What level of skill and maintenance does a power planer require?

[MisterBoy]

Since leaving school I've never used a plane, and my memory is of about an hour fiddling with the thing to do 2 (wonderful) minutes planing.
Beautiful as they are I've no inclination to get a hand plane, I'll use it so infrequently.

I wondered what's the user experience like with an electric handheld plane in comparison? Is it a case of just pull the trigger and go or is there still all the setup? How does it actually work?

 

[johnny2007]

Get a piece of scrap wood and put it on a vice or workbench.
Start planing the edge by setting the planer at the smallest setting. Give it a couple of passes to get a hint and go to the next depth.
Once you've gained confidence, you'll find it quite easy to use.
Advice: don't push it but let the blade do its work.
The most important thing is to keep the plate firmly on the surface, so pay attention to that.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The other thing to note about using a power planer is that you should never curl the fingers of your left hand underneath the sole of the plane! the reason should be self-evident (the spinning blade in the bottom of the tool). This is a technique used with hand planes to support the tool when jointing edges and some workers are tempted to continue the practice with the power planer. As a first aider I have had to deal with planed off finger ends a few times (lots of blood, but the skin grows back)

Power planers remove material very fast in comparison to hand planers - it is easy with industrial models to hog 3mm a pass off softwoods - but they are less capable than a hand plane of fine adjustment and they always leave ripple marks in the surface which get worse the faster you run the planer across the material. If your tool can take a dust bag then fit it - these tools throw a remarkable amount of waste out of the exhaust port

 

[big-all]

Get a piece of scrap wood and put it on a vice or workbench.
Start planing the edge by setting the planer at the smallest setting. Give it a couple of passes to get a hint and go to the next depth.
Once you've gained confidence, you'll find it quite easy to use.
Advice: don't push it but let the blade do its work.
The most important thing is to keep the plate firmly on the surface, so pay attention to that.

whilst i would agree with your comments i would have to put a big BBBBUUUUTTT

whilst someone with a natural aptitude the correct skills ability to set up tools propperly and fully understanding the dangers if you lack in any one off these abilities you start to become between a menace to a danger the more you remove from your abillity list

 

[MisterBoy]

The other thing to note about using a power planer is that you should never curl the fingers of your left hand underneath the sole of the plane! the reason should be self-evident (the spinning blade in the bottom of the tool). This is a technique used with hand planes to support the tool when jointing edges and some workers are tempted to continue the practice with the power planer. As a first aider I have had to deal with planed off finger ends a few times (lots of blood, but the skin grows back)

Power planers remove material very fast in comparison to hand planers - it is easy with industrial models to hog 3mm a pass off softwoods - but they are less capable than a hand plane of fine adjustment and they always leave ripple marks in the surface which get worse the faster you run the planer across the material. If your tool can take a dust bag then fit it - these tools throw a remarkable amount of waste out of the exhaust port

Thanks for that. They sure sound pretty aggressive compared to the swish of a hand plane.
My use would probably be doors and other cruder jobs, not fine work

 

[Deleted member 174758]

They are indeed very aggressive in comparison, so it is far easier to take too much off with them than it is with a hand plane. I still use a power planer when I am shooting-in doors, however I find that a good, sharp block plane is also necessary both for the fine final adjustments and for making the final passes to remove the rippled (scalloped) surface than power planers invariably leave

One thing people do tend to do is to run the cutters too long, in fact until they are extremely dull (just because they can). Dull cutters not only produce a poorer quality surface finish, but you can also feel the tool pushing back against you in use (this is a form of kickback and in extremis cam be unsafe). Fortunately the cutters are double-sided (reversible) and cheap (£3 to £8 a pair, unless you have a Festool). On most modern planers the cutters are solid carbide and are non-resharpenable (you can also get after market HSS cutters for some planers which work slightly better on some softwoods, I find) Turning or replacing cutters takes all of 5 minutes on most planers I've used, so there should be no excuse for running dull cutters

My use would probably be doors and other cruder jobs, not fine work

Well, I wouldn't really describe shooting a door into a (non square, non-straight) opening to get a consistent 2 or 3mm gap all round as "cruder work"...

