Why do I need an expensive planner?

[scott vroom]

Local dealers in the SF Bay Area charge only 20 cents/bd ft premium to surface all sides. Why would I need to invest in an expensive floor planner? I don't see the payback ocurring in my lifetime. I just purchased a Griz TS & 8" jointer, is this enough for Shaker style cabinets and bedroom furniture? I was under the impression that rough wood was MUCH less expensive than finished but that is not true in my area.

[Frank Martin]

• Wood moves/warps/twists even after you get it from the lumberyard, which you will need to address as you are building
• You will quickly realize some parts will need to be thinner than the wood you have at hand
• Just like TS and jointer, planer helps with processing your stock as you build in creating a second surface parallel to the jointed one

Of course to do all of this you do not necessarily need a floor model. You can get a cheaper bench top model from Dewalt, Delta, etc, which is what I started with. One thing I could absolutely not tolerate was the high pitch noise from the universal motor of the planer. Then I upgraded to a 12" Grizzly J/P with spiral head which works very well for me. Another avenue to pursue is getting a good condition used machine if you decide to go this route...

[Brian Kent]

My opinion is that if your lumber source sells finished lumber at a reasonable price, the planer goes further down the list of needed tools.

I do think that a band saw and either a planer or drum sander go together. There is always some cleanup to do after resawing.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Scott, Brian and Frank have good points. I didn't even have a planer for 6 years when I started. It did not limit what I built in the least. There are plenty of ways to change somethings thickness using other methods, or different planning. That being said though, one will certainly open up the possibilities and speed up the work flow.

The second question on this type of discussion is usually which tools to buy first, and my experiances lead me to always recommend a jointer as the second tool behind the table saw. Planer always moves down the list for me.

[scott spencer]

I guess it depends on what you call expensive. It's possible to get a very good planer in the $300 range. The benefit is the flexibility of not needing to rely on a supplier and the restrictions of their operating hours. Also, not everyone has a wood supplier near by, and not all offer planing services.

[Paul Ryan]

The second question on this type of discussion is usually which tools to buy first, and my experiances lead me to always recommend a jointer as the second tool behind the table saw. Planer always moves down the list for me.

I agree with Steve, I woodworked for about 5 years and did just fine with out a planer. It just depends what kind of material you buy. It doesn't save that much by planing your own wood because with a lunch box planer it takes time. But once you have one they come in handy and mine now gets used everytime I build something. It is nice being able to guarantee all of my stock is exactly the same thinkness once it has been cut to size. Ocasionally my supplier only has 6/4 cut and then sells it to me for the same price as 5/4. Then I use my planer as well.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I have a sears lunchbox planer that while loud does a great job on finishing boards. One concern would be wether the lumber yard actually joints one surface on the jointer so that it is perfectly flat or if it goes through the planer for both sides. In that case you aren't getting the benifts of the jointer..

That said if their stock is good and the faces are parallel with eachother you could use your jointer to thickness stock I suppose. Once it has gone through a planer and both faces are parallel to eachother I don't see why you couldn't use your jointer to reduce the thickness on the piece...

Lots of ways to skin a cat..

[Paul Steiner]

The reason you need an expensive planer is because he who dies with the most toys wins.

[Matt Day]

If you want to mill rough stock yourself, and deal with warp/twist that may come from pre-milled stock, and you don't want to use hand tools, I think you really need one. You have a nice jointer - compliment it with at least a decent lunchbox planer.

[Prashun Patel]

You can probably get away without one, but consider 2 things:

1) They are faster and more accurate than a jointer in making multiple pieces a consistent thickness. I find this useful when gluing up planks into a table top.

2) Some of the benchtop models are unobtrusive and economical.

Personally, I find a benchtop planer one of the best values in shop tools.

[Chris Tsutsui]

I have a Makita box planer and it's one of my favorite tools to use because it's so easy to just shove a stick of wood in there and watch it come out the other end.

Like mentioned above, I buy pre-milled lumber but it's never perfect and there are always instances where I need the wood to be thinner. This is where the thickness planer comes in handy.

Even if your board is milled perfect, you can shave off a small hair to expose fresh grain or remove imperfections. Then the only sanding you'll need is to remove any planer marks which can mean less sanding.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

IMO convience plays a major role. The local BORG charges ONLY 25 cents to cut a tile. I re-tiled 2 baths. 75 tiles or so. IF I cut every single tile it would be 20 bucks or so. I still bought their cheapo tile saw. Why? I would get extremely tired of measuring and then stopping, and driving there to get the tile cut. And of course, you'll make a mistake, and have to get another tile cut. So, for my personal time it was well worth spending 80 bucks to save the 5 dollars I would have spent on them cutting tiles for me..... Makes no sense as far as dollars, but time is gold too. Same would apply to a planer. You could stop and get a board surfaced.....

[James Carmichael]

I can't speak to a "planner" but as for a planer: If you have a jointer, it's only 1/2 of the equation. The jointer is used to make the board face and edge flat, the planer takes it down to desired thickness, and, most importantly, makes the opposing face parallel to the flat one.

The beauty of the j/p combo isn't cost savings from buying rough lumber (unless you or a buddy own a sawmill), it's the ability to flatten and mill stock to any needed thickness.

If you're buying S2S lumber that is perfectly flat and the exact thickness you want, then I guess you don't need a planer, but then you shouldn't need a jointer, either.

[phil harold]

This man took the words out of my keyboard!!!

IMO convience plays a major role. The local BORG charges ONLY 25 cents to cut a tile. I re-tiled 2 baths. 75 tiles or so. IF I cut every single tile it would be 20 bucks or so. I still bought their cheapo tile saw. Why? I would get extremely tired of measuring and then stopping, and driving there to get the tile cut. And of course, you'll make a mistake, and have to get another tile cut. So, for my personal time it was well worth spending 80 bucks to save the 5 dollars I would have spent on them cutting tiles for me..... Makes no sense as far as dollars, but time is gold too. Same would apply to a planer. You could stop and get a board surfaced.....

[J.R. Rutter]

As others have mentioned, surfaced lumber is not the same as flattened lumber. I buy 4/4 hardwoods "hit and missed" to 15/16 so that we can read the color and grain before cutting and milling. Most of it is only approximately flat. Once you rough cut parts, your jointer / planer combo lets you flatten them to identical thickness. But I also had the experience of doing without a planer OR jointer for many years and found ways to work around it, including hand selecting flat lumber and laboriously straightening on the table saw.