Surface Planer Safety

This page presents the safety considerations for operating the surface planer, tips for how to effectively operate a surface planer, and the safety quiz (and answers) for the surface planer.  The surface planer is sometimes referred to as the "surfacer".  

The Titan Woodshop has one 22" surface planer. This means the cutterhead is 22" long and that 22" is the maximum capacity for the width of a board that can be passed through the machine.  The surface planer is primarily used to reduce the thickness of a piece of wood, progressively making it thinner and thinner.  Generally we move the adjustment wheel one full rotation each pass which takes off 1/16" per pass.  The board gets thinner and thinner each time it is passed through the machine, 1/16" at a time (a piece of wood starting at 1" will become 15/16", then 7/8", then 13/16",  then 3/4").  Here is a picture of the surface planer in the Titan Woodshop:

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