How do you use your planer to get 3/4 in lumber?

[Robert foster]

What method do you use to get your lumber to be exactly 3/4 inches? Do you measure it after each trip through the planer or is there a better, more efficient method?
I normally get close and measure the wood with calipers till I get the right thickness.

Bob

[Sean Kinn]

A lot of planers have built in depth stops that you can set (Dewalt 735 for example). I've seen other folks scratch tiny lines in the legs of the machines (larger models that have the 4 "pipes" that the head moves up and down on". I know I've also seen aftermarket add on guages you can buy. For many of my projects +/- 1/32" wouldn't even make a difference and I don't fuss over it. While my Dewalt has the depth stops and a built in tape, I often use my dial calipers if I'm doing something more precise.

[Warren Clemans]

My flip answer is: "I don't make 3/4" lumber...the whole point of having a planer is to make work that doesn't look like it came off the rack at Home Depot, which means using dimensions that you can't buy there." My actual answer is: use the machine's built in scale to get in the ballpark, then use calipers to get precise. And why not be as precise as you can be? Measuring the first board through the planer each time with a dial caliper adds, what, a minute to the total job?

[Ed Peters]

I have a digital readout (dro) on my planer. Makes life very easy.

Ed

[Josiah Bartlett]

I pick a thickness and plane all needed pieces at once- take one pass on each board, adjust planer, repeat cycle until final thickness reached. My depth stop isn't that accurate.

This method does require a bit of planning before planing.

[Peter Quinn]

At work we have a spiral head machine with power drive lift and digital read out. You set it to .750", you get .750"

At home I use calipers and a test piece. I set it to .750", I get .750", and it costs me about $25,000 less for the planer!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

If you don't like the constant measuring try this:
1.) Run a stick of lumber through ( get both sides)
2.) Measure with a caliper or micrometer ( note the dimension).
3.) Crank the wheel one turn exactly (some planers won't take that big a cut so go half) .
4.) Take another pass and measure again.
The delta is the distance the table travels up in one rotation. Now all ya gotta do is divide to get the dimensions it'll produce for half turns quarter turns etc.

You can even make a strip of tape attach it to the outer edge of the wheel and mark off the positions at regular intervals and note the distance the table will travel.

[Lance Norris]

Wixey makes a nice digital readout designed for planers. Its about $60 and very accurate. It can be adapted to just about any planer.

[Lee Koepke]

i try to 'match' more than measure.

measuring -proper- can be deceptive. i will find the right thickness and plane all my boards, if i need to do more, i use the first ones as a measuring guide.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Robert, if I need to have 3/4 material, I start with 4/4.

After jointing, I make one pass through the planer taking a heavy cut, then set the planer at 25/32 and take a light finishing cut. After sanding the material will be as close to 3/4 as I need.

(Note, my planer is metric and I normally use the metric system for design and measurement . I add 1mm to the finished size, which takes care of sanding, the 1/32" mentioned above is what I would use in the imperial system).

That said however, many times I'll plane the material to the thickest size that my rough material will allow. In that case I may take a couple of light passes, reducing the size just untill all pieces are planed.

Many times, such as in a top, thicker is better, so I go with what the material will allow.

Regards, Rod.

[Greg Cole]

i try to 'match' more than measure.

measuring -proper- can be deceptive. i will find the right thickness and plane all my boards, if i need to do more, i use the first ones as a measuring guide.

Me too. Rarely will a specific thickness matter in what I build, what matters is all the boards are the same thickness. Is the aapron on that table made from 3/4", 13/16", 19mm thick stock...???? I dunno, but all 4 are the same. The precision versus accuracy debate can be entertaining depending on individual school of thought.
I mill all the stock for a project at the same time and make the final pass(es) without changing the machine settings. Good 'nuff from here.

Greg

[David Schnegg]

Wixey makes a nice digital readout designed for planers. Its about $60 and very accurate. It can be adapted to just about any planer.

I have the wixey installed on my Dewalt 735... makes life simple. It's nice being able to plane that extra oops board down to the same thickness as previously planed boards during the middle of a project. It's spot-on down to the thousands of an inch when I check using my caliper.

[Kyle Kraft]

I mounted a HF 1" travel dial indicator on mine and set it to zero when I achieved .750 +/- .003". The repeatability is very good.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I've found that getting exactly 3/4" is reallly tough to do on a lot of things. I plane all the material needed for a job at once, hopefully not needing any more - which has happened before . That way I can match colors and grain as well as thickness. Lumber constantly moves. If a rough board loses a bit of moisture after planing it can shrink below 3/4" and vice versa with gaining moisture. When a board is run through a planer it is compressed by the rollers and having the knives "beating" on it and may exapand a bit to over the 3/4" after it sits a while. Like Lee I like to try to match all the boards for a project rather than attempt a perfect 3/4" cut.

[glenn bradley]

I face joint, edge joint and then plane. I have a Wixey DRO which despite many checks and re-checks has been dead on for quite a while. If it does need resetting or I just feel like it, I do it. It is so easy. I did have consistency problems the first day until I did away with the self stick foam tape and bolted the unit on to the planer housing.