First wood planer

[Wlmedley]

I planed the wood I used to build cart a little bit with a electric hand planer.I thought it would look bad for a new planer to be mounted on a cart made from rough wood.Now that I have it in operation and see how good it works I kinda wish I would have set it up temporarily and planed the wood a little better.Now I wish I had a jointer but I think the electric handheld planer will true up the edges pretty well.After spending a lifetime buying mechanical related tools I hate to start over buying woodworking equipment but it's tempting.

[SwampDonkey]

A jointer is mighty handy.   I've had mine for 30 years, an old delta. A table saw was the last thing I bought as far as wood cut'n goes. I always used a bandsaw at first.

[aigheadish]

A jointer is nice. I bought the planer and jointer in about the same go. I use the planer more but again, those nice sharp edges and surfaces that the jointer can make are lovely. Mine is a Rikon small model that I can move off a bench. Most of my stuff has to be movable, due to lack of space. 

[dougtrr2]

I have been using planers since I bought my first Parks in 1983.  Since then I have upgraded to an old 18" Oliver.  But regardless of the brand or size, planers leave slight ripple marks.  Keep in mind that a lot of those ripples are only visual, you couldn't feel them by hand. The thing I started doing years ago was pre-sanding all my wood before starting a project.  That is I took the boards before making any cuts and went over them with my hand belt sander and removed all the ripples.   The advantage is that it makes the final project sanding much easier.  No more trying to get into corner and tight spaces to remove the planer marks.  I only sanded to 100 grit.  Also by sanding the full boards you are less likely to inadvertently round over an edge.  

The theoretical down side is that there might be microscopic remains of the grit in the wood that will dull your blades faster.  I haven't noticed that as a problem.


Doug in SW IA

[Wlmedley]

I've had several walnut boards in my barn for approximately 40 years that were cut for me by a fellow with a old circular saw mill.They were around 1 1/4" thick and a lot rougher than what comes off a band mill.I picked out some of the straightest ones and ran them through the planer.After a few passes I saw a couple shiny metal things in the wood and got a sick feeling thinking I had just ruined my blades although I didn't notice any difference in the surface.Dug them out and found they were lead shot that I guess didn't hurt the blades. I remember that I cut the tree along a gas line right of way which would have been a prime spot for squirrel hunting and found several more before getting boards cleaned up at 1" thick.Hopefully planer will hold up as I'm having a ball running lumber through it.Now to decide what to build.Possibilities are endless.