Homemade jointer from an electric planer. Do-it-yourself jointing machine based on an electric planer

Wood processing- one of the most popular types of activities among enthusiastic people around the world.

This material is relatively cheap, easy to grind, and ready product, coated with varnish, paint or stain, will serve for a dozen years without losing external aesthetics and strength.

Interior items, furniture and much more can be made independently, for this it is not at all necessary to spend money on the purchase of expensive equipment or materials.

Even the fact that plastic, various metal alloys are replacing wood products everywhere does not reduce the interest in woodworking among enthusiasts.

This is both a great hobby and an opportunity to surprise loved ones with unique gizmos created by with my own hands.

The advice of experienced woodworkers suggests that it is not necessary to run to hardware stores if necessary. additional tool to perform a certain type of work.

Some things you can do with your own hands. For example, such a carpentry tool as a jointer.

What does he represent? The jointer can be classified as a planer familiar to us, but with slight changes in appearance, and therefore designed to perform certain tasks.

Increasing the length of the jointer makes it possible to process wide flat surfaces. planing mechanism in this case the same as when working with a planer.

Separate decorative or small elements cannot be processed with such equipment, but if it is necessary to achieve a smooth and flat surface of the product, it is indispensable.

Making a hand planer from a planer and long, sanded pieces of wood is a simple task for any person who is more or less experienced in carpentry. Therefore, it is not worth spending large sums on its acquisition.

Having devoted several evenings to the manufacture of such a tool, you will replenish your arsenal with a rather practical and necessary equipment for wood processing.

Jointer from an electric planer do it yourself: how to do?

For those who have turned their hobby into something more and are looking to expand their range of tools, we suggest trying to make a jointer yourself. Interesting and useful at the same time.

The option of manufacturing woodworking equipment presented by us, subject to the technology, allows us to obtain a tool with high accuracy.

To do this, we will use boards or plywood sheets already processed in advance with the help of a jointer and thicknesser.

Jointer from an electric planer: how to build equipment yourself

In order to make a jointer with your own hands you will need wooden box, firmly hammered together, three sheets of plywood of different thicknesses (for which we will explain along the way, so as not to confuse), an electric planer, bolts and nuts for fastening. Let's start with the box.

You can take a ready-made box without a bottom, but it's better to do it yourself. The fact is that the box should be an elongated rectangular shape so that there is where to swing when jointing.

We cover the knocked-up box with a sheet of plywood, having previously cut a hole in it, and place the planer in the box, with the knives up, or with the sole, which is actually the same thing.

If the planer is Interskolovsky, then it has special device for attaching it to the table upside down with knives, these elements are called fixtures.

On top of the base sheet of plywood with the planer already attached, we put two more sheets.

What is special: one of the sheets will be 2 mm thicker. This will be the receiving sheet, that is, the one on which, after jointing, wooden beam(we assume that 2 mm will be the layer that will be hewn with a jointer).

The second sheet is respectively 2 mm thinner. This will be the feed layer, the one from which the wooden beam is fed to the planer blade.

The sole of the planer should be raised above the main plywood sheet in such a way that the sole and the receiving layer make up the same plane, are on the same level, and the feed plywood is 2 mm higher.

The jointer must be firmly screwed with bolts and nuts so that, if necessary, the fastening can be adjusted.

Jointer from an electric planer: instructions for making

Method 1. Vertical placement of the working surface of an electric planer

Turning an electric planer into a jointer does not take much effort and time. You don't need materials either. Remains of wood are suitable, which can be attached to the common good. The first option for using an electric planer as a jointer involves vertical arrangement work surface and cutting blade.

This placement allows you to process both narrow and wide workpieces. In this case, the workpiece moves freely on the surface of the table.

The idea of ​​​​the fixture is quite simple, but the caveat is that it is not suitable for use on any table, for its use you need a carpentry workbench of a special design with the possibility of external side mounting.

With it, it is very easy to install an electric planer in a vertical position. It should be noted that the device is made of plywood 12 mm thick, for the DeWalt 680 OS electric planer. If you have equipment of a different model, then the device adapts to design features, available planer.

Installation of equipment includes the following operations:

• we insert the mounting bolts into the T-shaped profile and do not clamp them, but only slightly fasten them;

• remove the pressure plate and install the planer;

• we put the pressure plate in place, but do not tighten it, but only lightly bait it;

we expose the working surface of the planer strictly perpendicular to the countertop using a measuring tool;

the angle must be 90º. You can get the angle value using the M8 adjusting screw connection. The nut is installed in the plywood plane, and the screw passing through it rests against the handle of the electric planer, thereby changing the angle between the sole and the table surface. On the handle of the tool, it is advisable to install a metal plate on the double-sided tape in the place where the screw will be pressed. After installation required size the screw must be tightened with a lock nut;

we remove the standard side stop from the planer, and in its place we put a protective cover made by ourselves. As a protective cover rod, it is best to use a Ø8 stud with a 30 mm threaded end. Casing size 150x150 with rounding;

a distinctive feature of this installation is the ability to install knives tangentially, as shown in the photo. Then the cleanliness of processing improves and the workpiece is much easier to feed;

after all the settings are completed, we tighten all the wing nuts and install additional clamps in order to avoid accidental violation of the settings during the planing process.

