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home made thickness planer?

Started by getoverit, February 18, 2006, 11:07:48 PM

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getoverit

Has anybody here made a home made thickness planer?

If so, I'd love to see some pictures of it and some details on where you got the parts... especially the arbor drum and blades.

I bought a 12 1/2" planer off of ebay, but after trying it out today I have decided it isnt heavy enough for my needs. I havent been able to find a good, old, heavy duty planer anywhere near me and think I might just build me one. I have some heavy duty cast iron tables that are just about the right height, but gears, pulleys and chains I'd have to buy. I'm thinking a drive units and belt from one of those treadmills would make an excellent feed drive for the planer... the rest I would have to build. I'm thinking a 12hp lawn mower engine should be enough HP to drive the thing, considering that I only need 12" max width for planing??

Anybody got one or some ideas on parts and pieces?
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

DanG

YOU'RE NUTZ!

But that's beside the point.  I'm sure me and my friend Mr. Hootie could come up with some pieces parts to help along with the project.  Oh, yeah, and while you're coming over here anyway, could I borrow the Peterson for a few weeks?  I mean, you ain't gonna have time to use it, with building a planer and such, and it's just a shame for it to just set there gatherin' dust and all...... ;D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Homer

 :o ::) :-\ eh? smiley_fused_bomb smiley_mad_crazy smiley_huh smiley_headscratch

Building a planer would require some heavy duty machine skills. Better off watching local auctions,newspaper adds and used equipment dealers. Even if you built one, it might maime or kill you. Homer

isassi

That would definately be a labor of love....building a planer  to me would be like the building a metal lathe. There was an old farmer around here, as my grandfather tells it, who did indeed build his own lathe. He polished the ways( bed) by dragging it to and from town behind a team and wagon a few times a week on the dirt roads. This was back in the depression and he lived 5 miles east of town. My grandfather didn't know, and I cannot imagine how he would have trued the spindle to the bed, made a chuck, or acomplished a true tail stock.  Everything else can be done with patience and time. I can visualize all the parts for a plane, but the elevation mechanics would be tricky for perfect alignment, no matter whether the bed goes up and down or the head. I agree with Homer and I can't say your nuts like DanG did since I don't know you personally  ;D but I have see a few planes listed on the sawmillexchange.com in support equipment and an 18" Woodmaster like mine sold not long ago on E-bay for less then $800 (wish I had it instead of the new one I bought). Have fun ;)

scsmith42

Try giving Claude Sutton a call at Sutton Woodworking Machinery.  His web page is http://suttonmachine.com/

He runs across some pretty high end machinery at bargain basement prices at auctions.  Recently on Woodweb, he was mentioning an $80,000 Whitney planer that went for $3,500 at auction.  

He stumbles across a lot of deals and seems to be a pretty good fellow.

Scott
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

junkyard

Several years ago popular mechanics had plans for one similar to a belsaw. seems I saw them somewhere on the web. donot know where. I would try to buy the cutting head.
                        Junkyard
If it's free, It's for me. If for pay, leave it lay.

Larry

Just to make things a might easier...I just happen to have ;D a brand-new and never used 15" head equipped with three brand-new knives.  The head is out of a heavy duty generic 4 post machine.  I would part with it for $150 and you pay shipping.

And of course I would make a contribution to the forum. :)

 

 
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Flurida_BlackCreek

Drive South bout 35 miles and you just may find one.
I'm happy anywhere south of the mason-dixon line.
-- cdb

getoverit

Larry, it sounds like a bargain... Someone else has contacted me with a possible bargain, so let me check on that one first. If it doesnt pan out I may get it from you.

