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Planer Purchase

2K views 31 replies 17 participants last post by  sixstring 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Looking to purchase my first planer. The project I am currently undertaking will be to plane about 350 1" x 2" boards from bowling lanes that I am prying apart.

I do not have enough space for a gigantic planer, so that is one concern. The other concern I have is that I need it to be durable enough to be able to handle these boards which have a tongue and groove to each side and lots of hardened glue on it.

I will admit that I am young and not very experienced (although I am learning as much as I can) with planers and planing boards. In fact, I am not sure if they can even plan these boards with the hard glue on them or if it will tear up the blades???

Either way, I would prefer not to spend more than $750, if that is possible.

Thoughts on a make and model and reasons why you would like it would be really beneficial to me.

Thanks.

Happy New Year….
 
#2 ·
The glue won't do the planer knives any good … glue and paint tend to dull the blades.

The greater concern I would have is hardware (e.g. ring-shank nails) you may encounter. I worked at a bowling alley equipped with AMF pinsetters and lanes many years ago. The maple in our lanes was not glued … it was tongue-and-groove with ring-shank nails every few inches.

Have you considered the DeWalt DW735? It is a 13", 3 knife planer that tends to get pretty strong reviews.

-Gerry
 
#3 ·
Thanks Gerry. I was actually looking at the DW 735 and reading the reviews on it before you replied. I am concerned about the ring-shank nails, but these boards are both glued & nailed. There are nails every 8-10" all along the length of the board.

I am concerned with the shards of the nails that I don't see or are not visible to the eye as they are embedded in the wood.

Thoughts on getting that glue off the most efficient way?
 
#4 ·
Take your time with a SHARP chisel and work the glue loose. Do not be in a hurry….after all those boards were in play for quite a while!. You should be able to remove the majority of the old glue and smoothe sufficiently to plane the boards. I agree with Gerry….check the boards with a metal detector or at least a free hanging magnet to at least find any hidden iron!
Burlman
 
#6 ·
During our summer shutdowns for resurfacing, part of my job was to replace damaged boards with a router and trammel jig. It is hard to describe the sensation you get when the router bit tangles with a ring-shank nail, but it sure gets your attention!

-Gerry
 
#7 ·
Yes…that is one that I would prefer not to have to deal with. Let me ask you this - were the lanes you worked at applied with a veneer on top or a finish? I ask b/c these lanes I have do not have any finish on them. They have a veneer on top of the SYP or Maple (depending on which part of the lane it is).

But I seem to recall that the lanes either had a finish or were a veneered top. But not sure the historical significance of either. Which came first? Or lasT?
 
#8 ·
I agree with TheDane. The Dewalt 735 is a great planer. I have planed hundreds of board ft of wood with mine and not much seems to slow it down. The blades are easy to change too. It has a nice chip blower and two speeds which is a plus. Get yourself a metal detector used in shops to find the nails.
 
#10 ·
Our lanes were 1×4 maple boards standing on edge, T&G, and nailed. No veneer or plastic. The finish we used after annual sanding was a varnish. The lanes were cleaned daily with a linaduster, then topped with a light oil.

-Gerry
 
#11 ·
I also have a Dewalt and love it. My question is the wood venereered? If it is Im not sure I would go through the effort to plain it depending how thick the veneer is. I agree with others in that the finish will raise havoc with your planer blades. If it's solid maple that is a different story.
 
#12 ·
A drum sander with 24 to 50 grit paper is my choice for dealing with removal of hard glue, wood floor finish, and serious debris. This grit of paper makes it go a lot faster then you would think. I use this technique to thickness highly figured woods that don't like to be planed as well.
 
#15 ·
I like gfadvm's idea.

Another thought is to get a used planer with a Byrd shelix head with rotatable insert cutters. After the nails are removed and checked with a metal detecter run the boards through to get rid of the glue / finish then rotate the inserts and give the boards a final pass with new the new edge of the inserts.
 
#16 ·
@ Gerry - 1×4???? Wow. That must have been pretty impressive lanes. These are just the 1×2s I seem to find in most places that are selling bowling lane wood (Craig's List) and most local lanes.

As for the veneer…it is a 1/4" sheet wood with a plastic veneer glued to it. Some lanes are stripped to the original 1×2s but still have remnants of the glue on them.

Code:
PaulLL - here in Houston
HD they have the 735 for $629 and that includes the extra set of knives and out feed tables.

gfadvm seems to have the most logical idea. I will get the 24-50 grit sandpaper and prep them first before I go ruining any planing blades.

Thanks guys.
 
#18 ·
I used a Makita 12" planner for a number of years and really liked it. My friends with a Dewalt planer loved mine. I never used anything else until I got a industrial quality SCMI (MiniMax) unit.

Beyond that I would suggest that you really need something that can accommodate carbide knives. That is about the only thing that holds up to the glue. Once the HSS blades get dulled by the glue that is it, you are done. It, unfortunately, won't take long and that will be get costly. I don't know if the home builder hobby grade planers these days have carbide knives, that would be worth checking into. Tersa cutter head equipped planers have them as an option but will cost about $90 each.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
For less money then the DW735 I bought a used made in the USA Delta DC-33 13" planer. 2 hp, 240v. If your just trying to salvage the wood and reuse it I'm thinking that your going to have more time and money into it then the wood is worth. planing glue, and or finishes, plus an occasional hidden nail sounds like alot of frustration and expense headed your way. I'd also choose a sander over a planer. And if thats the case perhaps sanding the lane before tearing it up might be easier.
 
#21 ·
A couple of thoughts…

Dewalt 735 is a great planer. Not the tool for this job involving alley boards, but a great tool for so many other tasks.

Sanding is an awesome idea for a first step re: the glue and finish on these alley boards. In my arsenal I'd tee up the disk on my belt/ disc combo. Or maybe the belt w 80 grit. And if I didn't have this tool I'd use whatever sander was handy. Regardless, this will be a lot of work so decide if the joy and/or nostalgia served by sinking hours into these boards will be worth it. I'm a frugal SOB as well as sentimental about some things, so I can imagine myself taking on this project, albeit not all at once. Oh, planing the stripped boards will probably be in order, but this is a follow-up to aforementioned sanding.

Chiseling? Yikes, I mean hell no if there's a sander handy. If no sander and you still want the boards then break out the chisels but also the stones and the strop.

Why is glue in tongue/ grooves a problem? Unless you wii reuse this as flooring you'll just rip the long edges of these boards, right? Get rid of the nails, but otherwise plan to give your boards a haircut and thereby remove the extraneous/ irrelevant edges from there original life.

Good luck. Please, follow up once you've reclaimed some of the boards and tell us how it went.
 
#24 ·
I am going to try sanding them first. I have considered ripping them to remove the tongue, as that would seem a lot more sensible, but first let me sand them.

I will post some pics later today so you can see what I am dealing with BEFORE and then after I sand them. Hopefully, it will prove to be a worthwhile investment (my time that is) into this project.

If not, I may look for the segment (recall I have 8 of them stacked on the ground) that appears to be in the best condition and cut it to size and sand both sides and use that as my workbench top (without taking them apart).

Updates to follow…

Caleb- where in Katy are you? We are practically neighbors!
 
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