how to: flatten stock

[reible]

Since this subject has been raised a few time I will post one method and tool which has not been mentioned yet.

The drum sander is the tool. No not the part that shopsmith sells but a rather expensive addition to your shop. So we are all on the same page about the drum sander I'm talking go to amazon.com and search on "drum sanders". Several companies make them so pick one you like and read up on it.

A basic difference between how the rollers on one of these work and the ones on your planer work is that the drum sander has low pressure ones. So when you pass wood through they don't distort it. This allows them to take care of minor distortions with minimum effort.

Other advantages come in when doing "figured" wood which can chip out and other wise not come out so nice, the sander deals with this because it is after all a sander.

Dirty wood can be done on this before you use the planer, saves the blades from junk.

These are not ment to dimension lumber, while you could it would take a while even with course paper. But if you plan it just over-size and then sand to dimension it works great. If you happen to resaw with your bandsaw then these work well to clean up the stock too.

I have a small one and love it. You will need a dust collector if you get one of these, think of massive amounts of dust as you take a 1/32" of wood off a 10" wide piece of stock 8 feet long........

So you have heard about yet another tool you need. To bad shopsmith doesn't have one.

Ed

[reible]

While on the subject of ways to flatten stock I see no comments on drum sanders so lets go on to a few other ways.

Some years back shopsmith sold a saf-t-planer (I might have the name wrong but without an old catalog to check with....) It is an attachment that us used with the shopsmith in the drill press mode that lets you plane stock. If you go to this page you can see several pictures what they looked like:
/www.kinnairdguitars.com/000_5.htm
The one pictured maynot be the shopsmith one but they all looked the same.

I of course have one and used it for a long time on various projects but it was retired to a drawer somewhere in the garage as I got other tools.... But it did work well and I might dig it out this summer and tune it up again.

Now on to the subject at hand. With the shopsmith in the drill press mode one would pass the wood under the cutter and there by change the thickness of the stock or do a rabbet or (drum roll) flaten stock. It is done by making a carriage to hold the wood stable then removing the high spots until it is flat. I have some other posts on the carriage idea for the planer so you can take a look at them and then apply the idea to this method. It is after all the same basic idea.

Anyone else have one of these? Other companies sold them as well and they even had a model that work on a RAS... my brother had one of them for is old sears saw.

Ed

[reible]

Hi,

After posting the above post I began wondering if someone still sold these and thanks to a seach engine:
www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Planes/Wagner_Safe-T-Planer.html

Looks like I can still get parts as well! Other may sell them too but this was a company that my son has used in the past.

Also take a look at the interesting idea they have for a hold-down... love ideas like this.

Ed

[johnmccrossen]

Thanks for the info on the "Saf-T-Planer". When I recently purchased my used Mark V, I found a rotary gadget with three cutters in the assortment of parts that came with it. I could find no information on how or what it was used for. It is a "Medallon DP Planer" but I could not locate the manufacturer (P & R Tool Co, Sand Springs, Ok.) Anyway, by reading posts in this forum, I now know what I have and how to use it. Mine looks the same as the picture of the Wagner tool, I'm curious now if the cutters are the same. Thanks again for the comments on flattening stock. John McCrossen

[charlese]

In this subject of flattening stock - let's not forget the Hand Plane! Many times the use of this relatively simple tool is faster and just as easy to use as any power tools! Yes!, hand planes are old fashoned. They have literally been the tool of choice for quality craftsmen for centuries. Also, a workpiece flattened and smoothed with a hand plane gives the woodworker a great bit of satisfaction as compared with a machined piece. I don't mean to dis the use of machinery for flattening, but we need to include the basics in our thinking and woodworking.

Some of the machinery designed for flattening, has been truly designed for production purposes (increasing production in commercial shops). Other machinery appears to me to be junk! - Designed to be marketed to home or small shop woodworkers purely with an entreprising profit motive.

One of the advantages of drum sander flattening is; the workpiece can simply be inserted into the machine and caught on the other end in a flattened condition. This is a great labor saving operation, but one has to be aware that some sand grit is left imbeded in the workpiece. This grit, even though very fine, will considerably dull any sharp knives put into this piece at a later time. That's why sanding should be the last step in finnishing a workpiece - not the first.

When one thinks about it, - starting to square up a workpiece by sanding will lead to dull jointer and planer blades, saw blades, and router blades - not to mention plane blades and scrapers.

