Scored some wood, but . . .

[jscott2]

dgman, in a way, I'm trying to talk myself out of a planer.  Cash is relatively tight so I only want to buy one if it will plane the flooring safely.  Of course, once purchased, there will be other uses for it but this is my concern right now.

I could probably handle the end to end feeding but what happens with the last piece, is there only snipe or would I need to feed another, longer piece of scrap to clear the machine?
Jim

[dgman]

It depends on the last piece feed. Most bench top planers have a minimum feed length of 12 to 18". If you go shopping for one, check on the minimum length required.

[BilltheDiver]

There is another consideration with a planer.  It is never a good idea to plane a board shorter than the distance between the infeed and outfeed roller.  The problem occurs when the board might get "sucked" up into the cutterhead from being too short.  I would fear the same thing happening with simply feeding boards end to end (although this is a good way to eliminate snipe), or even fastened with 2 sided tape to a sled.  Especially with as many as you have to do.  A router on ski's would be safer.  A drum sander (as in a thickness sander) would be ideal, but a little pricey.  Just my opinion from doing similar things.

[Judy Hunter]

I got a pretty good planner from Harbor freight for around $250.

[jscott2]

Judy, from what I hear, HF doesn't shop to Canada, at least not at a reasonable price.

I think I have worked out how to use a planer for the flooring.  A friend reminded me the boards are all tongue and groove so if I join two pieces side by side but with the joints staggered.  A bit of glue will make the pieces into one large board and the table saw will take care of separating the pieces - can't use the tongue or groove area anyway.

Can anyone see a flaw in this idea?  Am I going totally in the wrong direction or is it a good solution?

Thanks,
Jim

[KarlB]

It sounds to me like a doable solution. 

I think I would still place them on a separate board beneath your glue up.  i.e. if the width of your glue up is 12 1/2" mount a number of the pieces to a 13" x 48" (or 60") piece of plywood.  This will give make your glue up sturdy.

Karl

[BilltheDiver]

I agree with Karl, and I think you are on the right track.  One concern.  You mentioned that some of the boards have a finish on them.  This can be very hard on the planer blades and can dull and gum them up.  Ideally you could resaw the face off with a bandsaw if you have one, and then plane off the saw marks.

[jscott2]

Bill, good point on the finish on the faces.  Don't have a bandsaw so I expect I'll become very adept at using a cabinet scraper by the time I get the finish off, perhaps some very coarse sandpaper in my 1/2 sheet sander will do the job.  Maybe I can get SWMBO to agree to getting a belt sander as well as the planer.

Even after gluing up the assembly, I think I'll make some full length runners to glue on.  It will not be too hard to make tongue and groove on the table saw.

Thanks to everyone who commented.  I've decided to go for the DW734 on sale at Busy Bee for $439 (Canadian), plus a whole bunch of tax.

Jim

[bubbaloo158]

Jim... no... haven't tried the "sled" thing... For scrolling projects, they are all 8 1/2 x 11 so far.  So I just add another inch to make it an even 12" to put through the planer and trim it after it is done.  According to the DeWalt manual you shouldn't try to put anything shorter than 12" through it.

Bobby

[bubbaloo158]

Jim...

I don't know why I didn't remember this earlier but there is a way to plane down your short pieces of wood.  It would involve butting up to a piece that is going through the planer so that the piece behind that piece actually pushes the piece ahead of it through.  Of course, you need 2 people to do this... one to feed the wood through the planer and the other to be catching it as it comes out.  I did this a few times quite a while ago - that's why I forgot about it - and it worked very well.

Bobby