Old school vs electric hand planers

[Jaket123]

Anyone on here have any experience with electric planers? The hand held type? If so any input would help I'm considering buying one. But debating if I should go with standard planes or go modern with the electric plane. Thanks guys!

[gfadvm]

Those power planers are great for planing a door edge to fit but not so good for trying to flatten a panel or slab.

[Jaket123]

Ok that's what I was wondering. Cause I know from time to time when I glue up a table top or something I'll have a board that's a little off and thought it might save some time Over a std plane.

[starmac]

Not a lot of experience with them, but what I found was if you were planing something narrower than the bladed, in my case 3 inches, it does a nice job. If you try to make another pass on something wider, it just doesn't work, or at least I haven't found a way to make it work. I have been told it will do a better job on wider pieces if you grind the corners of the blades to a rounded edge, but haven't tried that.

[Darrel]

The electric plane will only be marginally faster than a good sharp well tuned hand plane and it won't do as nice a job.  Add on top of that fact that the electric makes dust and a heluva lot of noise and I'll take a hand plane any day, even for a door edge. 

[tule peak timber]

We use a power planer A LOT to flatten very large slabs prior to sanding. An indispensable tool ! Rob

[Darrel]

We use a power planer A LOT to flatten very large slabs prior to sanding. An indispensable tool ! Rob

Rob, that isn't my experience, sadly, I wish it was.  Maybe I haven't used the right power planer or maybe I just don't know how to use it.  I have some large black oak slabs that need to be surfaced and am not particularly looking forward to the workout.

[Bruno of NH]

They make large hand held power planes .
Timber framers use them a lot .
I bet Rob has a very nice Feestool .
Bruno

[Darrel]

I'll try again and do a bit more research and if I find something that'll change my experience I'll buy it, Jaket123 probably would too.  Eventually I'd like to get a 42" planer but I haven't made that much money yet.

[tule peak timber]

Yes A Fesstool . Some pics of slabs we planed with the Fessfool tool. 

  

  

  One of the pics is a matched set of Black oak slabs. Three common ways to flatten material; slake by sawmill, wide belt sander, or electric planer. Once you get the hang of it , the electric planer is a potent tool !  Rob

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I could floor my trailer with 1 slab. 

[tule peak timber]

Man ,,,must be a really nice trailer !  :D

[Bruno of NH]

Makita makes a wide hand held power planer that work well .
Bruno

[Larry]

I have a fairly new Porter-Cable planer.  It has a couple of uses for rough work but mostly a junk tool.  Could have got something in the same class from Harbor Freight.

I bet the Festool planer is sweet and well worth the money.  Seeing Rob's pictures makes me want one bad now.

[gfadvm]

Anyone have a video or a link to one flattening a slab with a hand held power planer? I need to learn their technique!!!  I wrecked a benchtop with a power planer (and it only took a few minutes).

[tule peak timber]

A single frame video of how to rub the planer. Cheers Rob

  

[Darrel]

A single frame video of how to rub the planer. Cheers Rob

 

Now this I find very helpful!  Look out black oak, here I come!

[Clark]

I've used a DeWalt electric planer and enjoy using the my old Stanley planes also. I would say the electric version is good for removing lots of material quickly. It produces shavings, not dust, so cleanup can be pretty easy.

I don't have the need for a Festool planer but I'm sure it can do a better job than the DeWalt. If you've got access to the "common" tool brands I would leave the more detailed work for the old fashioned plane.

Clark

[ScottAR]

I have a Bosch and use it quite a bit for finish carpentry.  They are amazing for fitting doors and working to scribed lines.   The real trick to using one is take a smaller bite than you think you should. 

Many try to use them like a belt sander but planers remove material much faster so light cuts are best.  You can always make another light pass. 

When fitting doors I set the depth of cut on 1/16" or 1/32" usually and count my passes to know where I'm at.  For flattening, start with the smallest depth of cut and see what happens.  Mine starts at 1/32th. 

I like the bosch I have.  The exhaust can be directed to either side by flipping a tab.  Small detail but nice as sometimes you need to change positions and redirect so it doesn't fill your pants pocket with chips.

[OffGrid973]

I love the one frame video...my HF planer and I never got along but I will try this complex diagram of left, right, up and see what is was missing. Last time I went electric I had lots of single passes with edges that needed to be flattened, this looks like a better method.

[WDH]

Rob,

Does the pooch come with the instructions?  :D

[Kbeitz]

I got two of them and I love them both. I think they are only good for rapid removal
of a lot of wood real fast. I agree about  taking a smaller bite than you think you should.
Then finish up with a belt sander. to large of a bite will leave deep valleys.

[21incher]

I have a Bosch that works good. I originally bought it to level the face of a 4' x 30'  landscape wall I built with PT timbers that was uneven after drying and warping. One thing to remember is they work like a planer with one shoe offset, where a hand plane has a flat bottom with the blade exposed so it is easy to make a gouge if you try to take a big cut.

[Hilltop366]

Worked at a boat shop for a short time 20 something years ago, on beams we used a 7" disc sander after the electric planer. Worked really well if you kept moving, it did make a lot of dust though. I should add that this was to prepare the beams for paint on a fishing boat not a fancy pleasure craft.

[lowpolyjoe]

Great thread!

I bought a harbor freight electric hand plane a few years back and ripped it apart with plans to attach it to a jig similar to a router flattening jig.  I started on the project but it didn't go well and I threw all the parts back in a box... which I may have thrown out by now.  Those are the kind of chances you can take when you march into HF with a 25% off coupon  :D

[yukon cornelius]

good topic here! I used my bosch electric a few times but it left unwanted ridges. I will try the pattern tule peak put on. I personally like to leave some mill marks and some imperfections. I don't make fine furniture items though. I know there will come a day when I want a better surface so maybe a bit of practice and learning I will get there.