[reible]

In this subject of flattening stock - let's not forget the Hand Plane! Many times the use of this relatively simple tool is faster and just as easy to use as any power tools! Yes!, hand planes are old fashoned. They have literally been the tool of choice for quality craftsmen for centuries. Also, a workpiece flattened and smoothed with a hand plane gives the woodworker a great bit of satisfaction as compared with a machined piece. I don't mean to dis the use of machinery for flattening, but we need to include the basics in our thinking and woodworking.

Well said, hand tools are great! I like to do a project or two with all hand tools every year just to stay in tune with them. I love the sound of a stip of wood being planed....

Some of the machinery designed for flattening, has been truly designed for production purposes (increasing production in commercial shops). Other machinery appears to me to be junk! - Designed to be marketed to home or small shop woodworkers purely with an entreprising profit motive.

The hard part is know which is which, right?

We had one of these sorts of drum sanders back in high school... some sort of hybrid that was a drum sander or a belt sander depending on how it was used.... typical of maybe the early 1940's as a massive piece of equipment and of course green in color. The thing would eat a table top, must have been almost 4' wide. Along with a stroke sander this is a tool I always wanted....... well I did final get the drum sander but I don't see a stroke sander in my future.

One of the advantages of drum sander flattening is; the workpiece can simply be inserted into the machine and caught on the other end in a flattened condition. This is a great labor saving operation, but one has to be aware that some sand grit is left imbeded in the workpiece. This grit, even though very fine, will considerably dull any sharp knives put into this piece at a later time. That's why sanding should be the last step in finnishing a workpiece - not the first.

Looks like we are on very different pages on this subject....

First, it is common practice to take ruff cut wood that has been stored and moved about to have a lot of "nasty stuff" on the surface. (In fact if you watch Norm he done it this way on several shows). So to "save" your planer cutters you sand first. Is that always needed... no, but haveing processed a lot of wood some years back I wish we would have had a sander.... it would have saved us many a hour.

When you use these type sanders you might opt to not use the planer at all. Woods that are highly figured or things like burl are examples that often do better with sanding then with a planer. Finished stock can be made uniform thickness with the drum sander.... even to finish sanding depending on the project. How about thin stock... down to 1/32" without special methods...... if I recall my planer minimium is either 3/8" or more likely 1/2".

I will give you some small amount of wear could be caused from left over sandpaper grit, my gut feeling is it is so small it would be hard to measure and there for can be overlooked. Trust me these machines do not work like the experence you had with the wood drum and wrapped sandpaper.... more like or even better then a belt sander as far as grit retension.

I guess I've had mine about 4 years now and I have seen no change in wear on any of the saw blades, planer blades or router bits etc..... and I'm big time into routers....... in fact I track router bits in a spreadsheet (maybe I shouldn't admit that?).

When one thinks about it, - starting to square up a workpiece by sanding will lead to dull jointer and planer blades, saw blades, and router blades - not to mention plane blades and scrapers.

Anyone else care to comment?

Ed

[charlese]

Ed you said:

"Looks like we are on very different pages on this subject....

First, it is common practice to take ruff cut wood that has been stored and moved about to have a lot of "nasty stuff" on the surface. (In fact if you watch Norm he done it this way on several shows). So to "save" your planer cutters you sand first. Is that always needed... no, but haveing processed a lot of wood some years back I wish we would have had a sander.... it would have saved us many a hour.

When you use these type sanders you might opt to not use the planer at all. Woods that are highly figured or things like burl are examples that often do better with sanding then with a planer. Finished stock can be made uniform thickness with the drum sander.... even to finish sanding depending on the project. How about thin stock... down to 1/32" without special methods...... if I recall my planer minimium is either 3/8" or more likely 1/2".

I will give you some small amount of wear could be caused from left over sandpaper grit, my gut feeling is it is so small it would be hard to measure and there for can be overlooked. Trust me these machines do not work like the experence you had with the wood drum and wrapped sandpaper.... more like or even better then a belt sander as far as grit retension...."


O.K I'll relent on that subject, my concern about sanding grit may be one of those old "saws" like - you never set a hand plane down on it's sole. At least I'll try not to over state the sanding grit issue!. Your point is well made! But I'm sure you don't mind if I prefer to hold off sanding until the laststep! Just have to comment that Norm Abram has no problem in changing out blades. His tools (and Blades) come to him pretty easily.

Incidently, my Dewalt 735 - planes down to 1/8" very well. Even has a stop at that dimension.

[reible]

"Dewalt 735 - planes down to 1/8""

Now you are making me wish I had one of those...

I did check my manual just now and it has stops down to 3/8" so that makes your machine 3 times better then mine!!!

Ed