power plane

[Paul C]

Has anyone ever used a hand held power planer for thicknessing back sides and top?.

[ken cierp]

No doubt it has been tried and no doubt the results were poor or worse. We have a hand-held power plane in the shop but it is used for home/shop improment projects like beveling door edges etc. It requires some luck to get thin wood surfaced with even a full size thickness planer -- that is why the standard machine for this job is a wide belt or drum sander. To the point. a planer can rip out chuncks of wood or even shatter thin stock in an instant. I suppose it could be used to rough surface to 3/8" or so?

[Paul C]

Thanks Ken. I should have known that would be to easy.

[Ken Hundley]

Any wild grained wood should be avoided with planers....they tear out huge chunks, or worse. I was sending a peice of zebra wood through a planer years ago (first time using the wood) and it tore a 2" hole out of the middle, went off like a gernade. Seriously thought the machine exploded, spent 30 minutes pulling splinters stickin out of my chest....like bad special effects. Couldnt believe it. just give it a thought.