VintageMachinery.org and http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/12722.pdf