Replies

1. 
   rslatm | Sep 23, 2003 04:29pm | #1

   What kind of work is he going to do?  For custom furniture I recommend a 12" jointer and a 16" planer.  Does he already have a big jointer? The Bridgewoods are good machines.  I'd also look at used machines.  I find it useful to know more about the application as it might make me suggest another route. 30 years of problem solving and machinery experience  in the woodworking industry gives me a unique perspective.
1. 
   armin | Sep 23, 2003 10:20pm | #3

   He builds interior doors and kitchen cabs. A 16 inch planer is to narrow to surface panels, to lite in the butt for heavy long stuff.  His first choice was to buy my 20 inch SCMI but I'm not ready to sell yet.

2. 
   shopdoc | Sep 23, 2003 07:19pm | #2

   I have a Bridgewood 24 inch industrial planer and I've found it to be a great value. I run a lot I run a lot of large batches of rough lumber in my shop and it is great for hogging off material after I flatten it on my Bridgewood 12" Jointer. For fine finish planing I fall back on my Dewalt 12" bench top planer.

                                                                                      Steve

1. 
   armin | Sep 23, 2003 10:22pm | #4

   Doc,   Interesting, why don't you use the Bridgewood for the finish pass? Seems like the 12 inch Dewalt would be pretty slow if you had any volumn to run.

1. 
   shopdoc | Sep 24, 2003 06:22am | #5

   I guess should have been more clear. I do take my final pass on the BW when I'm running a large batch of lumber, but I use the DW to take lumber down to final dimension when I'm building a cabinet or piece of furniture. The DW leaves a very fine surface which needs little sanding or scraping.

                                                                                     Steve

3. 
   rslatm | Sep 24, 2003 04:39pm | #6

   There's many ways to approach this and each shop has the ultimate method I've noticed but I found that I don't need a planer any bigger than my jointer.  By putting a little more thought in my glue up set up  I glue my panels to the finished thickness. Just a light sanding and they are done.  I can glue 4' x 8' panels right to finished thickness with no problems efficiently.   I do know a lot of guys who glue up panels to 7/8" and plane the panels to 3/4". If you go this route it's necessary to have a planer with a slow feed to accomodate the varied grain directions you run into. If I was working that way I would seriously consider  the new segmented heads available from many of the dealers like Wilke or the retrofits supplied by wwwbyrdtool.com

   
   

   ---

   Edited 9/24/2003 10:27:28 AM ET by Rick at Arch. Timber and Millwork

1. 
   armin | Sep 25, 2003 02:58am | #7

   Thanks Rick, in the past I have done exactly what you stated, however I now have a 20 inch planer and 25 in wide belt sander, the time savings over using a smaller machine is substantial, I guess it all depends on what volume you do and how much money you can spend on machines, think tool junky.