Table of Contents
What does a hand planer do?
Handheld planers are designed to smooth the surface of wood. The manual handheld planer is good for smaller projects, but for larger ones, a power planer does the job in a lot less time.
Is a hand planer any 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.
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.
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.
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.
Do Electric hand planers work?
Power planers do the work of jack planes but faster. Both the planer and the circular saw are powerful electric-powered tools; they do much the same work that the jack plane and handsaw do, or once did, but they do it more quickly, sometimes more efficiently and accurately, and always at a higher decibel level.
How much can you take off with a planer?
Examine the width of the lumber. Most planers remove a maximum of 3 mm per pass. If a narrow piece of lumber is being planed, the maximum amount may be removed. A piece that it at the maximum width of the planer may cause the motor to overheat and the cutter to stall.
Are electric hand planers worth it?
They’re frequently used to plane doors (for fitment), they’re much faster than sanding, and don’t require the precise setting up needed to trim with a circular saw. The finish they leave is not incredible, but not bad to get prettied up.
Can I use a planer on painted wood?
Painted wood dulls planer blades rapidly because paint contains abrasive minerals. If you are really attached to certain pieces of painted lumber, a set of dull blades may not be a huge issue. One way to make planing painted wood safer is to give it the once-over with a metal detector designed for checking lumber.
Can you run finished wood through a planer?
A: You could plane off an old finish, but it’s not worth the risk. Planer cutterheads can generate sufficient friction to soften such finishes as polyurethane, gumming up their knives. After sanding away the finish, feed the wood through a planer to erase the sanding marks.
Is it OK to plane painted wood?
It is okay to plane most types of painted wood but the blades may dull faster. For safety and environmental reasons, planing painted wood with lead based or cementitious (waterproofing) paint is NOT RECOMMENDED.
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.
Can you joint with an electric 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.
How deep can a hand planer cut?
The maximum depth of cut on the models I tested was just over 1/8 inch, but many tools are limited to cuts as light as 1/16 or 1/32 inch. Shallow cuts are fine if you only want to remove a small amount of stock. But if you have to remove a lot of material, it’s better to have a planer that can make deeper cuts.
What type of stock should never be run through a planer?
What should you avoid when using a jointer or planer? Do not cut stock that has loose knots, splits, defects or foreign objects (e.g., metal stone) in it. Do not leave the machine running unattended.
How short of a piece of wood can you run through the planer?
Most planer manufacturers advise against planing pieces shorter than 12″.
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.
What size hand planer do I need?
Most people opt for a number 4 size plane (pictured above). If your hands are a bit smaller, then a number 3 works great (pictured below). If you prefer a heavier smoothing plane to give more power to your planing, then a number 4-1/2 size smoothing plane is ideal (pictured below).
