For what it's worth, you really gain nothing by jointing both sides of the board, yet you can lose material in the process - not to mention the time and blades invested - unless the board is really gnarled.
I believe tradition holds that the better/flatter side is first jointed, along with one edge. THEN the planer is used to bring the opposite face parallel and to the desired dimension. Generally the table saw is then used to bring the other edge into line. Unfortunately, the process involved in planing the board to an even thickness can be repetitive if the wood varies in thickness substantially. Patience is the key, as you remove just a bit with each pass until the board is at the desired thickness. Sometimes the first few cuts on a really bad board will result in losing contact with the feed rollers in places, and will require assistance moving the material. Hogging a bunch off in one pass stresses the planer, dulls the blades, and often causes severe tearout. For this reason, your final pass on both the jointed side and the planed side should be a light cut (< ~1/64") to remove the undulations from the previous heavier cuts. Whatever works for you however.
Yes, I understand that, Greg, but in this particular instance, to favour my poor little thicknesser, a bit of help from my burly big jointer will make things last longer. I have a set of 3 carbide blades to put in this when I get sick of sharpening the HSS blades. I would even contemplate hogging some high spots off a rough sawn board with a tailed hand planer, a non-tailed jointer, or even a belt sander with some nice 38 grit belts I have handy :)
Great advice, thanks, Greg. All the best to you and all the other woodies for the festive season and the new year. jack
Sorry if I repeated the obvious, Jack. Haven't seen your nym before, so have no idea what your experience - there are widely varying levels of experience represented in this group. As well, many lurk and might pick up a pointer. I'll shut up now. ;-)
Hope you finish your project in time, and have a pleasant holiday.
Ah - I've heard of that place - that's that little desert island in the = South Pacific, right?
Sounds like you're on the right track with the sturdier table idea. = Might help to use a couple of roller stands, also, too help support the = weight.
Yeah I get that now, I only consider the in feed side as feed rollers. I normally think of the outfeed rollers not so much as feed rollers but more as extraction rollers, thanks for confirming. That would be rather dangerous.
Don't remove the feed rollers ! It's dangerous to try to use your planer without them. Instead, clean them. I usually use paint thinner on them and then follow it up with 409 or a similar detergent type cleaner. After a good scrubbing they should work like new again.
Using a piece of melamine for a feeder bed will help with feeding and it will reduce snipe some, but I have had the best success by inserting a piece of scrap wood of the same thickness immediately following the good piece of wood. Butt the ends together and don't leave any gaps. If you do this right the planer will think it's running a longer board and the snipe will occur on the scrap piece. All planers produce snipe. The better quality planers produce less. My newest planer, a DeWalt 735, was supposed to be snipe free according to the salesman. It's much better about snipe than my older planer, but it still snipes, however, it's so little (a few thousandths) that it can usually be sanded out very easily, so I still follow up my good boards with a piece of scrap if I really don't want any snipe in my boards.
Makes me wonder though, how those old Craftsman 6" 103.1801 manual feed = thickness planers worked. I think they had some sort of anti-kickpack = danglers before and after the cutterhead, and that they were intended to = be used by two people - one feeding, one pulling. They were open-ended, = so you could reverse the piece and thickness a 12" board, the way a lot = of thickness sanders are. Don't know what was used for pressure to keep = the workpiece flat on the table. =20
Good advice, especially when preparing/planing expensive material when you can't afford to lose any of that precious figured stock to snipe. Having to sand out even the smallest bit of snipe can really throw off future joinery operations, and play havoc with the fit of things like M&T joinery down the road.
As others have noted, and in normal operation, I usually set the very ends of both infeed and outfeed tables on my jointer a bit higher than level (tapering both tables slightly downward to be flush with the planer bed), and even doing that it is often necessary to lift the ends of the stock slightly on entrance and exit.
To illustrate, and when I really can't afford to have any snipe whatsoever, I build a quick n' dirty planer jig similar to the one on my Jigs & Fixtures page, and feed the whole enchilada through the planer, with both leading and trailing sacrificial stock of an appropriate thickness that will take the snipe if I screw up the feed angle:
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- (scroll down to "planer jig").
The one pictured was built for a very specific purpose (taking a slight, after-the-fact ,warp out of some already assembled inset door frames), but the idea is obviously adaptable for many situations where _no_ snipe is of paramount important.
I find this list best when folks seriously attempt to 1. understand the writer's question / situation and, 2. Attempt to offer sage constructive advice - even though its been said (and archived) many times before.
I have a rigid Planer from HD that was on sale for $200. I've had it on home made stands and the floor and want to "bury" it into an eight foot long "table" such that the table surface is on the same plane as the in/out feed decks.
The melamine or formica idea sounds good - but it made me think of that UHMF (?) plastic stuff they sell for maing slippery jigs and of the "boat lumber" you can buy in 3/4" thickness that is really slippery and tough as nails - not to mention "pricey."
I've not experienced too much snipe, but I never plane a board cut to anything near the finished size and always take it down a "hair" at a time.
I flip it from one side and end to the other (four passes per board per cut) to try and keep it as flat as I can as I take it down to the required thickness. As I often do multiples, this can get a bit confusing with six or eight boards being "processed" at a session. Lots of shavings (anyone have any success making mulch out of shavings/ sawdust?).
I have my eye on the Dewalt two-speed/three-blade model and wait for a factory rebuilt or sale. Anyone use that model? Good, Great? Worth the four hundred plus?
I would think that the rollers may have "dried" and gotten, thus, a bit harder and smaller than when new. Wonder if soaking them in something would help restore their size and grip?
Re-enforcing the in/out feed tables sounds like a plan - but steel sounds better than wood or composites and might allow for the addition of an adjustment mechanism of some sort. Tractor Supply has lots of sheet steel and tube/angle/flat stock. If you can sacrifice 1/4" of material capacity, a sheet of 1/4" steel laid through the opening and supported on in/out feed sides with some heavy 1.5" angle should allow you to create a solid bearing surface as flat and unbending as you could hope for. Mounting it to the planer and the whole thing to a strong "table" should take care of everything sabe the (possibly) shifting cutterhead.
Is the cutter head accessible? Can you see bearings and races? If so, might you try replacing those? Are there bearings and races on each of the rollers? Might they be worn and sloppy as well?
Don't re-design the tool, repair it and improve on it. Removing the rollers is not a sane and safe option (as has been said repeatedly).
UHMW ("Ultra High Molecular Weight") or HDPE ("High Density PolyEthylene"). You can get it 12" wide adhesive backed for not a whole lot of money from McMaster.
If you're talking teak it's not really all that slippery--the reason it's used for decks is that it's got decent traction. UHMW or Teflon would be your best bets.
The chinese stuff is at best considered a "kit" to be totally dissassembled, finished, and reassembled. Usually involves remaking some parts. Spend your time and money more wisely and just get something decent to start with.
The chinese one is almost as good a boat anchor as a planer.
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