(power tool sounds)
- Now look, any power tool that makes a loud noise,
spits out copious amounts of sawdust,
and has a razor-sharp cutting blade that spins
at a terrifying 10 to 16,000 revs per minute
can be a little scary for the novice
or beginner woodworker or handyman.
And rightfully so because if not used correctly
they can be very dangerous and inflict a nasty injury,
which is the last thing that we want.
Good day folks, Uncle Knackers here
and in today's confidence building beginner's tutorial,
we'll be looking at one of the handiest tools in the shop,
the electric planer.
Now, before we plough ahead and start using a planer
I think a quick anatomy lesson might be in order.
Now, basically the planer is a very simple tool.
All we have, if we turn it over
is the cutting head down here.
There's the blades and this spins around very rapidly.
So make sure you keep your fingers away from that.
And for the record, I'm not plugged in.
Now, this section here is called the front shoe,
which is adjustable
and this is the rear shoe which is fixed.
And this little thing here is called a foot
and that prevents the blades
from coming in contact with the surface
after you've finished your cut
as you can see here, and that just protects your blades
and also the surface from any unnecessary damage.
Now, the knob that you see on top
of your planer is used to adjust the depth of your cut.
If you turn it clockwise like that,
your cut will be deeper.
If you turn it anti-clockwise
that will reduce the depth of your cut.
Now, most planers have this little black knob
on the front here,
and that's used to secure in place
an edge fence, which is this thing here.
So the edge fence just goes into that
hole or slot on the side.
And then you simply tighten up the little black knob
to secure in place.
Now the edge fence that's used for doing step cuts
like rabbets, rebates, ship lapping, and stuff like that.
Now you'll also see that on a lot of edge fences
they'll come with extra holes.
Now, the reason for them is so you can secure a longer piece
of wood to that for a more controlled cut.
Now, if we just quickly turn the machine over, you'll notice
that on that front shoe, there's a V shaped cut
into the base.
Now that's for doing a chamfering type cut
and I'll show you how to do that
a bit later on in the video.
And finally on the handle,
we have the switch that turns the machine on or off.
Now, you'll also noticed this little black button here
which is a safety switch, and that pushes in and out.
Now, if that button isn't pushed in,
the trigger won't operate,
push the button in and suddenly
you're good to go.
Now as with using any power tools, safety is very important.
So do yourself a favour and wear some hearing
and some eye protection.
Good stuff.
Now, before you start planing
if you have any loose clothing,
like my floppy old shirt make sure it's all tucked in.
Even if it shows off your big fat gut,
don't be too self-conscious.
It's just that power tools and loose clothing
are not a good idea.
Next up, get yourself nice and balanced.
Stand in front of the piece that you're working on
with your feet apart.
Not all the way back here that's bad.
Stand in front so that you feel comfortable and relaxed
throughout the entire pass.
Now, the first thing we need to do
is to secure the piece that we're about to plane
either by placing it into a vise like I have here
or by clamping it down by some other method.
And I've got a couple of really cool tips on how to do that
which I'll demonstrate a bit later on in the video.
So make sure you stay tuned for that.
Now, the reason for clamping this piece down is that
you don't want that to move during the planing process.
Now with all those preliminaries sorted
it's time to start planing.
And all you need to do is to place that front shoe flat
on the piece that you're wanting to plane,
making sure that the cutting head with all those blades
doesn't come in contact with the work.
And also letting you know that I'm not plugged in
as this is just going to be
an initial unpowered demonstration run.
So with the front shoe sitting nice and flat
and having those blades clear of the work
start the planer up.
Wait until it reaches full speed
and then ease the plane into contact with the work
and push it steadily forward.
Now, one good thing to remember
is that as the planer enters the work piece,
it's a great idea to have more pressure on the front handle
than the back handle.
And the reason for that is that
as the planer hits the work piece,
if you have more pressure on that back handle,
there's nothing under here to support it.
So what happens is the planer comes up
and it tends to tilt and it does this.
(knocking sound)
- And that creates a big gouge there,
which is never very nice.
Now with that base plate almost fully supported
it's okay to go ahead
and apply even pressure to both handles.
Now just ease your way along the piece
until you get close to the end
and then you apply more pressure to the back handle
than the front handle.
And the reason for that is that if you're applying too
much pressure to the front handle,
as the planer goes over the end, it tilts down
causing a gouge,
also known as a snipe.
So what you really need to do
is as you're approaching the end,
it's almost like a plane taking off,
get close, and then just slightly lift.
Too easy.
Beautiful.
Now just very quickly as you probably already know,
a planer is generally used by a carpenter.
