On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 20:49:09 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

Nice looking bit of kit... I think a bigger workshop would need to be on
the menu first in my case though! ;-)


Not necessarily.

You haven't seen how full it is! (there is a danger of it becoming a
outside cupboard rather than a place to work!)

You can get quite a long way with a 150 or 200mm planer - you don't
necessarily have to have a 300mm one.

For example, a typical 150mm planing machine is only about 550mm or so
deep and can go right against a wall.

I expect that one of the table top planers would meet my current needs,
limited as they are.


If you mean something like the little Axminster Perform, then I would
really suggest passing. It might be all right for model boat
building, but that's about it. Planers really do need to have cast
tables to avoid any possibility of flexing. The Axminster White one
is slightly better in that the beds are more solid, but they are
woefully small and that's really the problem. 720mm overall length
and about 350 either side of the cutter. I suppose that one could
use some infeed and outfeed tables, but I am not sure very
successfully.

That's probably about the limit for a table top machine anyway - 20kg+
for this one.

It's a pity that there isn't an interim size. The next up is the
floor standing small 150mm modela and then you are into 80kg.

Realistically, even if there were a similar sized benchtop model, it
would weigh 50-60kg.




You can extend their application with a bit of imagination as well - so
things like making a fence that you can clamp boards to prior to passing
the whole thing through the thicknesser will allow square edge
preparation.


I've done this in the past. You can get fairly reasonable results,
although if it's with a wide board held vertically you have to be
rather careful because it will tend to tip sideways. The problem
comes in pushing the fence down and keeping it pushed down if the
piece is long and the temptation for hands to get too close to the
business area.

If you make an inverted Tee type of fence then you can clamp the board
to the upright bit and it ought to resist falling over too much. Make it
quite tall and solid (so you need the cutter head quite high to clear it
and you can clamp smaller width stock a little up the face if required
to have it meet the cutter. Obviously you can get more rigidity if you
need to do a bunch of boards since you can do several together which
adds some rigidity.

If you are careful, take time and don't try to push your luck, it can
be done. However, once you've used a planer, you wouldn't want to do
it again :-)

I am sure you are right... the trick probably being to not use one until
you have the space for it - then you won't know what you are missing! ;-)


That's a way to look at it.


Nevertheless, for a lot of DIY purposes, having just a thicknesser and
being able to buy sawn or CLS timber and prepare to wanted size is a
time, material and cost saver.

Yup, I saved the cost of my dust collector on wood for 2nd fix on loft
conversion by doing that. Very handy when you need odd sizes like 25mm
thick finished PAR for fire door stops. I bought a 8x3" KD joist, planed
top and bottom, and then ripped strips off of it on the table saw and
finished them.

In fact, you can do a reasonable squaring job on a table saw if you're
not looking for ultimate accuracy and then clean up on the
thicknesser.


--

..andy