By the way, I am a certified machinist, and certified welder, so fabrication isnt something new to me. My only problem is that I dont have the endless supply of  steel like I used to have, and DanG if it isnt expensive when ya gotta start from scratch building up a scrap steel supply :o

I'm actually thinking that having a moving head and steady base would be the easiest to come up with.... all of the moving parts in the head, and a simple adjustment up or down to change the cutting depth.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

Tom

keep on thinking that way, Ken.  The table remaining steady means that the input tables/roller beds dont' have to be continually adjusted.

low_48

If you are going with a gas engine, I would look for an old 3 phase industrial machine. Hobby guys have to stay away from them because of the electrical, industrial guys stay away from them because of the age.

Ironwood

Get overit,

  I have a 15" head, well really the whole top of an early grizzly with all the pressure bars feed rolls and the like in place. Invision cutting the 4 post machiine at the bottom of the posts. The sprockets and chains are also still in place. The only thing missing is the motor. $150. It came from a Oliver 16" jointer the guy had made into a double surfacer. I also have the extra outfeed bed it mounted to (he had that specially cast). Fortunately, he save the original for the jointer.

              Reid
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

getoverit

I'm interested Reid !

Got any pictures of it?

Is is shippable by UPS or FEDEX?

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

getoverit

You would think that I could come up with an old 3 phase planer, but so far they have been hard to find. The biggest problem I have found is that the real bargains I find on ebay and other places are so far away and the planers are so heavy that it would not be cost effective to buy one and go through the expense of having it shipped to me.

If a 12 horse lawnmower engine isnt enough to power one, I do have the PTO shaft of the Ford 3000 diesel I could hook up to it... the possibilites are endless. Most of what I would be running through it would be production runs of the same thickness boards, so once it is set for the correct thickness, it would most likely stay there for at least 1000 bdft.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

TexasTimbers

I've been envisioning making my own beam sizer one day. Or even "opening up" my 6" X 16" 4 sided planer to accept 12"+. I'm watching with interest to see what you come up with and where this thread goes.   :P
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

sawguyver

I gave it some thought once.

When I saw some short lenghts of wide channel at the scrap yard. Nice wide flat surfaces to drill and mount the workings.

         

With two pieces of 12" channel for the sides and a piece of 15" for the bed.
I would still design it so the bed moved. Then if you wanted to keep it at a constant hieght you just put legs on the bed and let the rest of the machine go up and down. Also for guides I would use 2" angle. This I would fasten to the sides of the bed. 4 pieces in all and they would basicaly sandwich  the side pieces. If these pieces were 6 to 8" long they would hold the bed square. Now add some threaded rod for hieght adjustment and feed rollers and some safety features and your done.

If it was only that simple. :D :D
Still the idea has always stayed with me.
Actually it kept me up a few nights. >:(

When your done yours maybe I'll build a good solid one too ::)

Oh yea and that solid side wall could hold some heavy gears for the feed too.

getoverit

I think we have the same idea. I envision a heavy frame with the cutter head on one end, and a hinge or pivot point at the other end.

Like this:




While I have been talking about building one, I have come up with a deal at reasonable price for a complete planer and also for a planer head minus the bed. The complete planer is close to me, and I'm going to go look it over tomorrow. If this doesnt work out, then the planer head assembly would speed things up as far as building one. Old treadmills are a dime a dozen, and I cant help but believe that they would make good feed table drives for planers, saws, routers, etc.

I would also mount a 12 hp lawn mower engine on top of it to help add to the general weight. By having all of the moving parts on top, you dont run into the problems of belts and chains out of adjustment every time you changed thickness.

If I had to buy the cutter head outright, I have been advised that helical cutter heads use way less HP, the blades last longer, and they run quieter. Might as well shop for one of those.

I really dont need the extra width. From what I see now, 12" would be plenty  wide enogh for what I have in mind. I just need something with enough HP and cutting capacity to take rough sawn lumber down to common dimensional sizes.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

sawguyver

getoverit,

An exsisting planer has to be pretty heavy and not to sesitive with its adjustments. If your going to run rough material down to size in minimal passes. I use a little delta look alike in the shop. I'm lucky to get a 1/16" per pass. Its great for finishing when used with the jointer. But when I'm planing rough stock there are many passes just to get all material to the same starting point. For this kind of work I would like something that will take off 1/4" when it had to and you couldn't nock it over with a 12' board.
Something heavy and tough.

