On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:54:43 -0400, William Bagwell wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:41:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
If you're not looking for a big piece of permanently installed
equipment, have a look at the portable planers. I've got a DeWalt that
works very well for making a stack of blanks uniform, but don't forget
the dust control bits. Even taking off just a 1/64" will bury you in
shavings and dust. I've run hundreds of feet of slats and nominal 2x
without problems other than hitting a staple. Buy extra blades, too.
www.toolking.com sometimes has factory refurbs for cheap, shipping may
get you on that, though. DeWalt now has a rolling tool base for their
portable saws and planers, works pretty well..

As I mentioned to someone else, I'm looking first at used commercial.
(Though the factory refurbs in your link look good!) Have no 3 phase nor
the desire to fool with converters so full industrial is out unless it
so cheap I can afford to swap the motor. Have looked at the hobbyist
grade planers in the local big box stores (Lowes and Home Depot) and not
liking what I'm seeing at all. The only two speed is the ~$600 DeWalt
and it has *way* too much plastic on it for my tastes. (I work in
plastics and have noted that the big machines that make things out of
plastic have very little of the stuff themselves. Makes you wonder...)

Since I'm going to turn around and put grooves in the wood I want fast
over smooth.

As stans4 points out, the planer will produce lots of shavings. Do you
plan to take off 1/4" from 3/4"-thick wood, or more than that? You can
take off about 1/8" per pass, but of course can run 2 or 3 sticks
through at the same time.

If you start with 1"x4"-s, you might consider resawing them on a band
saw. A good bandsaw with tightly-tensioned fast-running blade should
have little trouble resawing 1x4 pine, and a really good bandsaw can
resaw 6"-wide wood ok. You would end up with twice as many square
feet of output from resawing vs planing.

--
jiw