Replies

1. 
   frenchy | Apr 05, 2005 06:50pm | #1

   I wish I'd bought a stationary bed planer. I have the 20 inch Grizzly and I have blocks that I put under the input and output rollers.  I set them up on sturdy sawhorses and block untill everything is level.. Not neat to have stacks of differant thickness wood around but that's my solution..   When I run 6 inch thick or thicker timbers I just bang together a set of tempory  stands.  (My sawhorses are too tall to allow their use with the thicker timbers)

     If you'll take some advice though, I would highly recommend that you think bigger, I want to trade in my three year old planner and get a 24 inch planner with the spiral heads.. They are so much quiter and the ease that dull blades can be rotated around to present a sharp edge has me sold..

     I've got a friend with a 20 year old spiral head planner who uses his commercially and according to him it's cut his sharpening bill to a tiny fraction of what he'd been paying.. plus he can be on the phone with a customer and the planer running..  

2. 
   bones | Apr 05, 2005 09:38pm | #2

   Mine is a model that the bed moves up and down. If I had it to do over, I would not go this route.  If the head moves, you can build a nince long infeed & outfeed base. When doing a long board, it is a royal PITA to support the board because you are moving the base up and if you are limited by the attached infeed/outfeed table. Go with the fixed base that moves the heads up and down.  Thats my 2C worth. 

3. 
   DougF | Apr 05, 2005 11:38pm | #3

   Paul,

   I guess I get the contrarian position on this one.  I now have the fixed head and moveable bed on a 15" planer.  I've had both and believe that this is the better option in that it reduces vibration, less less stress on the moving parts, easier to adjust and to hold its adjustments. 

   I think it is interesting regarding the comments about having to constantly adjust the infeed and outfeed tables: I rarely have a use for them.  While I have a dedicated shop, I do not have all of the space I would like and move the planer out of the way when not in use so infeed and outfeed tables would also have to stow away.  And, if you think about it, for most of us anyway, milling is a one-man job.  With or without feed tables, you start the wood and then walk around to remove the wood so why bother with the tables in the first place.  If I am running a lot on long, heavy boards  then I use roller stands that are easy and quick to adjust and they do not need to be dead level as long as you guide the entrance and exit of the material so as to reduce the snipe.  I think you'll fined that most industrial planers are also fixed cutter heads.

   At least that's my experience.  Either way you go, you'll love the bigger and more powerful unit. 

   Doug

    

    

1. 
   Jellyrug | Apr 06, 2005 12:44am | #4

   Doug,

   I agree with you, I plane 10' boards with no snipe and the trick is to lift the board slightly at entrance to the knifes and again at exit from the knives.  One has to walk over to the other end of the planer with larger stock anyway, so I don't see the benefit of having to support the board before exit, by using a longer table.

   Edited 4/5/2005 5:46 pm ET by Jellyrug

   Edited 4/5/2005 5:49 pm ET by Jellyrug