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So, the wood shop I have had access to for the last 18yrs is going bust. I have enjoyed the use of many fun toys there, including an 18" planer and a 36" wide belt sander. Sure am gonna miss it. Oh, and the job too.

I wonder, how many of you find a planer essential? And do you,run a small 13" or so style planer? It has been nice being able to use a planer on joined tops and backs before feeding them into the thickness sander....

What do,you guys use?

Wow, the doors are closing??

I don't have a planner and don't have need of one in my workshop. A jointer would be nice but not necessary either.

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Fraid so. I'll wait for their press release as a matter of courtesy before elaborating.

Anyway, I suspect I will be doing more volume than you Rod. (I better...)

I think I will need a planer for doing laminated necks as well. I just don't see myself futzing about with a lee Nielsen trying to get orders out.

Question really comes down to whether or not I need one to do full joined panels or if a single will do, especially in the absence of a good wide belt.

That's not very happy news! They're not moving to China are they?

Bench top planers are great. Go with a name brand and a resharpenable knife is a must. Some use to have disposable.

I've never used one but I know you will be sadly missing the wide belt. I better hurry down for the tour.

I used to build a lot more furniture and had a 15" planer. A few years ago, to make more space in my shop, I downsized to a 12" Jet Joiner/Planer. I use the jointer a lot but I don't use the planer very often. Sad thing is the planer on that machine works way better than the jointer.

I mill a lot of my guitar parts from rough lumber. If I bought all my wood specifically milled for guitar parts and was only building guitars, I would rarely miss my planer.

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I have a 12 1/2" planer. Haven't used it in over 6 years; probably ought to sell it. I do use my jointer a lot to true up edges before I take them to the saw.

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I have a 15" planer, before that a 12" Delta that worked great. It had double edge disposable blades, but if you get the magnetic knife setting jig, you can resharpen the blades over and over. I had three sets of blades that I used for over 15 years.

Alex

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I'd likely look into a helical head machine. Or whatever the ones with teeny tiny disposable blades are called.

So, are the majority of you taking your backs and tops from rough thickness (4-5mm at glue up) to final thickness (2.5-2.8mm) via home sized drum sanders? Just seems like an awful lot of meat for abrasives alone...

24", 12", 8", 6" 4" jointers, table saws,
band saws, drill presses, 32" thicknesser...sent them all down the line
in fact two whole shops got sent down the line....
Yup downsized real big time.

Kept one table saw and a 6 incher. (never use the jointer)

Then picked up a 4" belt, 8" band saw and drill press, all table toppers and a shop vac. ...no more big machines screamin in me brain. Been a few dudes, musta saw the light or sumptin, dumped all the machines and went primal ~ hand tools only...others just went.

Me might pickup a table top thicknesser...but thats only because me thinkin of knocken off a dinning room and bedroom sweet.

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Any leftovers you wanna kick down to me ?
I need some big screaming machines...

I always like to buy rough lumber... thing is nothing I buy are properly seasoned so I can't say they won't move later on if I buy it already planed and processed. Having them rough sawn means I can mill it when I need it and not have it move on me.

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Helical heads are absolutely worth the money. I've had mine for almost 3 years and haven't even had to rotate the blades. Would have been at least 5-6 sharpenings on straight blades by now. Not to mention the lack of tear-out.

I never machine plane joined tops or backs, always sand. It does take time if you don't have a wide belt sander but blow out a couple of expensive sets and you can pay for a lot of time. I have a friend who planed his stuff for years with no problems. Then he blew up a few nice sets of Brazilian. Now he sands.

The problem with planing thin stock is that the wood gets too flexible. Any chatter or vibration will cause the stock to flex up into the blade. My friend was using a small machine pressure rollers close together and that's likely why he got away with it as long as he did. With the pressure rollers close together, the wood is less able to flex.

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I've planed thin boards a few times by using double stick tape and a carrier board. sometimes it works, sometimes .

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

To answer your question, I do use my Jet drum sander (80 grit) to final thickness my backs and tops.
I have a "12" planer, but haven't used it for guitar work. I do use a joiner to get glue edges for most of my backs and tops; works good for most woods I've tried, but not all.

