To flatten a board without a surface planer, I suggest you
invest in some planes. I'm not totally conversant with all
the types of planes, but if you Google on the subject within
rec.woodworking, you'll find tons of useful info here. The
only plane I have at the moment is a Veritas Low Angle
Smoother. Planes won't take up much space in your shop, but
they can sure remove a lot of green from your wallet!

You might want to get ahold of a copy of the Lee Valley
catalog, or go to their web site. (They sell great planes -
Veritas)

A powered hand plane isn't going to give satisfactory
results on a wide panel.

David

Evon wrote:

I like to make furniture out of old wood. Sometimes I need to flatten a
board. My shop space is limited so I thought maybe a hand held planner would
save me a trip to the local planning mill and the $ 12.00 USD they charge me
to run a board thru the planner a couple of times.
"David" wrote in message
...

I have a DeWalt. I never use it. What do you want a hand
held planner for, may I ask? It qualifies as one of those
tools that I thought I wanted/needed but find it isn't too
useful except for knocking high spots off of a warped stud
when building walls. I see no place for it in fine woodworking.

David

Evon wrote:


I'm in the market for a hand held planner. What's a good size than can

be

easily controlled by hand? What is a good make and model? Thanks, Evon