Replies

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Nov 05, 2008 12:38am | #1

   I'd be dubious.  Getting the uniform thickness you need would be a major hassle with windinig sticks, straight edges, and the necessity of a good flat work bench.  Those electric planers seem to me to be all about fitting doors, not thicknessing furniture panels. 

   I would look for a shop that could either plane the leaves or sand them.  Twenty inch planers and/or sanders should be abundant in pro shops, and would be way cheaper to have it done.  Just make sure that the leaves have one basically flat side since you wouldn't be very likely to find a jointer that wide.  But that's pretty easy job with a hand plane.  

1. 
   Lataxe | Nov 05, 2008 02:01am | #2

   Steve,I have "flattened" one or four big chunks of gnarly-plank that are too wide for the planer/thicknesser with a (Bosch) electric planer. You can get somewhere near, as log as you mark out the edges to provide guides towards "flat". Also, it's best to take lots of very shallow cuts, which is nevertheless still a rapid process.I used to finish such suff with a belt sander but now I have one of those nice jointer planes from Mr Veritas....it's faster than a belt sander and makes it easier to keep the "flat".Why does no one offer a hand power planer within a jointer-style body - a 22-incher say? It would surely save all the scrubbing with a little hand plane, that the masochists among us do. :-)Lataxe

1. 
   EdHarrow | Nov 05, 2008 02:42am | #3

   They did.  SKIL 100, long out of production.  I used mine to flatten a ~18' x ~2 piece of angelique.

   A lovely tool, indeed, if you can find one.

2. 
   RMillard | Nov 05, 2008 06:29pm | #4

   I have not seen a Festool planer in person, but I have thought about getting one, due to the dust collection feature.

   I do have a Makita power plane that I use all the time to flatten stock and to thickness pieces beyond the capacity of my surface planer. It is a very effective tool for this and it can be quite accurate. I built a dining table that was 42" by 114" out of mahogany planks 37" wide, and I used the power plane on it to come within a 1/16" of the final dimension. The rest had to be hand planed, because the power plane just isn't controllable enough, nor does it cut smooth enough to get any closer.

   Rob Millard
   http://www.americanfederalperiod.com 

1. 
   JiminFla | Nov 05, 2008 07:11pm | #5

   Thanks for the input, Robert.  I liked the Festool for the same reason...that it has great dust collection.  It sounds like I'm going to have to either hand plane it to the final thickness or else take it to a shop with a 20" planer or a drum sander.

   Jim