Planer Safety

Function:

Make flat, parallel, and straight faces on a board.

Why we use it:

When lumber comes from the sawmill, the surface of the wood is rough, and it is often an uneven thickness. The planer surfaces the wood to make it smooth, and because the blades are an exact height above the table, it makes your wood a uniform thickness. Sometimes you may have a board which is thicker than you need it to be. If you have a board which is ³/₄" thick, and you need it to be ⁵/₈" thick, the planer is the tool you will use to accomplish this. Also, often times when you glue multiple pieces of wood together, such as when making a cutting board, they are different thicknesses. The planer will make your boards which are glued together one even thickness.

Safety Concerns:

-The blades in the planer spin with tremendous force at a great speed. Sometimes a piece of your board can chip off and be violently thrown out of the planer. To avoid a very serious injury, you must NEVER look into the planer while it is running.

-The planer must be set at the correct height. If the distance between the blades and the table is too great, there is a high risk that your wood will be thrown back out of the planer, damaging the wood, the planer blades, and potentially the operator. To avoid this you must correctly adjust the table height before turning on the planer.

-To adjust the table height:

-On the planer, the wood should fit between the piece of plastic and the infeed table. Put you piece of wood on the table, and raise the table until your wood just barely touches the plastic, then lower the table ½ turn by turning the wheel counter-clockwise. Make sure you set this using the thickest part of your wood.

-Never adjust the table height while there is a piece of wood in the planer. Only adjust this when the board is out of the planer.

-Between each pass, you must change the table height. You should not adjust the table height by more than ½ turn each time. Make sure you turn the adjustment wheel in the correct direction - clockwise - to raise the table between each pass.

-Your wood must be long enough to be fed through the planer. If it is too short, it will not feed properly. The wood will catch on the blades, which will damage your wood, damage the blades, and potentially get thrown from the planer. Your piece of wood must be at least 13" long to be fed into the planer.

-The wood you feed through the planer must not be twisted. If a board does not lie flat on the planer table, it will not plane well. The board will usually get odd chunks of wood removed from it, and will end up twisted. If your board is warped or twisted, use the jointer to flatten one face before planing it.

-Keep your fingers away from the area where the wood touches the table. Your fingers can get pinched between your board and the table.

-If your board gets stuck in the planer, turn the planer off and wait for it to come to a complete stop before trying to remove it. Before putting your board back in the planer, figure out why it got stuck. Usually, the board is warped, which causes it to bind.

-The planer blades must be perpendicular to the grain of the wood. You will never feed a board through the planer with the grain of the wood going from side to side. The planer will not make a smooth cut, and your board will chip apart.

-Your wood must be in good condition. It must not have any nails or anything metal in it, it must not have a finish on it such as paint or varnish, and it must not have any loose knot holes. Any such objects will chip or dull the planer blades. Also, loose knot holes are likely to become free and be forcefully ejected from the planer.

-The face of the board you are expecting to get planed will face up. That is where the blades are!

Additional Information:

-When used correctly, the planer is really quite a safe tool, and does a huge amount of work very quickly. However, you must follow all rules very carefully, as if something goes wrong, it will almost always ruin your project and damage the planer.