[tule peak timber]

A couple of guys have brought up the point that a whole lot of light passes are more desirable with a shallow setting on the planner. I too use a large boat grinder to massage the milling marks prior to sanding. For final sanding I use a Surcare sander to take the slab to 220 grit prior to sealing. Depending on how bad the slab is I can usually get-er-done in a few hours.Rob

  

[gfadvm]

Rob, Thanks for the diagram. I need to revisit this technique after resetting my planer to take much shallower cuts. That Surcare sander looks like a VERY useful tool! But probably out of my budget.

[tule peak timber]

Don't forget to also use a straight edge (6 foot) and white chalk to keep checking yourself. Personally I'm more interested in speed so the electric planer usually leaves a million little parallel milling marks that get removed later. Remember that this is a technique of bringing the tool to the wood-because the wood is too big to run through your other tools.If you can bring the wood to the tool, that is a better way to go. Cheers Rob 

[Jaket123]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I believe I'm going to purchase one but I'm still on the look out for std hand planes. Why settle... Just buy them both ha. Thanks again guys

[Jaket123]

After considering all my options I actually made a decision and bought a set of hand planes and a 4x24 large hand belt sander. And maybe down the road purchase a large planer.

[Larry]

I sometimes will flatten a slab with a Porter-Cable 4 X 24 belt sander with 36 grit belts.  Use a similar pattern as tpt drew and put a bunch of squiggly pencil lines on the slab to show progress and how flat I'm getting.  It does take a bit of practice

If its faster to drive to somebody with a wide belt sander I will go that way.  I had a shop that had a reasonable rental rate but they went out of business.

[Don_Papenburg]

Do all four of the disk pads spin as the pad frame turns ? Have you repowered any of the neat tools ALA Tim the Toolman ?   well maybe  not as crazy.

[tule peak timber]

Don , the pads are fixed to the backer -which random orbits as a whole.This "hand tool" sander weighs about 60 pounds. I do have several shapers that are modified "Tim the tool man " style....Rob

 

[Dodgy Loner]

After considering all my options I actually made a decision and bought a set of hand planes and a 4x24 large hand belt sander. And maybe down the road purchase a large planer.

You won't regret the hand planes. They're so versatile, I have about five that I use all the time. What kind did you get/are you getting? Vintage or new?

If I had to flatten big slabs like tule peak timber, I would definitely own an electric planer, but that's just not the sort of thing I'm into, so it wouldn't see much use in my shop. I do have a 3x21 belt sander, but I use it mostly for metalworking.

[Jaket123]

I purchased a cheeper set on Amazon but I got to looking and I think I'm going to slowly gravitate to the vintage stuff if I can keep my eye out and find some here and there. But these cheep ones should get the job done.

[Just Me]

The electric plane will only be marginally faster than a good sharp well tuned hand plane and it won't do as nice a job.  Add on top of that fact that the electric makes dust and a heluva lot of noise and I'll take a hand plane any day, even for a door edge.

I have to disagree. Part of what I do for a living is make doors. When they are ready to hinge I do not grab a hand plane, I go get my Porter Cable door plane with an adjustable fence and spiral cutter, set the door in a door horse, and put the bevel on the door. Perfect every time, absolutely no tearout, and ready for hardware.

I have a nice collection of hand planes, and use them when they are the best tool for the job. Just like hand planes there are several types and quality of electric planes, and so I use whatever is the best at the time.

Besides, I'm old and my worn out shoulders do not like hand planes so much any more. ;D

[Darrel]

The electric plane will only be marginally faster than a good sharp well tuned hand plane and it won't do as nice a job.  Add on top of that fact that the electric makes dust and a heluva lot of noise and I'll take a hand plane any day, even for a door edge.

I have to disagree. Part of what I do for a living is make doors. When they are ready to hinge I do not grab a hand plane, I go get my Porter Cable door plane with an adjustable fence and spiral cutter, set the door in a door horse, and put the bevel on the door. Perfect every time, absolutely no tearout, and ready for hardware.

I have a nice collection of hand planes, and use them when they are the best tool for the job. Just like hand planes there are several types and quality of electric planes, and so I use whatever is the best at the time.

Besides, I'm old and my worn out shoulders do not like hand planes so much any more. ;D

I try to keep an open mind, and I've read enough on this thread that I'm wanting to give electric planes a second chance.  Besides, I'm not super young anymore and I also have shoulders that don't like hand planes   ;D

[ScottAR]

What he said.  ;)

I originally bought mine to fit doors as I had a whole house worth to do.  I fit them to size or sometimes re-bevel one that's wrong for my needs.  I do ease the edges with a hand block plane afterward. 

Power plane is not a tool you will likely need everyday but a really handy one to have in the arsenal.   

[Just Me]

 If I could only have one electric plane, it would probably be the Bosch. The best I ever had for a general use electric was a Porter Cable I bought in the seventies. It had a huge knob that controlled cut and also doubled as the handle. This is important to me, and a lot of them have a small depth control knob, not what you want. I have a Makita and a Dewalt that are this way, can not be adjusted on the fly easily. The Bosch has a bigger knob, but tools change constantly so I am not aware of current offerings. New Porter Cable stuff is junk for the most part.

Now the old Porter Cable door plane, yea, thats not going anywhere. 40 years old and still perfect.

[Upper]

I bought,and just used for the first time, a Makita 3.25 electric.Used it on a Blue Oak slab that was way dry.It did leave marks,but they came out nicely with the belt sander.
  But I am so new I don't even have a hand plane yet,and the only thing I have made are natural edge picture frames.......Upper