Survey of what sawmillers use for planers

[flip]

20" Griz, 13" Dewalt and 12" Delta.  Best in that order and the Griz is a 5Hp that will be upgraded at some point to a spiral head and a bigger motor.

Flip

[Cypress Man]

Kelvin,

      I am a full time sawer and use two differrent planers.  One is a 3 phase 36" Cresent made in 1956.  It has a 15 hp motor that turns the blades, a 3 hp for the infeed and a 3/4 hp to pick the table up and down.  It can remove 1/4" in one pass.  We primarilly use this machine to plane wide boards (from 20"-28" wide cypress) because of its size.  We had a 3hp 20" Grizzly with straight knives we used for 7 yrs and never had a problem.  We just recently sold it and bought the new 5 hp Grizzly with the spiral head.  it is unbelievably quiet and leaves a beautiful finish.  I would definately recommend this planer.  It only requires single phase 220v, dont go through the problems of hooking up 3-phase just for a planer.

[Kelvin]

thanks for the responses.  Got a 10 hp 20" old powermatic with a fairly new byrd spiral head!  Now i gotta find a phase converter unfortuneately.
KP

[ducknutt]

woodmaster 718..5 hp......vaccum definately needed
grizzly 15 inch planer..3 hp..vaccum helps, but not required

[fireman05]

Kelvin,
I have 2 planers with the first being a 15" Grizzly single sided planer I use for wider stock and pre-planing when a customer brings in poorly sawn lumber which is thick/thin . 

I also have a Logosol PH260 single phase moulder.  I made the jump to this machine due to the demand for customers needing flooring, V-match t & g and moulding.  I have had no major problems with the machine and am quite happy with the performance.  I am looking to possibly add a 2nd unit for milling the hardwoods and flooring and would get the 3 phase unit due to the extra power!  I don't have 3 phase capability and needed a phase converter as well and wasn't sure I could justify the cost for the power.  I now wish I would have since the unit is a bit under powered for hardwood machining especially 6" and wider stock!

I have no problem making money with this machine and use it on a part-time basis milling customers material as well as sawing, drying, milling and selling my own material.

If your ever up North and would like a demo, let me know!

[GregS]

Thanks for the heads-up on the PH260 3 phase power difference Fireman05.  I have one on the way and wondered if I was doing the right thing.  I am excited to get this rolling.  It will be here by the end of the week.

Kelvin,  I built a rotary phase converter and have been using it for years to run a 3 phase mig-welder.  I will see how it runs the ph260 and let you know.  Building a phase converter is no big deal.  If you have a big 3 phase motor laying around.

Greg S

[mur]

Hi GregS and fireman05:
I have a PH260 3phase - running through an inverter.  This is the route I chose as the single phase stories all had mentions of underpowered on wider stock.  It's been awhile since my electrician set up the 260 but I know we had trouble regulating the power to the Italian motors - specifically the side heads as they were also 5 horsepower too.  My site voltage was on the extreme high end and that caused some problems as the Italian motors required a lower and more stable power supply.  End result was we put on another "box" that stabilized the power and controlled it at a specific voltage.  (Name escapes me right now)  The machine has run flawlesslly since.  We also re-breakered the machine as the breakers were inadequate due to the larger motors.  Motors had been mis-labelled as to HP was the story I got.  Feel free to contact me for any electrical info on the 260 that you might need.  I remember it as "fussy" to set up but once we got it configured, it hasn't skipped a beat.  Like fireman05, I pre-plane the wood on the back side to get rid of the thick boards.  The Logosol likes uniform blanks.