Need advice on a thickness planer

Ninh Shepherd

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73
Location
Northwest Georgia U.S
Hi guys I do a lot of reclaimed wood work about 80% but it because I can't really afford to buy new wood all the time and half of my battle with time is just working around the bowed aspect of reclaimed wood it's fu ad interesting sometime but get sold fast I have a router table I use as a jointer everyone and then but I a destined ad bound to get a planer as my next tool buy. I've bee looking and there's almost no good way of getting out with a planer for less than 400-500$ but I have seen the Ryobi planer for 250$ 13" span 2 speed. All the reviews I've read are positive. As most wood workers say that this ryobi a planet is just as good as their 500$ dewalt(etc) planer just louder.
Over the the past months of tease rich I've found that almost anything to do with Rpms ryobi out performs al the other brands when it comes to saws. I just want to know if this would be an ok buy for me!!!? Or would I just be wasting my time. Note just about anything at this point to work with nice wood that's descently flat or halfway true is a luxury and I zoom threw projects. So something has to be done lol
Thanks for reading sorry the novel still new at forums be nice ! Please !

Also good recommendations on GOOD chisels and hand planes !


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Hi Nihn. I would say the main clarification needed here is that you are trying to joint your reclaimed wood, not plane it, yes? A jointer makes things flat. A planer takes an already flat side and makes the opposite side parallel to it.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/tool-guide/article/the-jointer-and-planer-are-a-team.aspx

The good news is that if you are using narrow lumber, there is almost always a 6" jointer on the used market. The bad news is that you probably want something wider than that. If your reclaimed material is usually 6 feet long or less, you could make a planer sled and go ahead with the planer. This would give you both functions with one tool. The Ryobi you are looking at could work for this if you are talking about a used 1300. Home Depot no longer shows the planer that I read all the good reviews on but, they do show the Steel City which is made by the same folks.
 
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Oh no Glenn I'm just looking for something to get me some what square all around and what I was referring too with my router table is that I use that to joint the reclaimed wood but to cut a cup or flatten a piece to get a nice grain of wood is what I'm looking for. The misses is the one that loves all the reclaimed woodworking I like clean square lines or the more finer side of woodworking. So in order for the misses to allow the continued wood shop I've started I occasionally make a few things she flips her lid over lol
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like this i don't know if it's showing the images but it's an ice chest roll around cooler 100% reclaimed wood
This took me 2-3 months due to its All red oak/white oak and I had to use the tablesaw from work because my small craftsman didn't have theusr to get threw the hard wood. And that's why it took me so long is because i didn't have a planner to mill my stock square to rip the smaller strips :(


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thats a clever setup ninh, i can see why she liked it. on the saw you have sometimes a new blade will make all the difference.. there different tooth configurations that make saw work less.. as for planes take a look at the old stanleys or some of the lee valley ones are good hand planes
 
Omg no!!!!! Lol I about threw my back out doing that top with what I had on hand. Which was a stanly BLOCK PLANE!!!!!! Haha i must have looked so dumb trying to plane this top with a stinking CHAMFER PLANE HAHA.


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There are a lot of good planers out there for you to choose from. Used ones are always a possibility. But, as soon as you mentioned reclaimed wood I mentally did a big "UH-OH!!". :eek: Reclaimed wood can have a lot of dirt and grit in it. Meaning that the first few inches of planing it would ruin the blades. Replacement is expensive. Methinks a big sander with coarse grit might be more practical for your needs.
 
I have thought about converting an old treadmill into a surface sander!?😏 ima cnc machinist programmer any of the parts or specialty belts I can gain easy access to or make!... Hmm but how affective IS a surface sander compared to a planer?


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Hmm but how affective IS a surface sander compared to a planer?

I have both and use the sander for irregular or questionable material. A small metal detector takes care of finding any metal parts, a wire brush removes most of the dirt and grit. The sander with some coarse paper will knock off the rest of the nasty stuff. If you want to stop there for the 'distressed' look, you're all set. If you want to get milled lumber, the jointer and planer team are your friend ;-)
 
What about a nice belt sander few passes and then to the planner ? Same affect (I.e not dulling my blades quickly ) plus how many time can you resharpen the blades ? I'm a CNC machinist and I have many tools at my availability. !! Also I would love to have a dedicated jointer but for now a planer will have to do because I can only afford one that's why I'm looking at the Ryobi (250$ ) instead of an average priced one . Plus going threw the process of building a surface sander money and the time spent "eh"would I not be better of with a planer. I build most of my tools mainly for the challenge but now I just need to make some money making projects because I have pretty much all the essentials. Like this table saw
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I designed it to be as multi function as possible and as dead accurate as an anal machinist could be to the thousandth of an inch. Took me 3 weeks to finish but well worth the time spent and trouble shooting done on the design. I would imagine the surface sander would take me even twice as long ! Is what I'm worried about I need to make some money back to proceed on the path of growing my shop as the Misses says haha


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Ninh, Nothing wrong with the Ryobi planer. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles as more expensive planers but it gets the job done just fine. I had a 10" ryobi planer when they first came out in about 1985 and it was a workhorse.
Just to remind you, a planer won't flatten a cupped or twisted board. you need one side of the board to be flat and square in order to get the board even. Buy the planer and checkout Glenns thread on building a planer sled. That wiil get one side nice and flat so you can plane it.

Great looking project and pretty nice shop too :thumb:
 
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