Need advise about a thinkness planer

[GrampaJim]

Some of the experienced woodworkers here will have the answers to this.  I am finding that a lot of my 1/2" and 1/4" solid wood is developing bow, twist and warp on my shelves.  I don't  keep a lot of stock and most of it is short pieces.  I am considering a planer (Dewalt 745 maybe?) but understand that the minimum length that can be run through them is 12".  Some brands are 15" minimums.  If I have pieces that are less than that and are warped, I cannot bring myself to throw them in the burn barrel.  Walnut, Zebrawood, and even oak come to mind.  Am I  missing something?  Is there a better tool?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jim

[Scrappile]

Jim, a planer is for "planing" the boards to the desired thickness.  It will not remove the warp.  That being said, if you search the internet you will probably find it can be done, with use of some jigs/sleds.  A jointer is more for removing warps and cupping.  But with thin wood if the bow is more thin the thickness of the wood it won't get rid of it because it will eat all the wood.  I think you would have better luck using weights to put on the wood and letting the piece sit for several weeks under weight.  There are also some method like wetting one side, them putting weight on the board to flatten it.  I am not an expert, but there is tons of info on this subject on the internet in woodworking forums and such.  There is also lots of info out in the internet land about ways to stack wood to prevent the wood from warping, cupping, etc.

[WayneMahler]

Scrappile is right about the planer. It will not flatten a warped board. The cupping is caused by uneven drying. If the cupping is severe you may not be able to salvage piece. The way I understand it, the wetting of one side or section was for plywood, I may be wrong on this. I would try soaking the piece and adding weight to the areas that are cupped. You have nothing to lose if the piece is short. On thicker pieces I use a hand plane to remove the cupping then can run it through my planer to a desired thickness. Personally I don't like losing exotic woods in my shop. When I stack my stock, I keep the thinner pieces on the bottom, this keeps weight on it and helps prevent cupping. It is a pain to move a lot of stock to get the piece(s) you want but seems to save on wasted pieces you can not use. Hope you find the ideal answer and manage to save all you can. I'm sure others will chime in also with different ideas.

[CharleyL]

Use a jointer to remove the cupping. Use a planer to thin the wood. The rollers in a planer will flatten the wood as it's being cut, so the knives will remove the same amount of wood all the way across the board. When the board comes out of the planer it will spring back into it's cupped shape. The result will be a thinner, but still cupped board. A jointer will remove the high points, making a cupped board flatter, but also thinner. Twists and bows are much harder to get out, usually requiring a jig to hold it from turning as it goes across the jointer or through the planer. Again, the wood will get thinner during this process.

 

I have a DeWalt 735 planer and the shortest board that I might even try to plane would be 12". Anything shorter and you run the risk of damaging the planer if the board lifts and the end gets caught by the blades. 

 

You can plane boards, remove twists and bows, etc, even on boards of less than 12 " in length using a jig and a large router with a large diameter flat bottomed bit. Do a Google search for " Router Skis " for the details of the jig and the process. You will need a fixture to hold your board in position in the center of your bench, shimmed so that any twist or bow is held from moving, With the router supported above the work by the Router Ski fixture you them move the router back and forth over the board to remove the high spots. This may take several passes. Once one side of the board is flat, you can turn the board over and cut the other side flat. Of course, the board will be thinner when you finish, but it will be flat. Any roughness from the router bit can then be planned or sanded off. The result will be a flat board, but much thinner than you started with.

 

Charley

[tvman44]

Planner is not the answer.

[LarryEA]

Generally speaking, a warped board will always be a warped board.

You can 'fight' with it all you want, and most of the time it will be a useless endever.

Boards warp due to loss of moisture that is not uniform.

Wood is complicated, depending on how the board was cut and what section of the log the board came from,

determines how the board dries.

You can take a course on the subjest of 'wood drying.'

[Dave Monk]

A planer is a must for me because I buy everything 3/4" thick. I have a Dewalt 735 and like it a lot. dave 

[amazingkevin]

Some of the experienced woodworkers here will have the answers to this.  I am finding that a lot of my 1/2" and 1/4" solid wood is developing bow, twist and warp on my shelves.  I don't  keep a lot of stock and most of it is short pieces.  I am considering a planer (Dewalt 745 maybe?) but understand that the minimum length that can be run through them is 12".  Some brands are 15" minimums.  If I have pieces that are less than that and are warped, I cannot bring myself to throw them in the burn barrel.  Walnut, Zebrawood, and even oak come to mind.  Am I  missing something?  Is there a better tool?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jim

Just in the past month or so one of our members said he takes his cupped boards and cuts them in strips and alternates each strip up or down and glues back together and re planes it for a nice straight board.

