Homemade Planer Topic Resurrected

[Deadwood]

I tried to find a way to search for the a topic I read on here a month or so ago, but could not find it. In any case, someone wanted to know if it was feasable to build their own homemade planer. It was shot down pretty fast, but as the cliche goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I think the problem was everyone was thinking about the planer in the typical feed roll configuration, but these two pictures show that our forefathers "looked outside the box" to get something to fulfill their needs.

This is a planer used in the making of large wooden ships back at the turn of the century. I was thinking that while a feed roll planer may be hard to make home-made, this type of planer would be relatively easy. Hopefully whoever posted that orginal post will see this and reconsider his design.


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[thedeeredude]

Maybe you could rig something up with one of them planer blades from peterson?

[getoverit]

It was me that posted the original question, over in the Drying and Processing board. I have seen one company that makes a circular planer, that looks like it fits on the end of a drill or maybe even a router, and is about 3" in diameter. I havent seen any circular planers that are larger than this, but perhaps several of them mounted on a common table could do the same thing. If someone knows of one larger than 3", I'm all ears.

My problem with finding a planer that has the HP to plane the amount of lumber I want to plane was sort of solved. I'm supposed to be getting it soon. I still think there has to be an alternative method to planing lumber (thickness planing) that is more reasonable than a machine costing thousands of dollars. Perhaps even one that could make use of a 12hp lawnmower engine would be even better. I have loads of lawnmower engines that still run great, but the rest of the lawnmower is worn out. Sure would be good to put these engines to work again.

[jrokusek]

I'm in the same boat!  I have a place to process the lumber and a few small gas engines, but no electricity at the site.  Actyally have a 60 HP tractor with PTO......but don't know how to build something to plane lumber......

Jim

[Deadwood]

I owe you a thousand apologies Gitoverit for not remembering who it was that made that first post. I searched page after page trying to repost this on your orginal post, but could not find it. I am not sure why I did not think of this picture I took while at a museum last spring.

I have been thinking about scaling down this design and trying to make a smaller planer as I do a lot of woodworking, versus large batch planing off the tail end of a sawmill.

Personally I think this type of planer design WOULD work with lower horsepower. The musuem in which I took the picture, the entire mill was run by a 40 hp electric motor. I know a 12 hp gasoline engine is different in real terms over an electric motor, but still with this planer design you could adjust the cutter height to take less of a cut, and because the planer is fed into the cutter by hand (meaning you could get a good feel for the strain on the cutter) you could ease up on the feed rate.

I like the cutter head design too. That is something I can easily resharpen, and to a razor like edge. Combine a sharp cutting edge with the flat pulley design and the right shroud, and I would think this would be a safe planer to make. A super keen blade would slice just about everything, and if it hit something it could not handle, you could ease back on the feed rate. Additionally I would think the smooth pulleys and flat belt would be the next thing to slip.

[TW]

Does not a planer of that type Deadwood writes about tear the grain? As I got it from the picture the blade tip cuts across the grain. Does that work in softwood? I am just curious.

The oldtime shipbuilders did not demand very good surfaces. I have been told that here in Finland they planed mostly with what we call an åkshivel, that is a large wooden scrubplane that needs two men to handle. The iron on such a plane did have a convex edge so the planed surface got shallow grooves along it.
My uncle built a planer that looks almost factory made. I think he used some parts from an old printing press. I have no digital camera so I cannot post any pictures.

That was just some thoughts that went through my head. I am not experienced enough to give any useful advice.

[getoverit]

I got my planer today. It is an older one, weighs a ton (loterally) and is 220v single phase. It was originally a 3 phase planer, but was converted to single phase by the previous owner. It is a 20" and was made in italy. It needs a little TLC, but should be man enough to handle the planing I need for now.

I still have it in my blood to build a planer, and power it with a lawnmower engine. I was hoping that someone had come up with one they had already built, perhaps using some parts and pieces from an older machine.

I would also like to know if this circular type of planing tears the grain or if it really gives as smooth of a surface as a conventional straight blade planer. The new type of helical blade planers are supposed to take less HP and also be a LOT quieter too. I dont know how one would go about building one of those without having some sort of machine shop though..