Marty

I've got a cheapo 12" thickness planer I use to tame rough-cut timber.
I get 2" snipe on both ends. I use a sled with shims under my board to plane a fairly flat side before I flip it over and thickness it.
I use my table saw to create square edges.
I wish I had a jointer or knew how to use a hand plane.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Yes. It goes faster than you would think, especially with 60 grit.

I have a planer and jointer but for milling up wood for guitar building I don't see the need. The woods are so small and we dont really use much of it (compared to cabinetry/furniture). Plus I really don't like the noise and all the dust in my shop. I can flatten a 6"x36" board with a sharp jack plane almost as fast as running it through the planer. Here is my technique for milling up lumber, sort of a hand/power tool hybrid technique:

For laminating neck woods:
1. flatten one face and edge with a jack plane. Get the edge as straight and square as possible to eliminate problems with step 3.
2. run through the thickness sander, flattened face down, mill until unflattened face is flat, then flip and sand flattened face. Both sides are now flat and coplanar.
3. true up unflattened edge on the table saw using flattened edge as guide on fence.
4. flip over and true up flattened edge on table saw.
5. enjoy your perfectly milled and squared boards.

Resawing back/sides top sets:
1. resaw on 14" or larger band saw. A quality resaw will allow you to skip step 2.
2. flatten out any high spots with a jack plane or smoothing plane.
3. run through thickness sander until all faces are flat. I use 60 grit if the resaw is very uneven. If it looks good I'll use 80 grit.
4. true up edges and glue
5. flatten to desired thickness on drum sander with 80 grit, finish with a few passes of 120 grit.

Thanks,

The planer we have at work is like a series of safe-t-planers mounted in a row. The blades go in sideways circular motions across the grain, and not straight into it. You can smooth things out real nice to within .5 mm, even on squirrelly wood. It's nice because if you're doing large numbers, your abrasives don't get as clogged, especially at the glue line of joined panels...

You got to remember Meddling that you won't have the output of that shop & you probably can't afford that type of planner.

It's gonna be hard to go from having access to that shop to not and you'll have to do many processes just like the rest of us.

If I had the orders (or time) to build full time I still wouldn't get a planer. I could easily put out 15-20 guitars a year with my current set up without one.

I guess what I'm getting at is, you might need to seriously think about changing some if your process'.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Fair enough, fair enough. Fortunately I'm about two machines away from autonomy...

I had a 12" bench top planer that sat unused for years. Finally sold it to reclaim the space. My Grizzly wide belt sander is more than adequate for all my flattening and resizing needs. YMMV.

Dave F.

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Yes, a wide belt would be a real treat...

Like Kent said the Helical heads are just such a cut above the others. Even when only running (not being used for cutting) they are so much quieter than straight blades, there is much less buffering as the air in front of the head is 'spiralled' out of the machine. Widebelt sanders are a go to machine but you still need one flat ie planed/jointed surface to start with. Imho if it were a 1..2 choice wide belt gets the first vote then close second for the planer/thicknesser machine.

Steve

For guitar work I like the small, relatively cheap tabletop planers to get the plates to a thickness I feel comfortable gluing them up at. This saves some time and sandpaper on the small drum sander I have. The small planers have the rollers closer together and a smaller diameter cutter head. I think this allows them to plane boards thinner than the larger planers that sometimes grab the wood and send it out the back side as kindling.
Another advantage of a tabletop unit is that it doesn't take up a lot of space in the shop, and if bought used, can be had for the price of a good hand plane (and if you find it to be useless can be sold for about the same price).
I've used helical heads. They are nice, but for what I use a planer for in lutherie work a little "overkill". YMMV

+2 on the helical planer heads. I put a shelix head on my DeWalt, and it's day-and-night compared to before.
Beautiful finish, and very little tearout, even on complex grain like high-figure Koa or Maple. I was getting ready
to see the DeWalt before I decided to spring for the Shelix head, but I'm very glad I went the way I did. I'm getting
much more heavily into resawing, and I find the planer a good machine for pre-thicknessing (before drum sander).
Maybe I won't need that step as I get better at resawing, but it works well for now.

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