Thread: Small power planer - tricks? tips?

I've got one of those too. It's great for the work you were doing and beats the hell out of sanding. I used mine to get 4 layers of acrylic paint off some oregon carport beams and it did the job in no time. But to get it all in shape again i put the timber through my thicknesser. I think thats the only way to get it nice and smooth again. The planer will get you started but thats about it i think. (For the money though, you can't go wrong)

Rob, I use a Makita 1100 (heavy mother). Have done for years for truing up timber before machining, cleaning off the rough stuff etc. I've had builders ask me how I get so smooth and (reasonably) true. Two answers:

1. Sharpen blades regularly
2. Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice,........

I'm constantly adjusting the cut as I'm planing and checking the squareness.

I don't work about getting it perfectly flat, just square and straight. Most of the time I do it by eye but having a long straightedge is handy and a ruler to check thickness.

Most people I've seen try to take too deeper cuts. Just a little at a time does the trick. I suppose a lot of the time I'm using it not unlike a hand plane.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Rob,
I had a Ryobi and no matter what I did I had the same problem as you. The problem turned out to be that the two sole plates weren't in parallel planes. The front one was twisted relative to the rear one. May be worth checking & shimming one if necessary.

Hi Rob

I have two planers, a Dewalt $250 number and an Ozito $50 machine. I use the Ozito most of the time because it is lighter and the two sole plates are in better alignment. The Dewalt is now mounted in my Triton planer attachment.

You can't rely on the planer being correctly adjusted out of the box. You need to adjust the blades so that they are EXACTLY parallel to the long sole plate. It would be best for you to track down a book on how to do it, but the basics are as follows:

1. Unplug the planer. Set the depth adjustment to "0".
2. Use a steel ruler as a straight edge. Hold its edge against the rear sole plate of the planer, so it sticks out over the blade/drum assembly. Now by hand rotate the blade drum till one of the two blades is as close as possible to the ruler. The blade should JUST barely skim the ruler as it passes - no clearance but not lifting or biting at the ruler either. The clearance needs to be exactly the same at both sides of each blade. (that means four measurements/adjustments in total - left and right of first blade, left and right of second blade.) The instructions should show you how to loosen and adjust the blade.
When the blade is adjusted, rotate the blade drum till the blades are away from the drum. Hold the ruler in place again, this time noting the gap if any between the front shoe and the ruler. With the adjustment set to "0", there should be no gap, the two shoes should be precisely in line. I don't know of any adjustment on the Ozito, so if they are out of line, take the planer back and check the replacement in the store before you accept it.

You still need to take care not to tilt the planer on the timber to be planed. Also as Squizzy said, you will get better results doing several smaller cuts. I generally only take off half a mm at a time, or less. If you need to take off more, then do several passes and change direction at each pass. Eg to take off 2mm, plane off 0.5mm four times, going left>right, then right>left and so on. That way if there is some slight taper in your planer even after careful adjustment, each second pass will cancel the taper created by the first.

Chris.



Good Luck,

Chris

There are two tips that come to mind that should get you planing flat and evenly.

(1) Try using a set of "winding sticks". These will help you see if you are canting to one side. Make them long so that they are sensitive to slight angles.

Winding sticks are simply thin, even thickness pieces of timber. Place one at the head of the plank, the other at the foot. Stand back and look at the furtherest one over the top of the first. You will then see it there is any uneveness in the planing. Move the one back and forth to check various points on the board.

(2) Add a fence to the plane, if you can, to keep it flush with one reference side. The job is to then create a reference side. You could do this on a table saw.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks for the tips and input people. I'll print this all up and put it into practice over the weekend!