And since we're talking about carpenters,
world's worst segue.
What did the duck say to the carpenter?
Quack quack.
Because, well, it's a duck.
That's what ducks do.
Don't speak English as far as I know.
So yeah.
Got work on those jokes.
They're getting worse!
- Now, one of the big secrets when it comes
to a successful planing job
is to do it in small increments.
Say for instance,
we want to cut from the top of this piece of wood
down to that black line.
Do that in five or six passes rather than one big hit.
And you'll finish up with a more controlled
and precise finish.
Now earlier on in the video,
we talked about this front shoe
and how it had that V shape cut into it.
That's for doing a chamfering type cut.
Now, if you give me a couple of seconds,
I'll show you how to use it.
Now, the purpose for the chamfer
also known as an arris cut
is to put an angle on
the piece of wood that you're working on,
like a fence post or veranda post.
And all you need to do
is to place that V on the base plate
onto the edge of the piece of wood.
That locks the planer in place.
And then just simply tilt the planer to your desired angle.
And then away you go.
- And as you can see here
we've achieved a couple of different profiles
just by altering the tilt or the angle of the planer.
Now, like I said earlier
it's really important when you're planing on a piece of wood
to have it nice and secure,
by placing it in a vise like I have here,
but what if you don't have a vise?
Well, I've got three really cool tips
that you might want to try.
Make yourself a jig like I have here
out of an old piece of wood,
which you just simply clamp down to the work bench.
Now, if you want to make one of these
I'll leave a link to a PDF, which you can download
down below.
- Once your jig is clamped down and secure
all you need to do is to get your piece of wood
place it inside that V
it's locked in and you're good to go.
The next two tips involve the use of a pipe clamp.
And all this is, is a couple of fittings
placed on the end of a length of pipe.
They are unbelievably simple and fantastic to use.
And you're only limited by the length of pipe that you have.
Now the first cool thing we're going to do
with our pipe clamp is to make our own homemade vise.
So all I've done is I've attached a length
of wood or timber to the top of the workbench,
and then down below I've attached it
to the leg of the workbench.
And then I've gone ahead and made a
duplicate copy of that piece there.
Now you don't need to use any fancy material
scrap woods fine.
Then I drilled a hole, the same size as the pipe
through both pieces
at exactly the same height.
Now, when you drill your hole
just make sure that you give enough room
beneath the bench for the clamp to fit.
And then all you need to do is just simply place the pipe
through those two holes.
And then around the back, we need to attach our clamp.
Now, this is a bit tricky because I can't see what I'm doing
without getting in the way of the camera.
But we'll give it a go.
There we go.
Now we're going to slide that pipe through like that.
Then we just side on our front clamp, just like that.
And we're good to go.
And then all you need to do is to place
your length of timber in the vise.
You'll also need a second piece the
same thicknesses as that
just to even out the pressure, so we'll put him down there.
And then we can tighten the vise as tight as you like,
it doesn't matter.
Look at this, this is amazing.
Tighten that up.
And there we have this is as solid as a rock.
Love it.
Now the second pipe clamp method is just as cool.
And all you need to do is to drill
a hole into your work bench,
slide the pipe in
and then beneath we'll attach the other fitting.
And then all you need do is to
place the piece you're working on under that clamp,
tighten it up
and check this out.
That is unbelievably strong.
How good is that?
Now just in case you're possibly interested
in buying a set of pipe clamp fittings.
I'll leave a link to some down below
so you can check them out there.
Now, word of warning, don't buy cheap ones.
They are rubbish.
Now just a couple of quick tips regarding planer blades.
And that is tip number one, planar blades and nails
aren't good friends.
Now, if you're like me, I work with a lot
of reclaimed wood or timber, which means lots of nails.
Now what I use is one of these rare earth magnets.
They're incredibly strong magnets
and I use these to detect nails for me.
So if you push it along the wood or the timber...
(click)
Bang, it's found a nail.
Now that one was visible,
so that's quite easy
but this one here has been broken off and punched down.
So watch this come along...
Bang it's found that nail.
That why I can dig that out
and then plane to my heart's content
without worry of damaging the blades.
Now, when your blade does get a bit dull
and they do over time,
you'll find that most blades are double sided
which means that once this side wears out
you can simply turn the blade around and use that side.
Now I reckon that deserves a "great tip Knackers!"
Now, if you want to see more videos
like the one you just watched,
make sure you check out my favourite power tool
tutorial playlist.
Which should be popping up over there anytime soon.
Hope to see you there shortly.
I'm off for a cup of tea, cheers.