When is a planer 12"+ absolutely needed ?

[venkatbo]

Hi folks,

Assuming you have a 6"+ joiner would there be a situation where you really need a planer... especially in the construction of cabinets/pantries...

I've read that it is recommended to build (raised panel) door stock from 4"-6" strips glued with opposing grain. If that's the case, a 6" joiner should do, right ?

Is the planer useful to 'plane' the surfaces after glue up, so any misalignments can be removed ?

THanks,
/venkat

[ryan.s]

A planer would be useful in getting boards to uniform thickness as well as completely flat and parallel on both sides of the board. With a jointer you can get one side flat but it's not possible to get the other side of the board parallel to the flat side.

[Russianwolf]

Running a frame through the planer is a crap shoot at best. Sometimes it will do what you want and make everything even. Sometimes it will spit parts back at you faster than you can blink. It's really not a good idea.

You CAN do this in a drum sander I believe.


As mentioned. The Jointer will give you flat sides. but if you run both face through the jointer and measure, you'll likely find the board has a different thickness at the two ends. The jointer isn't designed to accurately thickness a board.

when is a planer absolutely needed? I'll go back to my old answer. Never. Craftsmen have been making furniture without power tools for thousands of years. They just make things faster and easier.

[drumpriest]

Ryan, you cannot flatten a side in a planer without a sled jig. I agree that this is odd though, that 6" jointers are standard along with 12" planers. Some people have removed the guards on their jointers and can joint something like 10" in 2 passes. 8" jointers are becoming more and more popular now as well.

I have a 13" planer, and I suppose I could send glue-ups through it (not frames). It wouldn't strictly made the panel flat though. I use the width to change positions of the board as I run it through to give me longer life on the knives.

[sacherjj]

I don't see the need to put a finished raided panel door through the planer. With correct thickness rails and stiles, and proper router settings, the door should go together perfectly flat, with minimal sanding needed. However, I don't know how you can get the rails and styles correctly thicknessed without a planer, drum sander, or exceptional "old school" woodworking talent. There would be problems if you tried to build a raised panel door, THEN flatten it with a drum sander. When it takes more off one side than the other, you can no longer expect the center panel and detail work to be similar all around the door.

Edit: I guess if you built the door always referencing the face and then drum sanded the back off, it would work. Seems like too much worth though and requires a tool more expensive than a planer.

[jhart]

Some years ago, we were putting new 8" oak baseboards in a house we were remodeling and ended up buying the wood from 2 different places as neither store had enough on hand.
Long story short, had a devil of a time trying to get some of the outside miters to match up and finally discovered that there was a slight difference in the thickness of the two brands. Didn't have a planer then, but now I run all the pieces thru the planer to make sure they are all the same thickness. I don't think you could do that with a joiner with any amount of ease.

[JimD]

I agree with the comments on getting parts to the same thickness. Even from the same supplier I've run into thickness differences big enough to require a lot of sanding on raised panel doors. One of the two places I buy wood only sells 1 inch stock planed (13/16 thickness after planing). I often need 5/4 or 6/4 or even 8/4 material. I then have to plane it myself. If I had to always go to the supplier that sells the thicker material planned I could not buy wood on weekends because he is not open then. It can open up additional sources of supply, in other words, to be able to plane yourself.

Jim

[LCHIEN]

thickness planer should be used for making single or at least fairly stiff assemblies to a uniform thickness.

For rail and stile doors the individual members should be thickness planed before assembly.

[drumpriest]

Indeed, I wouldn't try and put a panel door assembly through the planer, I was referring to long grain glue-ups of solid wood.

[jabe]

Planer

As LICHIEN said all stiles & rails should be planed to thickness first before assembling.
You can only do this with a thickness planer, the jointer won't do it right. As for the panels, I would use 4/4 thick boards or minimun of 7/8" thick boards make a spring joint between the mating edge so the ends of the boards are held tight when clamping. I use my jointer to make the spring joints (set the cut to 1/64"), there should be no more than a 32nd" gap between the boards. I start jointing 1" in from the beginning end of the board and stop 1" from the opposite end of the board, it'll keep both ends of the mating boards touching with a 32" gap in the middle hence the spring action when clamping. Spring joint when done correctly, the joint will become stronger than the wood itself. If you try to crack the joint, the wood would give before the spring joint. Spring joints are faster and cheaper to do than biscuits or dowels. I would glue up all the boards with all the surface grain going the same way and the end grains (growth rings) would be alternated one up next down this keeps your panels stable. Wipe off any glue with a damp rag, that oozes out while clamping, be sure to alternate your clamps one on top the next on the bottom, minimum of 3 clamps (more clamps if it's a long piece). snug up the clamps so your board edges are just touching, then place cleats one on top one on bottom of each end of your panel (4 needed 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x width of your panel) & clamp it , place scrap paper as a barrier between your cleats and your panel, this way the cleats won't get glued on top & bottom of each end of your panels from the glue that oozes out when clamping. The cleats will keep the panels flat while tightening the clamps on the edge (do not over tighten that all the glue oozes out), let dry overnite. Then I would run the panels through the planer feeding it so the planer knives are cutting the panels with the grain so there will be a minimum tear/chip outs. Then I flip the panel over and run the opposite surface through the planer again running it through with the direction of the surface grain. I continue to do this till I'm about a 32nd thicker than my finish thickness (You got to allow this for sanding). When making more than one set, run all your peices through at the same time so they will all be the same thickness (stiles, rails & panels). This way, you won't be resetting the planer for every set of door or panels you're doing. I would plane all my peices tops, sides, bottoms etc. all at the same time so everypeice would be the same thickness. I had a 24" & 12" surface planer & a 37" sanding planer at the school I taught. I've been teaching students hardwood furniture making for 27 yrs.

[Russianwolf]

Sorry, I just can't picture this Spring joint that you're talking about Jabe. do you have any pictures or something that you can show me.

What I'm imagining right now is a panel with the top and bottom inch glued together and a 32nd inch gap between the individual boards for the middle. But I must be missing something.