looking for some advice (planer, moulder, shaper?)

[sbishop]

Hi, i've got a bunch of pine boards I would like to plane for my garage (28'X36'). Also this fall i will need some boards for my roof cabin. i'd like to be able to plane and t&g them. Then next year i'd probrably like to make some flooring for my cabin, same thing plane then t&g.

What type of machine would I be looking at? i'm not looking for anything expensive just for hobby.

THANKS for any advise

Sbishop

[Tom_in_Mo.]

sbishop
Baker Products sells planer/ moulders with cutting heads to do your T&G. If you would like some information on these, feel free to contact us.

[Bibbyman]

If you check a couple more of our fine Foresry Forum sponsors on the left you'll find a few more molders, etc.

Wood-Mizer's AWMV industrial devision markets some high production molders.  Probably more than you need for one project.

AWMV - (Wood-Mizer industrial)

TimberKing's sister company WoodMaster also has a line of planer/moders/sanders/dust collectors, etc.

WoodMaster Tools

I think also Baileys but I was not able to find them.

[Tom]

If you are handy and have the time, you can T&G with a table saw.  An inexpensive table model shaper will do it too, if you don't intend on going into business. :D  Then, if you have a router, you can make your own shaper.

Those little table top portable planers, like dewalt, that some of the box stores carry will do the planing.  It may take a long time though.  They don't have the power to take off much at a time.

Just make sure that all of your wood passes through the same hole.  That means to set up your planer and run all of your stock through it on the final run.  If you try to treat each piece separately, it won't all be the same thickness and you will eat up a lot time trying to make it so.

[Quinn]

Tom has some great ideas about using a table saw or a router if you already have them.  I would recommend that if you go this route (sorry about the pun), you get an inexpensive (about $300 I think) stock feeder which will push the stock through for you.  It will press out slight bows, keeps your fingers away from the blades, and allows you to grab the next board as the first one is feeding through (or like I do when working alone - feed in a board, and walk around the tablesaw to grab that board on the outfeed side).  They also provide consistent feed speeds to lessen burning, etc.  Instead of bolting mine to my tablesaw, I mounted it to a piece of channel steel and then clamp the channel to the saw.  This allows me to reposition it for different sizes of stock, move it to other machines when needed, or remove it completely so it's not in the way.  I was told to avoid the lower priced feeders that adjust using a "ball joint" - apparently they are difficult to set up accurately.  I would go with a router in a router table if you have one, and lots of horsepower.
And Baileys carries the Logosol planer/moulder.
Baileys

[Bibbyman]

Welcome to the Forum Quinn. 

Just the help we needed!  ;)

[karl]

I'm not a big fan of the "benchtop" planers, but they will do the job-slowly. I'd be inclined to spend the extra for a woodmaster. There are used planers around too, it's a good idea to know what your looking for/at before purchase though.
The woodmaster is capable of cutting t+g on stock up to 6"w- but it eats up the rolls and you need to fabricate a jig to run the stock on edge- NOT recomended. They now have a router attachment, never saw one in action though.
You will need to make paralell the edges to use a router or shaper. I have run miles of t+g using woodmaster planer, tablesaw and 3 hp shaper with one of those economical ball adjustment feeders-that said- I have come to really like my Logosol 4 sider in a very short time! 8)

Or, for the cost of Tablesaw, planer, shaper/router,  bits, feeder ($2000.+) hire it out..... ;)

Yea, I know-it just ain't the same as making it yerself. ;D

[LT40HDD51]

Check this out

The ol feller bought one of these a year or so ago. Not for big batches of stuff or anything, but does a really nice job on small lots ;D. We did a bunch of ½" maple panneling with it with a 1/8" t&g, and a fer nice mouldings for baseboards and trim to go into renovations on his house. We redid 2 bathrooms and a sitting room this way, half panneling on the bottom and drywall on the top half. I think it does up to 7", one side at a time, and can take a fairly large beam. I've been eying it in the shop and scheming... I'm gonna build a house soon...

Of course you still need to get all the material sized first, and planed. Not a problem here, we have a nice big old planer, and we resawed most of the wood from old 8x8s and 6x6s that dad had in the barn from years of sawing. it was nice to see all those pieces of wood finally get put to such good use in their own home. Hes had some of that stuff for a lot of years...

[brdmkr]

Depending on what your future needs may be, you might want to check out woodmaster.

[Kelvin]

another idea (why am i the used guy?) is to look at ebay!  I see moulder/planers on there constantly.  You just need to wait till one is within driving distance, or watch the papers for used planer, then get a shaper or router table.  At least a 2 hp planer would be great for getting rough stock down for 1,000's of bd ft of flooring.  Sears, made by Belsaw, Belsaw, Woodmaster, there are a million varations on the same thing that are used for sale.  Best band for your buck.  Also Grizzly tools is where i go for new.  They, and everyone else make a moulder planer pretty cheap.  Sears also sells this tool in their showroom. 
KP

[Quinn]

Bibby:  Thank you for the warm welcome.