Pay attention that the cutting tool of the planer does not touch the table surfaces. This point must be taken into account when making the device.

As a clamp, you can use a flat board or level, having previously exposed and clamped them with clamps, and it is even more correct to make a comb, following the example milling machine. The comb should be fastened with clamps.

Before fixing it, we set the processing depth. The recommended amount of material removal in one pass is not more than 1 mm.

Now you need to clamp the comb with clamps, which in length should go to the unregulated side of the working surface of the planer.

It is better to orient the sawdust suction downwards. This will prevent clogging of the nozzle. In this position, the processing waste can be collected without connecting the forced suction of chips, it is enough to tie a plastic bag.

Due to the fact that the inclusion of an electric planer is blocked, it is best to turn it on using a remote outlet, but if one is not available, then it is necessary to use a switch, placing it in a convenient place near the working jointer.

Next, we take the workpiece and check the operation of the electric jointer, made by hand. We check the treated surface for cleanliness and perpendicularity of the planes. The new planer based on an electric planer is ready to go.

As noted earlier, vertical jointer installation requires a professional table. If you are constantly engaged in carpentry work, and you have such a table available, then the vertical installation of the planer is for you. But if your carpentry activity is reduced to one-time work from time to time, then you will be more interested in another way of jointer with a horizontal arrangement of the working surface.

Method 2. Horizontal placement of the working surface of the electric planer

Consider the manufacture of a jointer based on an electric plane of the Status PL82SP trademark.

There are two reasons why we chose this tool. Firstly, it is quiet, which is a huge advantage in a small home workshop. Secondly, the delivery set includes brackets for mounting the planer exactly horizontally. We will use them when making a jointer with our own hands.

Let's take a board 85×12 cm. We suggest using a thermal wood, it does not gain moisture, so it does not lead during operation. But this is not important, you can use any material that is at hand. This board will serve as the base of our planer. We drill through holes Ø 6.5 for mounting the planer brackets.

On the reverse side of the board, we drill a hole Ø12 to the depth of the height of the head of the M6 ​​bolt.

We insert the M6 ​​bolts and tighten the nuts.

We fasten the brackets to the bolts and install the planer. The axis of the tool must match the axis of the base.

Because rear part the working surface is not regulated, let's take it as a base. We set a level on it and measure the height from the top of the base to the work surface along both edges of the bottom board. They must be identical. In our case, this is 18 cm.

We prepare two blanks from the board, which will serve as table extensions. One of them is 27 cm long, the other 35 cm. Width 10 cm.

We also cut out a blank from a 5 cm thick board, the length of which corresponds to the sum of the lengths of the extensions, and the width in total with the height of the extension equals 18 cm.

We cut the blanks to length and cut in the middle at an angle.

We are preparing 4 more blanks. Two of them are 25.5 × 7.5 cm, and two more are 20.5 × 7.5 cm.

Now in these blanks you need to make a groove. To do this, you can use a milling cutter, but if you do not have such equipment, then we do it with a jigsaw and a hand drill. First, we drill holes for the entry and exit of the canvas, and then we cut a groove. Via sandpaper we clean and adjust the size of 8 mm.

We drill through holes for fastening with self-tapping screws, using a countersink we make a chamfer on the hole.

We connect the blanks strictly in the middle, as shown in the photo, be sure to first secure them with clamps.

We take the counterpart of the workpiece, drill a hole. We insert a furniture bolt with a square bearing and twist the wing nut with a washer. The table lift assembly is ready.

The next operation is gluing the table extension to the lift unit.

We fix the tables to the base with self-tapping screws. When fastening, it is important that the edge of the back overlaps the knife.

We make parallel stop, fix it shown in the photo. When installing the stop, it is important to maintain an angle between the table surface and the stop of 90 °.

We test the received machine. Such a budget option jointer will be a great help in your workshop.

Basic safety rules when working on a jointer.

In view of the fact that the table is equipment of increased danger, we consider it necessary to dwell on the safe rules of its operation.

1. The machine must always be securely fastened. If this is a mobile version, then two clamps are used as fasteners, if the jointer is stationary, it is securely fastened to the table with bolted connections.
2. Before starting work, it is necessary to check the reliability of fastening of the knives and, if necessary, tighten them. Do not work with blunt knives, as you have to apply excessive force, and this can lead to injury.
3. A protective cover is required. It cannot be removed. To process workpieces, use all kinds of pushers, exclude work by hand in the zone of rotation of the knives.
4. Excessive vibration, imbalance, beating and extraneous noise of the equipment is not allowed.
5. It is forbidden to work on the machine with gloves.

