I remember seeing an article in FWW a while ago about a japanese power plane. the issue was probably about 10 – 15 years old, but i can’t remember which #. any way, i was wondering if anyone has actually seen one of these machines and has some more info on them. they are supposedly popular over in japan, and are their equivilant of a wide belt sander. the machines are quite simple as far as i remember, they are almost like a regular thickness planer, except the blade is stationary and it is designed only as a finishing machine that takes a very fine cut. the surface that the machine leaves is the same as that left by a normal handplane. the machine looks like such a good idea i can’t beleive they aren’t popular in the west.
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I remember seeing them demonstrated at some of the professional shows some 15 years ago and they were pretty interesting and expensive. I have a brochure on a company called Marunaka Tekkosho that made some fairly big ones not to mention very expensive. Up to 500 mm. wide. They are called slicers. Very specialized and used primarily for making veneers. They ran the board through at a pretty fast clip, 60 meters a minute, but are a lot more labor intensive I recall to keep the blade sharp. A wide belt sander is far easier to maintain. I think that Makita and Hitachi even made one. http://olive.zero.ad.jp/~zaw12235/English/top.htm
Ryobi Japan still makes one I think. If you can read japanese you can check out the specs on the Global Ryobi site.
http://www.ryobi-group.co.jp/projects/powertools/index.html
Andrew,
Here is the page which the planer shows up.
http://www.ryobi-group.co.jp/projects/powertools/products/07.html
It's the SL 263. List price is about 4500 US, but I usually figure about a 30% discount from list.
Other companies make this kind of product. I have several carpenter friends who use them. They typically use them on the exposed faces of the beams and posts of house construction. This wood is typically soft, hinoki or spruce. Not sure how this machine would work on hardwoods, although when tuned up, does a sweet (but expensive) job on soft woods. Plus most models have an outo return, which sends the piece back to the original starting place after going thru the planer.
Scott
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