[Deadwood]

I don't think you could build any planer without a machine shop. I typically set my planer knives to within 3 thousanths of an inch. All that work would be worthless if the carriage it rode on was off much more than that.

I never thought much about the bit making an across-the-grain cut, but TW is right. Shipwrights did not have to be super smooth with their timbers and at the old shipbuilding location (now the museum) they did have an additional feed roll planer as well. They might have used that to plane the lumber going into the pilot houses and finish work.

Still after a couple of days of careful thought, I am not convinced the bit would rip the grain just because it it sliced the fibres sideways. They make all manner of handplanes that cut across the grain, they just have to be super sharp. The key word there is sharp.

[dail_h]

   The shape and angle of the cutter would have a great impact on surface finish. Lathe tools cut across the grain

[junkyard]

Check out the rotoplane a  twww.ogdeninc.com   Don't know about building one that fancy but it looks like it works.
Junkyard

[getoverit]

This actually uses something I had thought of using... a treadmill for a feed table.  I really dont see why this wouldnt work with a large carbide tipped sawblade, with the carbide tips ground so that they cut from the side of the blade as well as the face. the only thing I cant figure out is how they can mill something as short as 2" on a 16" planer... seems like it would get thrown out and chewed up.... unless they use some sort of a fence to keep it from getting thrown around. I would have to see one or think of how theykeep the milled peice of wood held down and steady. The only thing that comes to mind is somehow using vacuum under the table, with a perforated belt to "suck" the wood down and hold it steady and keep it from bouncing and givng those nasty circular marks like a circle saw would make. I'd love to see one of these in person!

now this project is definitely do-able....I'm going to cogitate on this a while ;D

[beenthere]

For short pieces, I have (or make) a carrying board that the pieces set in, and put short pieces 'stacked' to the rear of the support board (looks like a tray with the front side open and a rear pusher block.

[Deadwood]

If you are referring to the 2 inches i mentioned in my original post, I did not mean two inches long. This thing took a 2 inch cut. As in two inches deep, just as a normal planer would take a cut 1/8 inch deep. This hog chunks of wood off it from what the storyboards in the museum said. That was why it was eroding parts of the structure that was holding up the workroom above.

I don't know. I have two thoughts on this. Maybe the finish was not that good. Maybe it was used to make an 8 by 8 beam just that...square. At the same time however, with that blade swinging around at quite a few RPM, maybe the cut would be smooth, along the same lines as a lawnmower blade cutting a lawn, A lot of swipes for every few inches forward.

I'm not sure, but I think the concept is interesting. I'm open for ideas and suggestions.

[junkyard]

Was thinking about this and  almos think Sears sold a similar rig for drillpress or radial arm saw. This was a few years back . My radial arm saw was new in 1954 still going but lost the book.
                 Junkyard

[karl]

Tried using one of those circular planers on a radial arm saw to cut raised panels a number of years ago- it did tear the grain some- partly because of the relatively slow rpm as compared to a panel raising bit on a shaper I think ??? It also liked to throw panels around the shop if'n you didn't have several featherboards holding the part firmly to the table. Not the way I would go for a planer. It ain't snowin' right now so I may go take pics of my old steel 4 sider....don't see why a clever person couldn't build something similar.

[karl]

This ole boy is all made with flat and channel steel, the only cast in it is for the standard bearings and some pulleys. I have lost the name of the company. I run it with pto powering a short line shaft.

[mike_van]

The right machine man could with a lot of work build a planer, but, I would start with a  real planer cutter head & go from there. 20", 24" whatever, but that head has to be balanced & hold 3 or 4 knives with accuracy. You need an up/down, infeed & outfeed rollers and a really good table that stays level & plumb. Lot of work, but so's a whole sawmill. 

[ballistics]

Hello karl, I have the same planer. It was made in British Columbia by Webb and Gifford. Mine is apart and probably missing a few parts. Is there a possibility to get a few pictures to show more details?

[thecfarm]

ballistics,welcome to the forum.
karl has not been here since July of 2010.  :(

[ballistics]

Thank you thecfarm, sorry to learn about Karl's departure. He left a few pictures that gives me a better idea how the feed roll drive chains were configured. I guess I'll be at the lathe for a few days with the help of his pictures