Jointer + thicknesser from an electric planer: an idea

Sometimes there is a need for a gauge. Turning an electric planer into a thicknesser is quite simple. Of course, if we are not talking about a potential machine, but about some do-it-yourself device to obtain two parallel planes.

To make such a primitive machine, you need to spend a little time with the same amount of material. We divide the process of making a thickness gauge into three stages.

Stage number 1 Preparation of the base.

We take the board, securely fasten it. On it in the middle, in the size of the width of the planer knives, we fasten two slats. The distance between them will be the maximum width of the workpieces. We fasten two planks along the width of the board with a length corresponding to the length of the planer.

Stage number 2 Preparation of the tool.

To adapt the electric planer as a working tool of the future thicknesser, it is necessary to remove the front part of the working surface of the planer and replace it with a sheet of plywood or OSB sheet. We fasten two planks along the width of the plywood with a length corresponding to the length of the planer.

Stage No. 3 Connection of the structure.

We use 4 slats as legs, which we connect with self-tapping screws to the strips on the tool and the base of the fixture. For convenience, you can use a bolted connection using a furniture bolt with a wing nut. The processing size is set according to the calibrated part.

Such an idea for a thickness gauge will not satisfy the needs of a carpentry workshop, but in household with a single production has the right to life.

Jointer from an electric planer with his own hands: advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage of a jointer made from an electric planer is its price. The materials necessary for the transformation of the tool will always be at hand. The costs will be minimal, unlike the acquisition of a new jointer. In addition, mobility and now the versatility of the unit captivates. Another plus is the high surface finish.

Finishing wooden products on such equipment is a very interesting, and, most importantly, convenient exercise. The disadvantages of the design are that it has a small jointing width and a small length of the working surface.

It is worth considering in advance such important issues related to cleaning the air in the working room and removing sawdust.

For example, since the jointer is homemade, you can come up with something like a bag for collecting sawdust, this will save you from fine wood dust, not completely, but still. The power tool not only speeds up the performance of certain operations, but also increases the amount of debris flying around the corners. The use of a vacuum cleaner will ensure maximum suction of chips from the working area.

Lighting also plays an important role when working with it. A machine with increased danger, therefore it is necessary to ensure sufficient luminous flux. It is best to carry out such work on fresh air in daylight.

If the season or other conditions do not allow this, arrange your own workplace with maximum comfort.

And also you can watch a video of jointers from an electric planer

Tailored for you:

Household and industrial jointers are widely used for wood processing. As well as turning, circular and milling, jointing machines are among the mandatory equipment of carpentry workshops. They are easy to use and reliable. Working with homemade jointers requires accuracy and some skills.

Scope and purpose

Industrial and homemade planing equipment is used for one-sided processing of flat surfaces of wood products. The main scope of machine tools is furniture and woodworking production. Perpendicular surfaces are cut on them, chamfers are selected at the desired slope from the sidewalls. Machining accuracy is important when assembling furniture, jointing equipment allows you to get a part of a given size. Often planing mechanisms are used at home in household workshops.

The jointer does not allow planing in thickness to size, as well as making parts with parallel surfaces!

Planer classification

According to the number of devices for planing, jointers can be double-sided or single-sided. All planers are divided into categories according to the width of the planing surface, the length of the working table and the speed of the knife shaft.

According to the processed width of the workpiece, mechanisms are distinguished:

• by 40 cm;
• at 50 - 52 cm;
• at 60 - 63 cm.

Compact home-made units for the home have a smaller processing width.

According to the length of the working surface, two groups of devices are distinguished:

• with a length of less than 250 cm;
• with a length of 250 to 300 cm.

Larger workpieces can be processed on long tables. The quality of jointing is also improved.

According to the torsion frequency of the working shaft, the machines are divided into two categories:

• 4700 - 4800 rpm;
• 5000 rpm.

Industrial motors can operate at speeds up to 12,000 rpm.

Planer device

The design consists of the main elements:

• working surface;
• bed;
• guide;
• knife shaft;
• circular fence.

The working surface consists of two plates: back and front. The level of the rear plate matches the level of the top point of the cutter blades. The level of the front is set lower as much as the material is removed during processing. Typically, the level difference is no more than 1.5 millimeters. This is enough to qualitatively process the surface of the part in two steps.

Plates are made of cast iron, and to make the table more stable, stiffeners are provided. The edges of the plates are covered with steel plates, protecting them from destruction. They are also chippers.

The knife shaft is located between two plates, cutters are attached to the shaft. For high-quality processing, it is necessary to select the same cutters. As a rule, single-edged knives are used that can be sharpened. Two-edged cutters after severe blunting are thrown out and replaced with new ones, it is impossible to sharpen them. As a rule, machines for household workshops are equipped with cutters made of high-speed tool steel. Carbide-tipped cutters are used to work with dense types of wood or pressed boards.

The guide is fixed with bolts in the provided holes. The ruler can move in the transverse direction depending on the size of the part.

The circular fence is installed on the front of the plate, it fits snugly against the guide due to the spring. The guard covers the knife shaft. The movement from the motor to the knife shaft is transmitted by means of a belt drive.

