Running edges through a planer..

[Al Launier]

Have done this for years & like the results, in fact I just finished doing this for some mahogany strips I'm using on a knife block.

Sometimes I'll center one or 2-3 of these (especially thin strips) between wider boards of the same height for additional lateral support; other times I'll stick the strips or small, thin boards on top of a board with with double-back tape, with or without lateral support. One thing to be sure of is to have the bottom edge flat & square to avoid any "lien" which could cause an "unexpected" result.

[Mark Wooden]

All of what I do, YMMV-
Pull RS4S from stack
Rough cut parts to length
Rough rip parts to width- sometimes have to joint an edge to get them through the saw
Flatten one face on the jointer
Straighten one edge on the jointer indexing off the flattened face
Plane to sanding thickness- (for me, usually a "fat" measure)
Run 2+ pieces at a time through the planer on edge, staring with the jointed edges down, turn over and finish size by planing off the jointed edge- (which won't be as smooth as the planed edge)
Use parts as needed for stiles.rails , legs etc, etc..

[Wayne Lomman]

Mark, very, very well put. This is basic woodwork technique that has developed over centuries. Only the tools have evolved. The principles remain.

Randy, don't let anyone tell you not to flatten one side as you have been doing. You are doing it correctly. Keep up the good work. Cheers

[Leo Graywacz]

I get all my wood skip planed. So it's usually 3/16" over standard thickness. I'll flatten one side on the jointer and then though the planer. Then at least you have a few days before it might change shape (if ever) to mill it while it's true.

[Mark Bolton]

Im with Leo and Martin. All our material comes in skip planed and straight line ripped one edge. We glue line rip on the slider and honestly cant tell you the last time I even rolled the jointer out. Its covered in an inch of dust and buried in the corner. For big stuff like interior doors we fly-cut parts flat on the CNC before planing but thats a bit of a luxury. We edge dress ALL our material on the shaper with straight knives in a corrugated head and a LONG shop made back fence. Its basically like a giant high speed jointer for edging. Sucks having to two pass parts but the shaper is way faster and the long fence is way more accurate than edge planing through the planer would ever be.

The few times we have ever edge thicknessed 4/4 material in the planer it rolls all over the place. No guarantee of a square edge to the face. If we do ever do it we actually clamp a stack of boards together with the clamps a bit loose and send the clamps and all through the planer along with the group of boards. But thats one in a million and it has to be low tolerance work (nothing with critical width).

[Rick Fisher]

I wonder if the type of planer makes the difference. I plane edges on mine and the accuracy and results are exceptional .. Same thing . straight line rip on the slider, but I edge through the planer.. I don't have bed rollers, and the height is digitally set.. The results are beyond my expectations..

I'm going to measure the width on a board after using the planer and see how much variance I actually get... Honestly I don't see how it couldn't be accurate but I'm open to learning ..

[glenn bradley]

This is a problem which I have noted here before and I've still not found a solution.

I may have responded before. If so, please ignore.

The factory settings on my floor standing planer were set for rough lumber. The infeed is about 1/16" below Bottom Dead Center of the cutters and the outfeed is about 1/32". I reduced these by at least half.

In addition to the height settings you can back off the pressure. You can put a mark on the adjustment screw/knob/bolt to allow you to return to your original position if you don't like the result. My adjustments were backed off so far that I used a drop of hot-glue to make sure the pressure adjusters stayed put. That is, the rollers were in position but, there is minimal pressure keeping them at the lowest point. Even at this relatively light setting the planer has a grip like an alligator.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have the Jet JWP 15CS finishing planer. I keep the bed wheels level with the bed. I get nice crisp edges but I don't put anything taller than 4" in there usually. 2" or less is the usual, for face frames.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Thank you, glen. Your solutions make sense and I'm going to try the spring adjustment first. 1/16" below BDC is the specification. Backing off that some seems reasonable to try, as well.

The thing is, I don't think all the feeder sections are problematic, i.e., it seems like the impressed board edges happen only in certain areas, so I wonder if some are sticking somehow. I don't know how the inner spring mechanism works.

[Joe Calhoon]

I wonder if the type of planer makes the difference. I plane edges on mine and the accuracy and results are exceptional .. Same thing . straight line rip on the slider, but I edge through the planer.. I don't have bed rollers, and the height is digitally set.. The results are beyond my expectations..

I'm going to measure the width on a board after using the planer and see how much variance I actually get... Honestly I don't see how it couldn't be accurate but I'm open to learning ..

It does make a difference Rick. When I say finish planer I mean a heavy duty 20 to 24" planer with no bed rolls, insert type head and rubber rollers. This term may not be correct as some of the old Buss and Whitney planers were called finish planers and not sure what the differences were from a roughing planer. Side to side accuracy is good on the Martin and the ability to run 4/4 on edge up to the 10" height is good. Its nice to be able to come back if you have a reject downstream to remake quickly to same dimensions. The Griggio Tersa planer we used in the shop in Bhutan had rubber rollers and it seemed to do a good job also. Did not get to try it on tall boards though.

When we had our SCM with conventional knives and bed rollers it was more of a job to do processing like this. Anything over 4" or so would get out of square and it took a lot of effort setting the knives to get side to side the same. Without accurate digital readouts the repeatability takes some fussing. Conventional heads you need to read the grain, with the insert heads not so much but I still do from years of habit. You just have to make do with what you have.

I got the small window batch processed with jointer and planer. More work than the S4S machine but the results are the same. Straight square pieces with no snipe and high quality surface finish with no tear out.
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[Martin Wasner]

I just ran some maple and quarter sawn white oak on edge through my planer to try it out. A good cut, but not as good as I'm getting on the shaper. That's on a format 4 with a Tersa head steel rollers, while not a Martin, it's not a cheap planer. Completely acceptable and way better cut than what my old planer was capable of, but not quite there for quality.

[Joe Calhoon]

Martin, what grade of Tersa are you using? I found the M42 and HSS did not give good results after a few hundred lineal.
we use carbide Tersa on the S4S and Kanafusa coated Tersa on the jointer and planer. Two knives in 4 knife heads.

[Martin Wasner]

It came with a fresh set of m42 knives in it.

[Mark Bolton]

Imho there is no way edge planed material is going to compare to any shaper/molder based result. The finished width will of course be consistent over its length but the planer option does virtually nothing to further straighten the workpiece. A long fence (shaper or jointer) far exceeds the capabilities of a short planer bed and additionally with proper setup the shaper feeder will not exert enough force on the piece being edged to flatten a bow out of the workpiece. A planers feed rollers are going do do exactly as they do with a face planed board and squeeze it down flat, thickness it, and when it comes out the other end its just going to spring back to where it was.

With light feeder pressure the workpiece is straightened just like it is on a jointer if you present the workpiece with the crown out. Edge squareness is a given.

Im not saying edge planing/sandingg is not acceptable for certain operations, it surely is. But in the time it takes me to crank the handwheel on the planer down to 6" to feed a half a dozen 1x6s' on edge through the planer, I can stick a back fence on the shaper and be done.

[Martin Wasner]

But in the time it takes me to crank the handwheel on the planer down to 6" to feed a half a dozen 1x6s' on edge through the planer, I can stick a back fence on the shaper and be done.

My planer has less cranks than my shapers.

Just thought it was funny.