Clever things you can do with an ELECTRIC hand planer

this is an electric hand plane it's a highly underrated tool with lots of really handy uses there are some videos online showing some of its more obvious uses such as how to quickly even out studs or joists in building your deck construction or to flatten floors and bench tops and other things that you might otherwise do with a dusty belt sander but as a woodworker i find an electric hand plane useful for other things that you don't typically see other people using them for for example i can use it to plane two edges of two boards nice and straight so they'll go together for a seamless glue up i can use it to add a chamfer or a bevel to an edge i can even use it to cut simple joinery such as rabbets if i wanted to but today i want to focus on how this little tool can be a serviceable replacement for the much larger and much more expensive jointer if you don't have the room or a budget for a jointer in your workshop or if you need something portable you can take to a job site an electric planer can be an absolute revelation in your tool kit first let's take a moment to be sure you know how to safely use one of these tools now there may be some slight differences between models but they all feature a two piece sole the back plate is fixed in a single position but the front plate moves up and down when you turn the knob on the top of the tool this adjusts how deeply the blades are going to cut into the wood in a single pass somewhere on the body you may also find one or two mounting points to attach a fence which is used to help stabilize the tool on the edge of a narrow board some models also have dual dust ports so you can change the direction of the flying chips or find a more convenient way to attach a vacuum hose on one side or the other on the rear you're also likely to find some type of kickstand now some people find these annoying but they're made to kick up out of the way when it's on top of the work piece but then pop back down so that you won't accidentally lay the spinning blade on top of your workbench what none of these tools have is a guard covering the spinning blade and there is no putting back on what one of these tools may remove it's very much like a router when it comes to the potential for danger so they should always be handled with the utmost care this means keeping both hands on the tool whenever it's running if at all possible because if your hands are on the handles they can't be near the blades underneath i will caution you though to be sure you don't turn that front knob as you grip it and move the tool forward since that will change the depth of your cut and you'll get an uneven surface like many electric hand tools you should always wear safety glasses and hearing protection when you use one of these and be sure that there is no loose clothing or hair that could be caught in the blade also keep an eye on your cord or your vacuum hose if you're using one so they don't become snagged on the bench top or something else and get caught stopping you mid cut which may cause you to jerk the tool or make some other quick and potentially dangerous movement likewise if you're working with a long board and you'll be walking forward as you cut or shifting your feet be sure there's nothing around your feet that may cause you to trip and fall with a spinning planer in your hands it's important also to be sure that your blades are properly set don't assume they are check them from time to time the adjustment process is different from one model to the next so i recommend consulting your manual for information about that now operating an electric planer isn't difficult or particularly dangerous if you know what you're doing just remember this isn't a belt sander it's not meant to scrub back and forth or swirl in circles it's meant to shave wood one forward pass at a time so let's try it on the edge of a board i've set my depth knob to take a relatively shallow cut for the first pass or two until i get to know how the tool is going to react to this particular material i can always increase the cutting depth for subsequent passes the only edging technique that you really need to learn is how to start and stop your cuts properly failure to follow these simple tips will result in what's called snipe this can appear as minor scalloping near a board's end or even as a big bite that can spoil the end of a work piece to avoid snipe the tool must enter the cut evenly without tipping if the tool tips back off the end of the board the cutters will dig deeply into the corner and you'll get this you don't want that begin each pass with the front platform firmly on the work piece apply pressure to the front of the tool to keep that portion in contact with the board until the rest of the sole comes onto the wood behind it and stabilizes things as you near the far end of the board the potential problem will reverse if you allow the tool to fall off the end the cutters will dig in there as they did before so as you exit the cut you have to shift your downward pressure from the front to the rear of the tool keeping that platform firmly on the wood until the cutters have shaved all the way to the end and off the board at that point you can lift the tool away some describe this lifting motion at the end of the cut is an airplane sort of taking off just be sure that your plane doesn't lift off until the blades have cut all the way to the end because that could affect how straight the cut is after a pass or two you'll quickly get the hang of it of course these instructions are for planing the entire edge