I have a question about electric hand planers. The type finish carpenters use when fitting doors. Can an Electric planer like the Festool be used to flatten boards. I have only seen them used on the edges but was wondering if they could be used like a hand plan on the fase of boards to speed up the process.
Dale
Replies
Dale,
If you get the Festool base you could feasibly use it like a jointer, but you'd only be able to joint a board as wide as the cutters and typically you can only joint a board reliably twice the length of the bed. To my knowledge they are the only ones selling a stand in the US. Personally, I have not had much luck using the electric hand planers free hand trying to flatten out a board. A belt sander works better. In my opinion you'd be better off saving your money for a jointer if you want to flatten the face of boards.
I think the answer is yes, used carefully, with a fine cut, and careful use of a straight edge and winding sticks. When I bought the tools and wood from an estate this Spring, the fellow had a large number of slabs of wonderful wood, cut right through the tree, with widths up to 50" on a few, and many at 30"+. He also had a 6" makita handheld planer. I had never seen one before. I have played with it a bit, but not really used it yet as I haven't gotten a call for a piece using these slabs. I think that is what he used this tool for as he had only an 8" jointer, and 16" planer. It would sure be quicker than handplaning one side flat, for running through a planer.
Alan
http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com
Dale, electric hand held planers can work very effectively as fast, noisy and efficient substitutes for old fashioned muscle powered scrub planes.
You just whack off the high spots with them and move on to try planes and the like for a bit more refinement. Slainte.
Hey Dale. I have had a Makita 6 1/8" mod # 1805B for about 15 years, and I think it is wonderful. I also have a 12" Brown & Hall which I use for most things, but the Makita goes to the job-site for installations, and can either be hand-held, or clamped in a vice and used like a small jointer. the cut is a nice as any of the portable thickness planers.
Back through the years, I have gotten quite a few boards which were too wide and long and were too heavy to handle even on a 12" with 80" bed. This tool is great for this.
The front handle is also the depth adjustment, so after sighting down the board, I can move the infeed bed up or down as needed. The maximum depth of cut is 2.5mm or .1"
It is a little hard to flatten a wide board without developing a technique. You can't just make 3 passes on an 18" wide board without having a lot of difference where the cuts overlap, but with some care, and winding sticks I can get fairly close in a fairly quick.
Here is how I go at it.
1. Sight down the board, and knock down any major humps.
2. Place a winding stick on each end, and another in the middle of long boards, then if the board is twisted, I make a pass or two across the end to match the average flatness of the board.
3. Start out with the outfeed bed on this surface, and the cutter 5" from the end of the board. This at least gets the consecutive cuts lined up in the beginning.
4. On down the board if there is much variation in the overlap, I will make a new pass on the edge nearest me. On the next pass I skew the body of the plane so that the outfeed rides on the previous cut, and so-forth.
I recomend this tool to anyone who has a small shop and doesn't want another stationary tool taking up floorspace. This one lives on a shelf under my workbench, and gets a lot of use.
In the end, you will need to do some sanding, but your first pass may be 180 grit on a random orbit to feather out where the edges overlap.
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