Don't throw away your idea yet.
Buy the way, your idea seems much simpler than what I was thinking of. :)

getoverit

I paid a visit to Flurida_BlackCreek today, and got a HUGE trailer load of pine. Also got a bigger engine for my mill from him.  He has a Planer that I'm pretty sure I'll end up with soon.

I still have this 12 1/2" planer I bought off of ebay, and I think I'm going to tear into it and see if there is any way to increase the engine size on it, possibly even canibalizing it for the cutter head. As it is right now, it is totally not what I need anyway, and once I get a REAL planer it will just be another something in the way.

One of the things we talked about today was good kickback protection. I really hadnt thought about this, but he is right. One of his relatives got a broke hip from a planer shooting back a baord, and I definitely would have to build in some rock solid kickback fingers if i decide to build one or modify this one.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

getoverit

I got brave today and took the planer I bought on ebay apart. Believe it or not, it is actually built pretty heavy duty, even if it is made in china.

Here is the model... I'm sure you have seen them advertised...



The drive motor says it is 2 1/2 hp @ 16000 rpm.



The drive belts are some sort of clear rubber with a fiber running through it. It is a 5V belt. I measured the drive pulley at 1 1/4 inches, and the cutter head pulley ar 2 1/2 inches. This means the cutter head is spinning at 8000 rpm.



The actual reduction gears for the drive unit are inside the unit, and the chain drive for driving the input and output drive wheels are outside the unit on the side



The cutter head will easily take off 1/4" of material if it had enough HP.



This particular unit has a head that remains steady, and the bed moves up and down. I dont particularly like this method because there is no way to build a table for extended lengths of wood to be fed into it without adjusting the table height every time you want to change the thickness. It does, however, have one crank handle that drives 4 screw posts by chain drive.

In my simple way of thinking, You shoudl be able to mount the bed to a steady table, and move the whole unit up and down. It is quite heavy, so weight is not an issue. You will also notice that it has a bunch of kickback fingers before the cutter head.

by changing the motor to say a 12hp gas lawnmower engine, and then put a 5" pulley on the engine shaft, you should get about the same cutter head speed as what they are getting with the existing setup. There should be HP to spare??

I'm actually thinking of doing this, since this machine is WAY to weak to handle my needs, and also because I am pretty sure I am going to buy an industrail strength planer anyway.

any thoughts?




I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

woodnut

 It looks like my 12 1/2'' craftsman planer. It was run too long before sharpening blades and burnt up a small motor like yours. the new motor cost almost $200 . I am concerned about the bearings as I have replaced 2 or 3 so far just using a normal motor. The shaft on the end of the blade holder spun in the bearing  and I had to knurl it -not very well. Good luck getoverit,home depo has a 13'' with a lifetime waranty for $300. A friend used It to plane all his interior wood for his new home and he liked it. I think it was a dewalt.                                                                                                                                                                                 Woops , just checked, one year warranty, $375, 12 1/2'' planner. Thanks for the site GF.

Minnesota_boy

You might look for a motor with more horsepower.  A 2 1/2 HP electric is usually rated to run that continuously and can peak out to double that or more for a short time, say for the time it takes to get trhough a knot.  The 5 HP gas motor is rated at it's peak HP.  If you hit a hard knot, it may simply stall.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

GF

Might check this site out if you wanting to look at a De-Walt http://www.tylertool.com/dewrecspec.html, I bought a couple of items from them and they shipped quick and the items were still in the De-Walt boxes factory sealed.

TW

My uncle has built a jointer/planer combination. The cutter is scavenged from somewhere but the rest is home made. The frame is fixed and the planer table moving.

slowzuki

That planer looks real easy to up power to a true 5 hp 220 v motor!  That little universal motor underneath doesn't look like a 2. anything hp motor but rather peak output.  Small tools seem to do that a lot.

Ken

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