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Re: Poor Man's Planer/Sander

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 3:57 am
by Diane Kauffmds
Bob Gleason wrote:I use my Wagner with the cutterhead flat to the table. I see that the O'Brien video shows slightly tilting the table out of square to the cutter so that the leading edge does the cutting. Although it cuts fine at square, the tilt might make some sense for ease of cutting. I have a 25" wide belt sander and another homemade 18" drum sander in my shop. The Safety Planer will do some things that neither of those will do. I see that they are suddenly back in fashion in the catalogs, with the Stew-Mac one and another Woodtek model avaiilable. Wonder how that happens with old tools?
There's a market niche for tools that bridge the gap between having nothing and spending several hundred dollars on a single function tool. I was ready to spend $400 for a bench planer, until I ran across Robbie's video. While searching for the planer, I found a lot of people searching for it, not only instrument builders, but other woodworkers. I think that there is an upsurge in amateur woodworking. Stewmac is smart to carry it. Now we need someone to sell the thickness sanding attachment.

I did as Robbie O'Brien suggested, with the folded sandpaper on the leading edge, when I planed the mahogany bridge plate for my classical top. It cut down on the friction and heat.

Re: Poor Man's Planer/Sander

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 7:47 pm
by BradHall
I recently bought the Stewmac planer and am using it in a Delta bench top drill press. I'm very impressed with the tool. I used it to reduce the peg head thickness so I could add a back plate. Had to thin the back plate stock to net the original neck dimension. Worked great. I'm sure I'll find many more uses for it.

Re: Poor Man's Planer/Sander

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:46 am
by Diane Kauffmds
BradHall wrote:I recently bought the Stewmac planer and am using it in a Delta bench top drill press. I'm very impressed with the tool. I used it to reduce the peg head thickness so I could add a back plate. Had to thin the back plate stock to net the original neck dimension. Worked great. I'm sure I'll find many more uses for it.
I'm glad that they're starting to appear again. There seemed to be a vacuum between hand planing and spending hundreds on a benchtop planer; a lot of builders were looking for them.