The optimal size of wood parts for processing on a planer is from 100 to 150 cm. Too long parts hang over and create inconvenience when working at home, while short ones are dangerous.

Setting and mode selection

Before starting work, you need to calculate the thickness of the material to be cut and the speed of the workpiece (for equipment with an automatic feeder). The size of the layer depends on the initial state of the tree and is determined empirically. For this, several (no more than five) blanks are processed. If unfinished areas remain on the surface, the plate is slightly lowered. If the workpiece is warped by more than 2.5 mm, processing is carried out in two stages.

When the height of the plates is set, measure the gap between the edge of the cutters and the jaws of the plates, which should be from 2 to 3 millimeters. To determine the gap, a calibrated plate is used, which should be inserted into the slot easily, but without slots. If the gap exceeds 3 mm, the part is covered with tears, with a gap of less than 2 millimeters, the cutter is destroyed.

In addition to setting the plates in height, it is also necessary to determine the location of the guide. When processing wooden bars, the gap between the ruler and the left edge of the knife shaft should be slightly larger than the width of the bar. Gradually, the knives become dull and the guide moves to the right, involving other parts of the cutters in the work. The ruler moves across the tabletop on a rack-and-pinion device, launched by a flywheel. To perform a corner chamfer on the edge, the guide is installed using a template or square and secured with a screw.

Automatic feeders regulate the supply of parts without stoppers, with a small clamp. When processing edges, they are placed parallel to the ruler.

The correctness of the settings of the planing equipment is determined empirically. The allowed errors are:

• on a plane no more than 0.15 millimeters per meter;
• along the perpendicular - no more than 0.1 millimeter per 10 cm.

The principle of operation of the planer

One person is enough to work on single-sided planer equipment at home. He examines the state of the workpiece, puts it with a convex plane up on the front plate. With two hands, he presses against the ruler and directs it to the cutters. Further, he presses the already planed side with his left hand to the surface of the rear plate. The master inspects the processed workpiece: if it is not planed enough, he sends it to the knives. It is advisable to avoid processing very warped workpieces, as too thick a layer of chips is removed. The remaining workpiece may turn out to be unacceptably thin.

When processing two perpendicular planes, the first one goes into work with a large area. Then it is applied to the guide and planed the second. The double-sided machine allows you to process both sides at the same time.

• If during processing “arson” or “moss” appear on the plane, it’s time to sharpen the cutters;
• When working with parts shorter than 40 cm and already 3 cm, they are held only by special pushers, and parts complex shape templates;
• If the planed plane is curved or has the shape of an impeller, check the level of the worktop plates and the knife shaft.

Do-it-yourself planer

homemade machine- side view

small frame desktop machine for the home can be made from metal pipe rectangular section. More powerful homemade design obtained from a corner of 40 mm. The width of the bed depends on the size of the knives and the planned planing width.

From one end, two guides are welded to the frame, the upper edges of which coincide with the surface of the frame. In the middle of the bed, on bolts screwed into pre-prepared holes, a knife shaft is attached, mounted on a pair of ball bearings.

Work surfaces for a desktop machine for the home are made of thick plywood laid on bars. And to regulate their level, home-made overhead bolted connections are provided. Four connections for each plate: a pair at the front and a pair at the back. From below, a vertical bar with a hole is attached to each part of the tabletop. A long threaded pin is threaded through the bar and the upper horizontal of the bed, with the help of which the position of the table top relative to the knife shaft is changed.

There is another option homemade mount working surface: grooves are made in the frame (4 pcs.), in the movable tabletop the same number of holes into which the heads of the threaded studs are inserted. Tightening the nuts and moving the studs in the grooves changes the distance between the knife shaft and the edge of the tabletop.

The rear plate is fixed and adjusted in height to the knife shaft. A board or chipboard of a suitable size can serve as a guide ruler.

When choosing an engine, one should proceed from the nature of the use of the future machine. For domestic needs, a power of 750 W is enough, but a motor with a power of at least 1.5 kilowatts will cope with more serious tasks.

A few more options for homemade jointers:

Overview of factory models

Model	W0108	W0100
Engine	0.75 kW 220V	0.75 kW 220 V	2.2 kW, 220V	3.7 kW 380V
Cutting width	153 mm	153 mm	203 mm	400 mm
Maximum cutting depth	3 mm	3.2 mm	3.2 mm	3 mm
Number of knives of the cutting shaft	3	3	4	4
Cutting shaft diameter	61 mm	61 mm	78 mm	98 mm
Table length	1210 mm	1535 mm	1800 mm	2250 mm
Infeed table length	700 mm	760 mm	880 mm	1090 mm
Pickup table length	590 mm	755 mm	880 mm	1090 mm
Table width	255 mm	255 mm	330 mm	420 mm
Table height from floor	820 mm	850 mm	795 mm	820 mm
Stop dimensions	740 x 98 mm	889 x 124 mm	889 x 124 mm	1195 x 150 mm
Packed dimensions	1245x515x275 mm	1600x360x250 mm	1850x450x300 mm	2300x820x1025 mm
Gross weight	104 kg	135 kg	208 kg	570 kg
Price	52000 rub	68000 rub	112000 rub	229000 rub

W0108


W0100

If you decide to make yourself a thickness gauge from an electric planer with your own hands, drawings, visual videos and our recommendations will help you achieve your goal. By itself, the electric planer is useful tool in the economy. But to buy a thickness gauge for domestic purposes is quite an expensive pleasure. Therefore, many decide to assemble the equipment on their own, based on an electric planer.

