New Toy (Tool)

[customsawyer]

What kind of planer? Sounds like you might need to adjust it a little.

[YellowHammer]

A phase converter does burn some parasitic electricity as it spins its idler motor, even if it's not loaded.  For example, with my 30 hp phase converter, the 30 hp idler motor will use 22 amps when unloaded.  Any other electrical loads are added to that.   So its not bad, and since we use our 3 phase tools all day, different ones, we sometimes turn he phase converter on in the morning and turn it off at the end of the day.  Some have lifetime warranties, and like ours, have remote switches where the unit is placed in an outbuilding or loft and only the switch is located in the workplace.

We call our phase converter the "Flux Capacitor" because of its simplistic and semi magical results.  Turn the little switch, you hear a little him, and magic happens as 3 phase tools come to life.

Is the jointer doing the snipe?  Or the planer?  

A straight line rip saw is a single blade auto feed saw that is guaranteed to produce a glue line quality board edge, similar and sometimes more accurate than using a jointer.  It's basically the production solution to jointing hundreds of boards.  Feed in a crooked board, out comes a straight one.  By the thousand after thousand.  However, it only has one blade, so the next step up is a gang rip saw, where there are multiple blades and a wide board is fed in, and 2 or 3 or 4 narrower boards come out the other side.  All will have a perfect, glue line edge.  Either the straight line rip (SLR) or the gang rip are designed for secondary processing and are extremely accurate, never any snipe, so only work on dry wood.

An edger is very similar to a gang rip, but it can also be used on green wood.  It will produce 2 parallel edges by the million board foot.  The blade is slightly different, so the finish on the edge is not quite as clean as SLR, but it still does a very good job.  An edger is more for rough parrallism for boards that will be run through a molder, while the SLR or Gang Rip are finish machines, producing high quality edges.

Here is a video of our edger.  I have yet to make a video on our SLR, but that is coming up.

We Are (Almost) Out of Wood! Edging Lumber on a Custom Baker Edger - YouTube     

[teakwood]

What kind of planer? Sounds like you might need to adjust it a little.

It's a shopfox 20", i upgraded to a grizzly spiral head, which is night and day compared to straight blade.
It's a good planer and i can't complain, it's just not a commercial pro planer, no segregated infeed, sectional chip braker, just one outfeed roller, ....
I have adjusted this planer several times, with yellowhammers instructions for planers and the last little snipe isn't going away, it's minimal, almost not visible. on the flat face it's no problem because you sand it away very quickly, but on the glue line side it's annoying.  

[teakwood]

Is the jointer doing the snipe?  Or the planer?

it's the planer. the jointer, although a semi pro machine Jet 8" with a long bed, does a perfect glue line. i also upgraded to a bird shelix spiral head.

[teakwood]

and 2 or 3 or 4 narrower boards come out the other side

with teak they would probably bow, so no glue line anymore.

a little info on my operation, as i only have small diam wood, most 6-12, occasionally 14", and a manual sawmill my process is:  I cut the log into a block and then plainsaw in boards or 2x5, 2x6, ...
that works great for me, blocked boards already, less waste for airdrying, less space, no table saw edging later, just 2 passes on the jointer and i have a glueline, perfect straight board
but lately a do a little more of posts and beam planing, sometimes heavy beams 4x6, 5m long, 50kg. and those pieces are just a PITA with the small jointer and planer. I need a machine who can plan straight and make a perfect 90 degree edge on a second or third side, so i don't have to manually feed them thru the jointer which gets old fast, big arms but a bad back.  that's why i'm thinking of a true S4S machine, but i have never run one, so i don't know it's pros and cons

[customsawyer]

I can do up to a 8x18-20x? timber through my 4 head Pinhero planer. However make your timbers a little long as snipe is expected on the tail end. It would make all 4 faces square to each other.

[YellowHammer]

It does seem you need a good 4 head molder.  Jake and the local millwork shop who do a lot of my planing use a Pinheiro and these things are tanks and do an excellent job.  They will take quite a bit off the sides, so the boards don't have to be rough cut too accurately, and will process millions of board feet. The Pinheiros are accurate enough where they are the only ones who I will let plane my wood, and they are the only ones around here who can do enough to keep up with out production, even in tandem with ours. 

The will produce "perfect" or nearly so wood.   

[teakwood]

I would be probably over my head with a 4S machine, it would be nice but i think the next most intelligent upgrade would be a 25" industrial planer, a modern one. and maybe a bigger jointer. most of my work now is paneling, the occasional beam and post order. Labor is cheap here (including me  :D) compared to a 20k investment in a 4S machine.

Bar top, was a pain but well paid 1x3m x4" thick, around 300kg

table top inlays for a rest/bar


order for a Rancho


when i have a exceptional big log i cut a 8x8 out of it, maybe some day the right costumer walks inn.

[YellowHammer]

So all that is teak?  Sweet 

[customsawyer]

Nice looking wood. Just remember that getting the machine is one part of the problem. Hooking it up to electric and duct work will add to any budget.

[firefighter ontheside]

Well, I'm bidding on a new to me Grizzly G0490x which will be a big upgrade.  To get one new to the house would be about $2300.  I will probably have to spend about 1400 on this one by the time the auction ends tonight.  I'm excited at the idea of a spiral head jointer so I can stop hassling with setting the knives in my old jointer.  Also, 8" and longer tables will be a huge help.  I think I'm gonna have to bring the tractor with me to get this 500lb thing onto my trailer.

[teakwood]

So all that is teak?  Sweet

yes sir, i just work with teak, everything in there is teak, i have a endless supply of it, around 8000 trees, they grow faster than i can process them. 
I just work with one type of wood and still miss some measurement some clients ask for, i can't imagine you guys with 10 different wood types  

[firefighter ontheside]

Nope.  No new toy for me.  It was a $1900 jointer and it went for $1600.  I'll just wait til theyre available in Springfield MO and go get a new one.