Product Code Database
A thickness planer (also known in the UK and Australia as a thicknesser or in North America as a planer) is a woodworking machine to trim boards to a consistent thickness throughout their length. This machine transcribes the desired thickness using the downside as a reference / index. So, to produce a completely straight planed board requires that the down surface is straight before planing. Obtaining the first flat side requires either face planing with a jointer or face planing using a planer and jointer sled.
It is different from a surface planer, or jointer, where the cutter head is set into the bed surface. A surface planer has slight advantages for producing the first flat surface and may be able to do so in a single pass. However the thicknesser has more important advantages in that it can produce a board with a consistent thickness, avoids producing a tapered board, and by making passes on each side and turning the board, may also be used for the initial preparation of an unplaned board.
Industrial thickness planers are capable of accepting very wide boards and removing large amounts of material in a single pass. These machines are driven by powerful motors and are of very heavy construction. In recent times, a range of lightweight portable thickness planers have become available which use the cheaper, but noisy, rather than and are much less expensive than industrial versions.
In Europe, the functions of the jointer and thickness planer are often combined into a single combination machine, a jointer-planer. In the U.K. this is called a planer–thicknesser or over–and–under.Ernest Joyce (1987). 071344407X, Batsford. 071344407X
To finish a board that is flat and of uniform thickness along its length, it is necessary to start with a board that has at least one perfectly flat reference face. The board is fed with this reference face flat on the table and the cutter head removes an amount of material from the opposite face so that it is made parallel to the reference face. The reference face is often created by first passing the board over a jointer. If the lower face is not flat, the feed roller pressure pressing the board against the table will deform the board, which will then spring back as it leaves the machine, resulting in a non-flat upper surface.
One problem often encountered when using a thickness planer is snipe. This manifests as a deeper cut on a short section of the board at either end and is caused by incorrect feeding or misalignment of the in-feed or out-feed tables, or an unnecessarily high setting of the rollers recessed in the surface of the in-feed table. It can be accommodated by keeping the board overlong to allow later trimming.
|
|