To assemble a thickness gauge from an electric planer, you will need a set of materials and tools necessary for the future machine.

If you need a thickness gauge in order to generate income from products that you will process on the machine, then best solution will be the purchase of a finished device. If the thickness gauge is purely a tool domestic use for homework, then you can safely do it yourself.

The main components for assembling the unit are:

• Electric planer. Please note that each time it will not be possible to re-equip the thickness gauge into a conventional electric planer and assemble the machine from it back. Therefore, it is better to make a unit from a planer, which is not a pity;
• Blueprints. You can make your own drawing, based on the characteristics and features of the electric planer, the planned work and the parts that the machine must process. It is more difficult to adapt ready-made drawings for yourself, since each of them is based on certain models of an electric planer, materials used, parameters, etc .;
• Wooden blocks and plywood. Of these, you will assemble the body of the future thicknessing machine;
• Free time. To make a machine with your own hands, you do not need much time. But you should not try to assemble the unit in a couple of hours, otherwise the result may disappoint you.

The main emphasis in designing a thickness gauge based on an electric planer is on matching the characteristics and capabilities of the machine with the workpieces being processed. Make sure before starting assembly that the equipment will receive a body, studs, guides that perfectly match the parts you will be dealing with.

Studs and guides

These components of the thickness gauge based on an electric planer should be discussed separately, since they play a significant role in the efficiency and effectiveness of the thickness gauge.

1. Studs allow you to lower and raise the surface gage when processing workpieces.
2. Often, beginners install a hairpin exactly in the middle of the machine body. But this decision is wrong. If you decide to make a machine, the pin should be installed in the middle between the front and rear handles of the device. This arrangement will provide convenient work with the equipment, will allow you to securely fix the tool in the desired position. Problems during operation will be much less.
3. When converting an electric planer to a thickness gauge, try to give the tool pin maximum mobility. To do this, install a rolling bearing on the top cover with your own hands.
4. On the middle plate of the machine, which will be responsible for adjusting the height, fasten the nut. This solution will provide you with the ability to adjust the position of the equipment with a small step and increased accuracy. This is true for particularly delicate processing with a thickness gauge.
5. Guides are used for precise and efficient processing of workpieces. They are made from wooden bars, so the cost of assembling equipment can be considered minimal.
6. When making guides for an electric planer, make a certain margin in length. They are not recommended to be made identical to the length of the processed workpieces. Perform these elements a little more.
7. The lower plane of the thickness gauge from an electric planer is made so that when processing the product, it moves immediately parallel to the cutters of the device. If the plane starts under the power tool, you will not be able to high precision processing. Therefore, the efficiency of such a machine will be reduced to a minimum.

Security measures

Any home-made power tool, machine tool imposes increased requirements on safety issues during operation. Therefore, if you decide to make a thickness gauge based on an electric planer with your own hands, be sure to familiarize yourself with the basic rules for its use. This will protect you from injury and also extend the life of the tool itself.

• When cutting blanks with your own hands with a thickness gauge, always wear special safety glasses;
• When working with dense, rough workpieces, keep your hands in gloves;
• Before turning on the equipment, make sure that all its elements are securely fixed, the wiring is not exposed. This must be done before each new working day;
• Knives and studs must not have defects, damage, cracks on their surface. If they are found, these elements are subject to immediate replacement;
• Make sure that the workpieces being processed do not have metal components - staples, nails, screws, self-tapping screws. When they hit the thickness gauge, this threatens not only with injuries, but also with the complete failure of the machine itself.

Rules for working on the machine

Having assembled a workable thickness gauge from an electric planer with your own hands and familiarized yourself with the recommendations on safe operation, you can start processing blanks.

In this regard, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with a few practical tips.

1. There is nothing complicated in working on a home-made thicknessing machine built on the basis of an electric planer. Therefore, a beginner can handle such a unit.
2. Install the pin in correct position. It is mounted at a certain distance relative to the edge of the workpiece.
3. Set the size that matches the part, fix the bar that acts as a guide.
4. Tilt the equipment slightly away from you. This will expose the cutting stud of your electrical equipment.
5. Now pull the tool towards you. This ensures the work of the thicknesser, which removes layers of material from the workpieces.
6. If you correctly assemble the unit, taking into account all the recommendations and following the drawings, a home-made electric thickness gauge based on a conventional electric planer will not be inferior to factory equipment in terms of its functionality, performance and efficiency.

