I am in the process of pulling up the floorboards at home (long story) and I intend to re-lay them but not before cleaning them up.
I was thinking about the planer & thicknesser and getting myself confused over the difference between the two and what would be the best method.
The underside of the boards are not uniform so I would have thought a thicknesser would not work particularly well, as the underside would run through against the thicknessers table and transfer any irregularities onto the top side.
If I used just a planer, the top side would be nicely done but the underside would presumably still need sorting.
So do I need both machines, or a combination planer/thicknesser?
I am guessing the best method is to plane the top side then run through a thicknesser to tidy up the underside?
Your best bet after relaying them is to hire a floor sander because its quicker and less hassle than planing 25,30? floorboards particulary if you have never used a planer before? takes a bit of skill with one of those
Exactly - pass one side over the planer to get a flat surface. This flat surface then runs along the thicknesser bed, and the other side will be cut parallel.
Be very carefull of nails or other embedded solid objects though!
You've not said why you want to do all of this. The standard advice is not to sand, as its not normally necessary in domestic houses, plus woodworm sometimes munch on the core wood, so sanding reveals all the worm tunnels, ruining your floor.
Finally its a lot easier to clean them in situ. Just need a mop & bucket, and go over them repeatedly for an hour or 2. Come up like new that way.
================================== Not answering your question, but a suggestion....
Unless the boards are of particularly good quality (they don't appear to be so) it would be easier and cheaper to replace with new T & G boards or even flooring chipboard.
I have known old reclaimed boards really mess up a planer This occurred with oak flooring from a church where there was so much crap on the surface that it blunted the blades
Also if you are taking say 3mm from each face (which would not be unreasonable if you are trying to get the boards flat as well as clean) the boards then may be too thin for their purpose
You also need to be careful to take the same amount from the back of every board otherwise the tongues and grooves will not line up
And if that is not enough you have to fill all of the old nail holes
Unless they're hardwood boards, it probably isn't worth the trouble or expense.
However you can do the job with just a thicknesser. As you have one flat (upper side when laid) side, put that face down for the first pass through the thicknesser to bring the uneven (lower face when laid) parallel to it. Then pass all the boards through a second time the other way up to cut a clean face on the upper side.
Be aware that old boards are a quick way to trash the blades on the machine. They'll get little nicks in them, that'll leave lines on the finished job. This isn't the end of the world as they're small enough to take out easily by sanding.
No particular skill is required with a thicknesser, you insert the board and the driven rollers drag it through. However smaller thicknessers are particularly prone to causing snipe - this is the start of the board being cut thinner than it should be until the board is held by both the infeed and outfeed rollers. Not a problem if you have surplus lengths so that you can trim out the sniped bit before you lay them.
These will have to be some mighty special boards though to be worth it. And you must be 100% certain there's no metal left anywhere in the wood.
If you read information in print or from web sites, there can be confusion because of the differences in nomenclature on each side of the Atlantic.
The first machine is one used for making a surface flat and optionally to make it perpendicular (or some other angle if the fence can tilt) to the face next to it. It has two tables, normally cast iron, and the infeed table is adjustable a small amount for height. In between is a rotating drum fitted with 2, 3, or 4 blades. The work is fed along the table with pressure on the infeed table and against the fence if using that. The height adjustment determines the depth of cut.
This machine is called a planer in the UK and a jointer in the U.S.
The second machine is used for reducing the thickness of material and making opposite sides parallel to one another. The portable variety have a small flat bed in the bottom and then the motor/drum assembly is lowered to the desired height - to make the required thickness of material when it is passed through. There are normally rubber or metal feed rollers to give a constant speed through the machine. There is also a fixed workshop machine variety hereby the motor and drum are at a fixed height and there is a cast iron table which is raised and lowered as required.
This machine is called a thicknesser in the UK and a planer in the U.S.
At the workshop machine level, there are combined versions where a single drum and motor fullfill both roles and there are tables above and below. In Europe, these are called planer/thicknessers, e.g.
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may be combined with a saw and spindle moulder to make a combination machine, e.g.
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planer/thicknesser drums on this type of machine are commonly 300 or 400mm.
In the U.S., it is more commonplace to go for narrower and separate jointers e.g. this one from Jet
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It really depends on how they are not uniform. If it's just very local and on average the boards and straight and even then the bed of the thicknesser will tend to average this out. However, it is much better to have a planed reference surface.
If you wanted a precision job, then yes.
I prefer the other way round. Prepare a reference surface on the planer first and then thickness down to the required thickness. Because the thicknesser is naturally power fed, it should produce a cleaner and more consistent finish. With a planer, and especially with longer pieces, maintaining constant pressure and speed takes some practice.
When I am preparing a lot of boards e.g. for side jointing to make a wider piece, I plane one face first and then both sides using the fence. This is done with all the pieces. If there are a lot, I set up a power feeder to give constant speed and pressure. Once that is complete, I convert the planer to thicknesser mode (raise the table basically) and then the boards are run through to thickness them. For the last cut, if I have been feeding the wood manually on the planer, I invert the board so that both faces are smoothly cut by the thicknesser.
Having said all of this, I would have misgivings about using my planer thicknesser for cleaning up old floor boards. There can be metal from broken screws and nails or hard grit squashed into the wood. You can detect metal easily enough using a wand similar to those used in airports e.g.
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use this routinely before running any wood through the machine. There's less of a problem in Europe with metal buried in wood bought from a timber merchant. In the U.S., lead is commonly found.
Even with metal detection, there is the problem of grit and you can't do much about that with floor boards. One piece of grit, with high speed steel knives and you will get a tiny groove on all the knives. Next time you run would through, you will see a small raised ridge on the material. It is possible on some machines to hone the knives or to move one along so that the grooves don't line up. This is time consuming. Changing knives is relatively expensive (costs me £35 for a set accounting for them being reversible so usable twice) and/or time consuming to set them.
Therefore, unless the wood is a very high quality hardwood that is worth saving, I would either replace the boards or sand them.
Thanks for the all reply's. Just to fill in some gaps here.... I have sanded floors in the past and it is a nasty messy job. As my boards are up already it seems a far cleaner and easier option to prepare (plane and clean up) whilst they are up. I have chipboard down on the floors currently to make them useable so I can prepare the old floorboards as and when I have the time and relay as I decorate each room. I will have plenty of boards as a couple of rooms downstairs will have a different floor covering so will be donating boards to the other rooms. They are 50 year old Oak and have done all the moving they are likely to do so in my opinion are worth saving. They have been stained in various places (mostly around the edges of where rugs would have been) over the years so I would like to make them uniform in colour before finishing. The reason they are up in the first place is to allow for a rewire and plumbing work. Hope this helps understand my situation. Cheers and many thanks Mike
The drawback would be that you may not get a flat surface when you re-lay them, but it seems a shame to drum sand oak when a planed finish looks so much better. I've seen it done with a cheap planer, disposable blades (quite a few), and a couple of workmates. Much to my surprise the results were excellent. Might be a good option if you want to do the job in stages.
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