Just as work of a different scale.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have a couple of cheap hand power planes, which had for several years before I realised the blades were reversible with a small alan key. They are not a precision instrument to set the cut depth - I found it best to test the cut on a bit of scrap first, before using on the work piece. Last job I did with mine was to fit new internal doors throughout, a couple of years ago. The biggest problem I found, was to keep a a plane at a right angle, but I suppose that comes with practise.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The biggest problem I found, was to keep a a plane at a right angle, but I suppose that comes with practise.

The "trick" is to buy a plane which takes a side fence, then screw a slightly oversize plywood plate into the fence and check that it is running square (packing with bits of paper under the screws if it isn't). The plane will then hapily run down the edge of a door carried by its' fence if the door is first laid flat on two trestles at waist height.

Failing that, and because a lot of lower cost planes don't have a fence option, dial back the cut depth and take lighter cuts, checking every couple of passes for squareness with a verified try square (something you should always do when edge planing anything, even with a hand plane). People starting with power planers often seem to think that if they need to take 3mm off the edge of a door they should do it in a single pass when it's far better to do 3 to 5 passes at about 0.5 to 1mm (which is more than you can take off with a hand plane in any case) to get to where you want to be, checking for squareness and straightness as you go and making your last cut at 0.2 or 0.3mm. I tend to do my last pass with a hand plane simply because I detest leaving door edges with the rippled effect you get from power planers. One big advantage a hand plane has over a power planer is that with a bench hand plane it is possible to cock the blade over a touch using the lateral adjuster to make the cut deeper at one side of the plane than the other (something you actually want to avoid normally). This is not what a lateral adjuster is designed for, but it is a handy "tweak" at times

IMHO you need to exercise the same amount of care, and use the same procedures with a power planer as you do with a hand plane - the difference is that a power planer in the wrong hands with f*** up a job so much quicker and more efficiently!

 

[Notch7]

An electric planer belongs in the same box as a jigsaw, neither are capable of accurate work.

mind you a mate of mine has a 300mm wide portable electric planer - it’s used for oak beams. It’s surprising what a decent finish it leaves really. It’s chuffing heavy though.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

An electric planer belongs in the same box as a jigsaw, neither are capable of accurate work.

Which is precisely why I use the power plane to do the heavy stuff - and a hand plane (block plane) to finish the job

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The "trick" is to buy a plane which takes a side fence, then screw a slightly oversize plywood plate into the fence and check that it is running square (packing with bits of paper under the screws if it isn't). The plane will then hapily run down the edge of a door carried by its' fence if the door is first laid flat on two trestles at waist height.

Thanks, I did wonder if there ought to be some sort of guide on them..

 

[Notch7]

Which is precisely why I use the power plane to do the heavy stuff - and a hand plane (block plane) to finish the job

Yes indeed.

I’ve used one mostly for window / door fitting - an electric plane is quite handy if the frame is too tight, works on timber and plastic.

it’s also handy taking a bit off the lead edge of a door leaf if it’s catching.

I’d generally use a Festool track saw for shooting in doors

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I’d generally use a Festool track saw for shooting in doors

I agree, I do use a Fessy for cutting to length (far, far faster), but it's FA use if you are trying to shoot a door into an old opening with pin-cushioned or barrelled jambs

 

[johnny2007]

An electric planer belongs in the same box as a jigsaw, neither are capable of accurate work.

Don't know about that.
My old bosch planer doesn't leave any ripples.
In fact, most times I don't even have to pass a bit of sandpaper on the planed wood.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I think you need new glasses or to wirk in better lighting! Any circular cutter block (even a Festool planer with a spiral cutter) will leave small discernable scallops on the surface of the wood which will show up, especially when the surface is painted. You see enough of this as you go round, surely?