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Like a hand plane, the power hand planer (or electric planer) rides on a shoe, or sole plate (Fig. A). Like a jointer, the planer has blades mounted on a cutter head or drum that spins at 20,000 rpm, removing wood equal to the difference in elevation between the front and rear shoes.
How does a manual hand planer work?
With handles on top and flat on the bottom, this device contains a razor-sharp blade held at a precise angle at the bottom, or shoe, of the plane. When the plane is pushed forward, the blade cuts off a very thin shaving of the work material.
What is a hand planer used for?
A hand planer can pare off just a thin slice of wood, no tool is better for shaving the edge of a sticking door, chamfering the corner of a board, or straightening one that is twisted or warped. That’s why most carpenters still pack a hand plane or two in their toolboxes.
Do you plane with or against the grain?
No matter which way you feed the wood, you’re planing with the grain part of the time and against it the other part. When you’re planing against the grain, the knives tend to lift the wood fibers and tear them out, leaving the surface chipped and gouged.
Do I need a hand planer?
If you’re a woodworker who needs to straighten or smooth wood, a hand plane is a must for your tool set. Whether shaving down a wood door that’s sticking or smoothing the surface of a wavy board, no tool works quite as well as a hand plane.
Do Electric hand planers work well?
Electric hand planers are great little tools in the right conditions and can save time and effort when used correctly. Make sure that you never lay any plane flat on it’s blade, even if the blade is fully retracted, best to lay planes on their side or mount them so the base is angles away.
When would you use a planer?
Woodworking jointers and planers are used to mill wood so they can be used to build furniture and other projects to correct dimensions. If your workshop doesn’t have a jointer to square up an edge or your wood piece is too large to fit through, you can use your planer to flatten both pieces of wood.
What is the frog on a hand plane?
The frog is a casting that supports the blade on the plane body and allows for back-and-forth and side-to-side adjustment. Poor contact with either the plane body or the blade results in vibration called chatter, so this component must be flattened and fitted as precisely as possible.
What angle should a hand plane be sharpened?
The primary bevel for chisels and plane blades is normally 25 degrees (a time-tested angle). If you look at the blade diagram above its perfectly acceptable, from a sharpness perspective, to hone the primary bevel flat and hone the back of the blade flat and where these two meet you can achieve a sharp cutting edge.
Does a planer cut both sides?
With one flat face, you can now put the flat face down on your planer bed and pass it through to flatten the opposite face. Since you already have one flat face to index off of, your planer will cut the opposing face parallel to the flat face.
Do you plane both sides of a board?
Clean up board edges Stack boards side by side to plane off saw marks. Stacking several boards side by side allows you to remove saw marks from the edges of ripped boards.
Why is my planer chipping my wood?
Chipped grain That may work sometimes, but it is hardly a production way to handle this defect. The defect is caused when a knife that is a bit too slender (or the rake angle is too large) enters the wood and figures out that it takes less energy to split the wood ahead of the knife instead of cutting the fibers.
How much does a hand planer take off?
An electric (hand) planer is a tool used to take off small amounts wood by shaving it off in increments. They usually have two or three blades to achieve this and the maximum amount of material that can be removed in a single pass is usually around 1/8″ (3/32″ typically).
What is a Jake plane?
The Aichi E13A (Allied reporting name: “Jake”) was a long-range reconnaissance seaplane used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 1941 to 1945. Numerically the most important floatplane of the IJN, it could carry a crew of three and a bombload of 250 kg (550 lb).
Are handheld planers good?
They are great to use, though, and make light work of some serious construction projects like framing a house. For hobbyists the great pleasure is using this machine to plane table tops or other wide pieces of timber.
Can you joint a board with an electric hand planer?
The electric hand planer usually comes with an edge guide for jointing. Truthfully, jointing is what these machines do best. Once you learn to set up your planer properly, you can easily get a glue-ready edge on any sized board. This method has its advantages over using a bench top jointer.
Will a planer remove paint?
Can a planer be used to remove paint? A planer can be used to remove paint. Although running it gently along the surface may not do the trick, you can achieve this effect with a deeper blade setting. You need to set your blades, so they dig deep enough to get under the layer or layers of paint you wish to remove.
Will a planer fix warped boards?
In order to flatten a warped, twisted, or cupped board, a common approach is to first use a jointer to create one perfectly flat face. Then you run the board through a thickness planer with the flat face downward, and the planer makes the top face parallel to the bottom.
Do you have to sand after using a planer?
If you are happy with the surface as it is now, there is no need to now sand it. To determine if the surface is ready for the color coat, wet a clean rag with alcohol or lacquer thinner. Wipe and wet the surface. This will highlight any sanding miscues or other surface blemishes.
What does a surface planer do?
A planer is used to shave wood from the surface of boards. Imagine scraping a knife across the top of a block of butter. That’s pretty much the action with a planer – though you might need a bit more muscle power! They’re used to make a rough surface flat and smooth, or to reduce its thickness.