The abundance of drawings and schemes for assembling a thickness gauge from a power tool allows you to profitably use an old unnecessary electric planer. Without special skills and experience, beginners manage to build excellent machines.

As you expand your needs and gain new experience, the machine can be improved, or modern, high-power electric planers can be used to assemble it.

If you need a thickness gauge for the manufacture of large volumes of blanks with their subsequent sale, homemade device you can hardly get by. For such purposes, it is recommended to purchase factory equipment from trusted manufacturers. Due to the quality and productivity, the cost of buying a machine will justify itself over time, and you will receive a net profit.

At home, you can independently make a thickness gauge or jointer from an electric planer. They make it easier and faster to work with wooden blanks. With the help of home-made machines, it will be possible to plan and adjust the thickness of lumber, as well as perform surface finishing and some other operations. The simplest option is to use an electric planer, which can be fixed upside down to the machine bed. For such models, the transformation into a planer or jointer is provided for by their design. In other cases, you will need to make special fasteners to securely fix the tool in the working position.

A thicknesser machine is a woodworking equipment with which planed flat planes of lumber before reaching desired thickness blanks. At the same time, only pre-prepared (planed) boards or beams are processed.

Preparation of materials and working tools

There are a lot of different options for creating structures that allow you to convert an electric planer into thicknessing equipment. To make a relatively simple homemade machine at home, you will need the following tools and materials:

• screwdriver with a set of bits;
• square or carpenter's corner;
• tape measure or simple ruler;
• screwdrivers with different tips;
• spanners;
• electric planer;
• electric jigsaw or hand saw for wood;
• plywood with a sheet thickness of 1.5 cm;
• long screws with coarse thread (4 pieces);
• bicycle chain and four drive sprockets for it;
• wooden blocks (2.5 by 2.5 cm) and planks (1.5 × 1.5 cm);
• nuts with M14 thread;
• washers of suitable sizes;
• screws 25 x 100 mm.

The electric planer will serve as the main mechanism of the machine being created. Screws can be replaced with wood screws of similar size.

Manufacturing algorithm

Drawings and diagrams will help to simplify the process of creating a thicknessing tool from an electric planer, but it is easier to make it from photographs. The equipment is made in the following order.

The created structure is installed onto a flat surface. For fixing to a workbench or table, you need to use suitable fasteners.

The presence of a drive mechanism makes it possible to set the required thickness of the workpieces to be processed.

When assembling the machine with your own hands, you should fix the cable supplying the power tool so that it does not interfere with work, and the wire is not accidentally damaged. To securely fix the electric planer itself on the work site, it is recommended to use bolts with nuts.

The measuring ruler is an obligatory structural element of the created self-made thickness gauge. With its help, the thickness of the lumber that is planned to be processed is set. A piece of plastic, wooden or metal ruler 8 cm long is suitable as a bar. An arrow pointer can also be made from similar materials.

Assembly of a jointer based on an electric jigsaw

The planer is designed to remove existing irregularities from the surface of the wood. The work process is one-sided planing of lumber on a plane. You can also shoot at various bevel angles. Thanks to the processing on this equipment, the bars or boards become smooth.

The design of the planer unit is simpler than that of the planer analogue. This allows you to assemble the installation yourself using available materials.

Jointer manufacturing procedure

To do planer for processing small workpieces, you will need an electric planer that can be fixed in a stationary position. The basis of the created aggregate can be piece of plywood, MDF or chipboard. A piece measuring 50 by 35 cm is enough. The thickness of the used sheet material should be more than 2 cm.

Assemble the tool for planing, performing the steps in the following sequence:

• cut out the base for the machine from the existing sheet material;
• with the help of self-tapping screws or screws, an emphasis for the workpiece is attached to it at an angle of strictly ninety degrees (a square is used to set it);

• install ribs that will ensure the rigidity of the stop;
• an electric planer is attached to the base using M8 bolts and nuts.

Before fixing the stop, a hole is cut in it for the nozzle and for cooling the tool's electric motor.

If it is necessary to cut large size blanks, then it is enough to increase the size of the created aggregate. In this case, the design will turn out, as in the photographs below.

In addition to the considered option from an electric planer, planer equipment can also be assembled in another design. The practical implementation of such structures depends on the available home master materials at hand and creativity. How to make homemade jointers of other designs is shown in the following videos:

Making a stand for an electric planer

When working with an electric planer all the time, it is recommended to have a special stand that is suitable for storing it and placing the tool on it immediately after turning it off.

The use of such a device is especially important when working with powerful, heavy electric planers.

The need for a special stand is due to the fact that the metal drum with blades, after disconnecting the supply voltage from the tool's electric motor, does not stop immediately, but after a while (about 6 seconds). Throughout this period, he moves by inertia. The inertial duration of rotation itself depends on the massiveness of the drum and the power of the equipment used. At the same time, it is impossible to put a power tool on a table or workbench with a sole, because you can not only damage their surfaces, but also get injured.

