Planer on a trailer

[Dan_Shade]

I have a lead on an old American 24" planer.

I was thinking about building a custom trailer and powering it with a small engine.

Do any of you guys have a similar setup?

[barbender]

A guy I had do some custom planing for me years ago had a setup like that. A big old 4 side planer, I can't remember the make, and then he had an Isuzu diesel genset powering all the motors. It worked very well.

[YellowHammer]

I think it would be a great idea, like a portable sawmill, but a portable high capacity planer.  If you were near me, I'd be giving you some business. 

[longtime lurker]

I think you'd need to set it up on some decent suspension. I'm not familiar with that particular make but they're all variations of the same thing, with plenty of little set screws etc that might be inclined to be fussy about bouncing down the road. Other then that I can't see why it can't be done.

[low_48]

Depends what you mean by small engine. Torque curves are dramatically different between electric and gas. You might need something like 25hp or more gas, and a good clutch.

[Nomad]

     I like the idea.  How would you handle chip extraction?

[TKehl]

I had a similar idea.  Was going to put a 20" Powermatic in a 1 ton box truck (rain protection and lockable) cut down to a trailer. 

Still on my mind, but WAY back burner at this time.

[Darrel]

Speaking of portability, I think the reason portable sawmills are so popular is because it is so difficult to transport logs unless you also have some pretty heavy equipment. The reason you don't see very many portable planer setups like the one you are talking about is because lumber is very easily transported, compared to logs anyway. However, if you plan to use it for planing large timbers, I still can see some advantages to taking the planer to the lumber.

[hackberry jake]

I've been wanting to put together something similar for some time now. Found a 24" European planer for cheap, but it's got 4 motors. Cutterhead, feed, table raise/lower, and knife grinder. Wish it woulda been an old powermatic or Oliver, but ya gotta take em as they come.