Karl: Thanks for the input on the "ball joint"-adjustment feeder.  It's nice to hear from someone with first-hand experience - and you're right, they're much more economical than the bigger units (yet they're still very capable).  Stock feeders are fantastic from a safety (as well as quality) standpoint.

[woodmills1]

I started with a royobi 10" portable and a sears 1/2 horse power shaper and made all of the baseboard and tandg flooring for my ex house.  It was slow work but I got the job done and made some nice lumber.  The royobi has had thousands of feet of lumber put through it in the years since I bought it.

One thing you will need to work with rough lumber is a way to make the edges straight and parallel.  I started with crafstman radial and a craftsman 6" jointer.  A radial arm will rip but a table saw is better.  As far as a jointer buy the best/longest you can afford cause it is indespensible for producing good lumber from rough stock.

[sbishop]

Thanks all for the replies..lots of info!

I guess i'm still a little confused on what exact machine I need..i'm assuming I will need at least 2-3 different type of machine!

Like I said, I have some pine I need to plane. So I will need a planer for sure!

I'd like so make my own T&G flooring for my camp. so I need something type of machine to do t&g. Now i've seen planers/moulders. so i'm assuming I could do planer and t&g with a planer/moulder?

What about the edges? do I also need a jointer? or just the planer/moulder will do? i'm new to this woodworking but I have lots of time :-)

THANKS

Sbishop

[solodan]

I think Tom is right on the money with this one. For the amount you need to run, it may be most economical to use a table saw, router, and planer. Does it all have to be T+G, or would ship lap work for some of the material. shiplap is real easy on a table saw with a dado blade. Will it be square edge or are you planning on a v grove. If you want one machine to do it all and in one pass, then probably the most economical new machine would be the Logosol P260, but then you are still looking at roughly a $10k investment. I think that would be a good machine if you can justify the cost.

[beenthere]

sbishop
There are many different ways to make what you want. From the simplest (hand plane, and hand T&G tools). At the other end are the one-pass four head moulders. So you have some big decisions just how far you wanna go, and how much you want to invest in equipment. There are four surfaces to dress, and you are gonna want to get one edge straight, so you can make a parallel cut on the other edge. Then the planer to get faces parallel. Then figure out if a moulder head, router, or a shaper are gonna be used to make the tongue and the groove so they match good, and are consistent between boards.

The more steps involved, the more chances that consistency will be lost. I'd fret over getting an edge straight on a router, only to have it change a slight bit in moisture, and warp before I ripped it to a final width. Then warp again before getting the tongue's and grooves run on the edges. Each delay between steps will give the wood a chance to move. Then too, getting a table long enough to support the leading and trailing edges of long boards is another headache. Certainly can be done, but the combination of steps isn't a clear decision to make for someone else. Wish you good luck though. Make some test runs and see what you get with what you have now.

[woodmills1]

as I said you need to have a straight edge to process rough lumber.

most economical in my opinion would be a table saw, planer and jointer trio with either a router table or shaper for t and g

start with some non cupped fairly straight boards and light plane them to constant thickness

then joint one edge    rip to constant width  then joint other edge
sticker on planed stickers preferably inside till time to use

then finish plane and if needed toung and groove

non of us have asked if you have any machinery already, do you?

[sbishop]

i've only have a table saw so far. i will be purchasing a planer in the next month or so!

Woodmills, thanks for the info!

Sbishop

[jrokusek]

Whatever planer you wind up buying, don't buy a cheap one.  I bought a Ryobi from Home Depot a few years ago before I knew any better.  It does an OK job on rough stock but lacks the power to take off more than a hair at a time. Also the knives are so thin that they have a tendency to distort under load and sawdust gets under them - no matter how tight the set screws are.  Portable planers aren't meant to do heavy duty work.  Some of the higher end ones are quite nice, but a stationary machine is probably the saw to go.

I've been trying to tell myself that I need one of these machines:  http://www.grizzly.com/products/G1037Z
If I can convince the wife that we need a new house I bet I can convince her that I NEED this!

Jim

[woodmills1]

I bought my royobi 10 inch when they first came out, and while it won't hog wood down I have never had any kind of problems with it and use it for short runs or for a nicer finish on very hard wood like maple and hickory.  Also it was only 300 or so dollars back then, very inexpensive for the amount of work it has done.

[bad_boards]

if you are doing 2nd processing on pine , you would need a planer AND   jointer

IMHO , unless u use a planer sled , those are slow going

[jrokusek]

I bought my royobi 10 inch when they first came out, and while it won't hog wood down I have never had any kind of problems with it and use it for short runs or for a nicer finish on very hard wood like maple and hickory.  Also it was only 300 or so dollars back then, very inexpensive for the amount of work it has done.

The 10" planer was and still is a nice planer.  The 13" version however leaves a bit to be desired......