In order not to hold the tool in your hands all the time while the drum stops, you need to use a stand of a special design. The main element is a groove about 8 cm wide and 0.6 cm deep. It is necessary for the drum to rotate freely until it stops completely. The accuracy of the location of the electric planer placed on the stand (when the blades are above the cut groove) is ensured by the presence of a front stop from the bar.

The width of the groove and the distance from its front edge to the stop are determined by the dimensions of the power tool model used in the work.

Necessary tools and materials

To make a stand yourself, you will need the following tools:

• electric jigsaw equipped with a file for cutting figures;
• screwdriver with a set of bits;
• drill with drills for metal 3 and 4 mm in diameter;
• awl;
• hand saw for wood with fine teeth;
• ruler or tape measure;
• square;
• pencil or marker;
• cutter for spherical wood;
• sandpaper;
• chisel (enough with a 3-4 cm wide tip).

To create a structure, you will need the following materials:

• a piece of board up to 1 m long, 20 mm thick, and 140 mm wide;
• wood screws - 2 pieces 4 by 45 mm;
• plank made of wood 30 mm wide, 20 mm thick, and 140 mm long;
• 4 self-tapping screws with large hats 4 by 15 mm.

Creation sequence

In the manufacture of a stand for an electric planer, the following algorithm is used:

1. Cut off a piece of 50 cm long from the board with a saw or electric jigsaw.
2. According to the diagram above, mark the bar with the board.
3. Drill holes for screws (according to the marks applied at the right points) designed to fix the stop.
4. The used model of the electric planer is tried on to the prepared stand base blank, noting the future location of the groove according to the location of the tool drum.
5. According to the markup, a groove is cut with a saw, making it approximately 4 cm larger than this parameter at the slot for the drum. Files are made along the edges and in the center.
6. With a chisel, wood is removed from the groove and cleaned.
7. Saw off excess from the workpiece with an electric jigsaw.
8. Attach the front stop with screws. 4 self-tapping screws are twisted around the edges, which will serve as the "legs" of the stand.
9. Sand the finished stand with sandpaper to remove roughness.

The position of the stand is adjustable with self-tapping screws.

After finishing work, you should make sure that the groove is made of the desired width and depth: for this, just put the power tool on top of the stand and look at the drum location from the side. If necessary, you will need to deepen or expand the groove.

After turning off (when the drum still continues to rotate), the tool is set in the following way:

• first, the front edge of the sole of the plane is supported at close range;
• only then lower the power tool onto the stand.

Making a stand does not require much time, labor and Money. But such a device makes the job easier.

Thickness gauges and jointers made independently from an electric planer are much cheaper than their factory counterparts, but they functionality inferior to branded equipment. However, they are quite enough to perform the basic operations for which these devices are intended. Practical use home-made machines significantly speeds up wood processing, improves its accuracy and quality compared to manual application electric planer.

Few people in childhood left indifferent the first visit to the carpentry workshop. The indescribable smell of fresh wood shavings, the cleanliness and smoothness of a freshly planed board, the fluffiness of sawdust - this is the place where, with the help of a thickening machine, several clumsy boards with a scratchy surface from protruding fibers were magically transformed into an elegant stool.

The result of the work of the thicknesser was perfectly even lumber, which was suitable for the manufacture of many such interesting and beautiful things.

The design and types of thicknessing machines

Of course, the thicknessing machine was not the only one in that workshop. And many of these workshops could not boast of such luxury at all. But a circular saw, often assembled on the same shaft as the planer drum, was almost always available. And then a simple device that allows you to control the uniformity of pressing the workpiece to the surface of the desktop, brought the planer closer in its functionality to the planer, which in skillful hands provided almost the same result, although somewhat more expensive both in terms of work and time.

We talk about this in such detail here, so that the main topic of the article is clearer - making a thicknessing (thickness) machine with our own hands. After all, his main task: to plan the molded wooden material with the same thickness. And several successive planing operations on a planer with such a clamping device will provide this result.

But what is a real gage equipped with?

Thicknessing machine has:

• Desktop;
• working shaft (1 or 2), two - for simultaneous processing of two surfaces of the workpiece or one - for processing the workpiece on one side;
• rolls for clamping and pulling the workpiece (a pair from above or two - from above and below), with electric or manual drive;
• table height adjustment system;
• backstop protection system.

In the option of finalizing the planer, some of the listed systems are missing. But also, dual-purpose machines are industrially produced - planer-thickness planers.

In them, under the working table for jointing, there is a height-adjustable working table of the thicknesser. The processing of the workpiece is carried out by the same drum with knives as jointing. In this case, only the upper part of it is processed. During the operation of the machine as a thickness gauge, top part the machine is closed with a protective overlay, in order to avoid injury.

Sometimes a wide cutter is installed instead of a drum with knives.

Schematic diagram of the operation of the thicknessing machine

Why make a thicknessing machine with your own hands?