of a board from one end to another assuming it's already fairly straight there are times though when you may only wish to plane a portion of an edge for example this edge has a crown at the center it wouldn't be safe to place a crooked edge like this against the fence of your table saw to make a rip cut because the board may shift and bind mid-cut and a kickback could happen the short length of an electric planer though makes it difficult to fully straighten a long board because the tool will want to follow the curves in the board like a boat on the waves so instead i'll take one very shallow short pass in the center of the edge then i'll take a slightly longer one and then i'll take a slightly longer one overlapping until the final pass covers the entire length of the edge because i took more passes at the center then out towards the ends the board should be straighter than it was before if more work is needed i'll repeat the process layering my passes and feathering the edge out until the crown is gone and i can safely rip it on my table saw the same process may be done to straighten a hollow edge which curves in the opposite direction in that case though i would take short passes on the ends and those passes would grow longer and longer until the entire edge is planed straight these edge straightening techniques can be a lifesaver if you're working with rough lumber or you're on a job site working with two by fours and construction lumber that's not straight and you don't have access to a jointer you can use these not to perfectly straighten the edge but to get it straight enough so you can properly and safely cut it with the table saw keep these techniques in mind as well as we address the face of the board this one has an obvious cup in it you can see how it rocks on the bench top in fact there's also a bit of a twist along the board's length now we can solve both these problems with an electric planer so let's start with the cup i like to work on the crown side where i'll simply remove more material from the high center then along the lower edges of the board's face again i recommend light passes it's easy to remove too much and turn a hill into a valley so check your progress frequently with a straight edge once the cup is gone i can turn my attention to any twist that may exist for this i'll need a set of winding sticks winding sticks are simply two strips of wood where the edges are cut parallel to each other you can make a pair of them from some scraps with a table saw i also like to apply a bit of tape along the edge of one to create a contrasting color the winding sticks are placed on the board's face one at each end the goal is for the sticks to be parallel to each other so sight down the board using the contrast from the taped stick to help it stand out from the other one you can see that these are not parallel so that indicates that there is a twist in my board to correct it i have to plane down my two high corners which will bring the sticks into alignment of course i don't want to only remove material from the two corners because i want the board to remain flat so i have to feather my cuts out as before i'll concentrate at the high corners but i'll still remove some wood from the entire surface of the board connecting those two corners as always light passes are best so you don't accidentally go too far this takes a bit more practice than straightening an edge does but you'll get the hang of it fairly quickly stop frequently and check with your winding sticks again to gauge your progress move the sticks to different positions on the surface of the board to monitor those areas as well before long both the twist and the cup will be gone and you'll have one good flat face but what about the other side of the board well you can repeat the whole process on that face as well and that would give you two straight flat faces but chances are they would not be parallel to each other you're likely to end up with kind of a wedge-shaped board and that's one of the limitations of an electric hand plane it can straighten an edge it can flatten a face but it can't bring opposite edges or opposite faces parallel to each other not without a great deal of skill and fussing so in that respect an electric hand plane can be a serviceable replacement for a large jointer particularly on a job site or in a small shop but not a replacement for a thickness planer so now that one of my board's faces is flat i can safely run it through the thickness planer to dress the opposite face flat and parallel to the first one and now that one of my board's edges is straight i can safely rip it on the table saw to bring the opposite edge parallel to that one there are a lot of other uses for electric hand planers but these are the techniques that really help you get the most out of your tool in your woodworking shop now check this out mywoodcutters.com is the sort of small business i like to support stefan is a great guy and he can find you knives and cutters for almost any joiner planer shaper or molding machine and his are the best prices if you're planning to upgrade to a helical carbide cutter head please use the link below this video to check with him before you buy somewhere else some small businesses are just worth supporting

Channel: Stumpy Nubs

Views: 962,673

Keywords: woodworking, stumpy nubs, tips, workbench, table saw, scroll saw, drill press, quick tip, band saw, bandsaw, lumber, hack, hand plane, sharpening, tormek, worksharp, diamond stone, water stone, wood turning, bowls, lathe

Id: Ic4r0VRAbiY

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2022