[LarryEA]

One method you can try is.

Use an IRON ... Iron the wood to remove the warp.

Use a HEAT GUN ... try heating the center of the wood.

 

Either iron or heatgun will burn the wood....so be careful.

Try this link:

http://lifehacker.com/fix-a-warped-wood-cutting-board-with-a-damp-cloth-and-a-1728320799

Edited May 31, 2016 by LarryEA

[NC Scroller]

The best way to deal with cupping is to inspect wood before you buy it. Look at the end grain and select wood where the grow rings are vertical or as close to vertical as possible. If the rings tend to run side to side leave it. Nothing will help or fix those.

[Bill WIlson]

The reason that 12' is the recommended minimum length of stock to run through a planer is that shorter pieces may not contact both rollers inside the machine and there is risk that the piece may come flying back out of the planer or get jammed up inside.  There are work arounds for this, but for what you are trying to do, I wouldn't recommend them.

 

It is possible to flatten a cupped/warped board with a planer alone.  However, it works best when you are starting out with 5/4 rough sawn stock.  I've successfully salvaged warped 3/4" thick stock, but I'm removing material to flatten it and I don't end up with 3/4" thick stock when I'm done.  If I'm lucky, I may get 1/2" out of it.  Anything in the 1/2" to 1/4" range, you likely don't have enough material to flatten it, regardless of the tool  or method used. 

[CharleyL]

Do a search for "Router Skis" on www.routerforums.com. There is a lot of material available on that forum about making a router ski jig and using it to plane boards. The ski jig is just 2 rods that will fit the cross holes in your router, the ones that you use for an edge guide. The ends of the rods are threaded. You make two identical plywood pieces with vertical slots for the threaded ends of the rods to fit through, spaced apart by the dimension between the cross holes in your router. You add nuts, washers, and wing nuts to attach the ends of the rods to the slots in the plywood end pieces. These end pieces need to have flat bottoms so they can slide around on your bench or sheet of plywood. Your router slides onto the rods and you roughly center it, locking it to the rods with wing bolts that fit the threaded holes in your router.

 

You install a large diameter flat bottomed bit in the router, and set the height of the rods in the jig for the working range that you need the router depth control to work in. I use a piece of scrap the height desired under each end of the rods to get the height adjusted the same and tighten the wing nuts on the ends of the rods to hold them at that level.

 

You place the wood to be planned on your workbench or a large piece of plywood to cover your bench and then screw down pieces of scrap around the board to be planned to hold it in place in both the X and Y direction. Set the router depth to remove the desired amount of wood with the skis resting on the bench or plywood, turn the router on and move the router around to plane the wood. I like to hold onto the plywood pieces at the ends of the rods while doing this. Using the router handles isn't a good idea, because it's too easy to push the router down, bending the rods slightly, and changing the depth of cut of the router bit. Follow a back and forth motion, keeping the router bit cutting in the right direction to avoid climb cutting, until the entire surface of the board has been planned. You can then increase the router's depth of cut and make another pass, or turn the board being planned over and do the other side. 

 

If the board is warped, cupped, or twisted, I place screws into the bench or plywood under the board being planned and adjust their length so the un-flat board will be held with the top surface is as level as I can make it and it doesn't move while I'm planning it. Then I plane the top surface until it is flat. I then remove the leveling screws and turn the board over, then plane the other side of the board to make it flat and parallel with the first side of the board. 

 

Slight variations in bit depth of cut can occur when doing this, especially when making deeper cuts. I always plan on planning or sanding the board to a final thickness to get the surfaces smooth.

 

You can use router skis with smaller routers to do pattern engraving, remove material all around the outside of raised letters, etc. With the router above the work, it's much easier to see what you are doing. I use my router ski jig frequently for many purposes.

 

Charley 

[Lucky2]

Jim, to help prevent your wood from warping, you should store it with weight on top of it. Doing so will help a lot, but, it won't stop all of the wood from warping.

 

Len

[Jim Finn]

I agree  a planer will not  fix warping or cupping.  I regularly run 8" boards through my DeWalt planer with no problems but seldom thinner than 3/8" .