The scheme of work for most home craftsmen should be clear even without visualization, but for ease of understanding the tasks of self-manufacturing a thickness gauge, it will not be superfluous.

Motivation for self-manufacturing any equipment - two:

• desire for self-realization;
• desire for savings.

All the rest follow from the above. And you can save a lot of things:

• first of all - money due to the abolition of auxiliary functions, without which it is quite possible to do without in a home workshop;
• in the second - electricity by reducing the number of electric drives;
• in the third - a place in the workshop due to optimization and sizing.

If we talk about a full-fledged thicknessing machine, then, based on the three-dimensional drawing below, its components can be reduced to the following list:

• electric drive from an electric motor with a power of 1.5 - 2.5 kW for a two-knife drum rotating at a speed of 5 - 10 thousand rpm;
• manual chain adjustment of the level of the desktop;
• manual chain coupled feed of the workpiece with two lingering pressure rollers.

But you yourself accept the concept of your thickness gauge. Consider 3 approaches to implementing the idea of ​​self-manufacturing a thicknessing machine.

High-tech method of manufacturing a thicknessing machine

There are 3 independent electric drives, which are:

• drive the cutting drum,
• are pinch rollers,
• adjust the position of the desktop.

Torque is transmitted to the drum by means of V-belt transmission, and in the two remaining options - chain. Moreover, the uniformity of the pressing of the rollers is regulated by interconnected spring-loaded intermediate sprockets, although in our opinion, such a system will still not allow to avoid some temporary weakening of the chain at the moment the workpiece leaves the feed roller.

The tension of the drive chain for adjusting the height of the desktop is carried out by two rigidly fixed sprockets.

Such an approach, obviously, can be justified by the fact that you have a flexible mini-production with a large number of equipment reconfiguration operations. Although here, some schemes could be simplified. For example - like this:

Such a machine will not turn out to be cheap, and an abundance of fairly complex nodes will require constant Maintenance. But, apparently, this is exactly the case when it was precisely the desire for self-realization that came to the fore, because for the same money it would be quite possible to find a used thicknessing machine and, having slightly repaired it, provide a solution to the same problems.

Do-it-yourself thicknessing machine from an electric planer

It is this approach to solving most tasks for the thickness gauge that arise in the conditions of a home workshop that seems to us the most interesting.

First of all, this interest is based on minimal modifications to an existing tool to perform the work of expensive equipment with almost the same result.

By installing an electric planer on a platform with a variable height, we get almost the same thickness gauge. True, it regulates not the position of the desktop, but the position of the working tool in relation to the workpiece being processed, but the essence of the process does not change from this. The role of the table here is performed by a flat powerful board with width limiters on the sides. They also serve as a place of attachment of the main node. But first, let's talk about him.

On the planer, we will change the back support plate to a home-made one made of OSB or plywood, with a thickness that provides the same level with the front plate, which regulates the required clearance (1 - 3 mm) for chip removal. Its width should correspond to the width of our impromptu desktop.

On the sides of this plate, rails are screwed for attaching the legs, the height of which is dictated solely by common sense. It is obvious that, based on the standard width of the planer knives of 82 mm, the thickness of the processed workpieces should not be more than 100 mm, so the distance between the axes of the leg fastenings can be taken equal to 110 - 120 mm. Accordingly, their total length will vary from 140 to 160 mm with a width of 35 mm and a thickness of at least 10 mm. The legs are fastened strictly at the same distance from the edge of the bar.

The installation of the assembled movable upper assembly with an electric planer on the desktop is carried out in place, so that the fastening is strictly on the same level. This is done to parallelize its movement relative to the base surface, which will ensure the accuracy of the workpiece processing.

The height in the process of work is most easily set by selecting rails of the appropriate thickness, screwed onto the width limiters of the desktop, or using other supports.

And the clamping of the working tool should be provided with spring ties or a tourniquet, but for small workpieces this is not required at all. Also, in a given position, this parallel platform can be fixed with self-tapping screws.

Video of the application of a thickness gauge assembled by one's own hands:

Budget version of a homemade surface gauge

This is the simplest method of using an electric planer as a thicknesser. Of course, it is unlikely that anyone would think of calling this design a thicknessing machine, but in terms of the function it performs, this is exactly it.

We deliberately chose the option for wide blanks. Indeed, in this form, it performs work that is beyond the power of most industrial thicknessing machines precisely because of the width of the material being processed, and in our case it is limited only by the length of your hands.

Of course, we cannot recommend such a barbarous attachment of an electric planer - a rather expensive tool - to a movable platform. Where more interesting option fixing it, described in the previous section of the article, but using a wider platform and carrying out the rails along the width, and not along the axis of the tool. In this case, the risk of damaging something important inside the planer body is reduced to zero.

In the given example, a glued set of wooden slats various sizes and even types of wood.

Height adjustment is carried out by installing calibrated bars on the sides of the working table, two sets of which will allow you to process an unlimited number of workpieces on both sides in the size specified in thickness.