Planar attachment for Radial Arm
Ron Giordano
can be put on a radial arm saw (or drill press) to 'convert' it to a
planar. Is this just a toy, or does it actually work??? I am only
interested in planing pieces up to 5" wide and 1 ft long.
Thanks..
Ron
R. L. Lesnick
>
> Does anyone have any experience with the surface planar
Ron,
I have used the Craftsman planer on my 10" RAS with good results. You
must make sure that the blade is true before attempting using the planer.
Also you can (should) only take a small bite at a time. It's good to
have a vacuum system also as wood flies all over.
Bob
--
R.L. Lesnick
Gamma Investigative Research
gamm...@ix.netcom.com
www.pimall.com/gamma/gamma.html
R. L. Lesnick
Forgot to mention that I used it on some pretty hard woods. If you only
have to take off a little why not use a dado?
Tom Ellis
Yes, these work, and are appropriate for the size you're talking
about. But it would be much easier to hand-plane.
--
Tom Ellis Life is a barbie doll beyond my ken
Personal post
Craig Wachob
> Does anyone have any experience with the surface planar attachment that
> can be put on a radial arm saw (or drill press) to 'convert' it to a
> planar. Is this just a toy, or does it actually work??? I am only
> interested in planing pieces up to 5" wide and 1 ft long.
This attachment really scared me. I like using the RAS, but I won't use
this (or rip a groove with a dado head) again. I ended up throwing the
planar head thing away so that I wouldn't be tempted to try it again.
Good luck,
Craig
Jtcurtis
attachment? Were you using the circular moulding head guard?
Ron, I think that a pice that's only 12 inches long is too short to mill
safely by almost any kind of machine. Unless I had an awful lot of these
pieces to mill, I would use hand planes.
Jim
Tom Ellis
You do have to take the normal safety precautions - use feather
boards and a push stick, and set the cutter to cut the highest
part of the board, rather than the leading part. And you have to
be careful not to try and cut too much at one time. Given these
steps, I have not found the tool to be dangerous.
Tom Ellis
I would hand plane as well. But 12" seems okay to me. The
cutter attachment is only about 4" dia. Using hold downs or
featherboards and a push stick you should be able to safely
control things.
chuck....@ntpcug.org
>Does anyone have any experience with the surface planar attachment that
>can be put on a radial arm saw (or drill press) to 'convert' it to a
>planar. Is this just a toy, or does it actually work??? I am only
>interested in planing pieces up to 5" wide and 1 ft long.
From my and two friends experiences, I can assure you this is _not_ a
toy. It is dangerous as anything. I lost part of a finger as did one
friend. The other friend, after examining how the planer was supposed
to work, simply put it away forever.
In my case, I was using the tool exactly as described and was about half
way through a 48" oak 1X2 when the tool threw the board and dragged my
hand as well before I could react. I ended up taking the board to a
shop to have it planed ($5.00) while my hand was in a BIG bandage.
If you don't already own one of those rotary planers, don't buy one. If
you do and it's unused, take it back. If it's already been used, hide
it or get rid of it altogether.
My $.02
Chuck
---
þ SLMR 2.1a þ What are you doing?!? The message is over. GO AWAY!
Larry Lohkamp
>Ron Giordano <rgio...@why.tel> wrote:
>>Does anyone have any experience with the surface planar attachment that
>>can be put on a radial arm saw (or drill press) to 'convert' it to a
>>planar. Is this just a toy, or does it actually work??? I am only
>>interested in planing pieces up to 5" wide and 1 ft long.
>Yes, these work, and are appropriate for the size you're talking
>about. But it would be much easier to hand-plane.
>--
>Tom Ellis Life is a barbie doll beyond my ken
>Personal post
I used one fror about 2 years. I now have a bench top jointer
because I fell that the jointer is superior in both performance
and and safety. Concider the following if you intend to use one.
1. The table of your radial arm saw must be in excellent
condition. Concider making a full length aux table that is smooth
and un-warped.
2. The spindle must be carefully adjusted so that it is
perpendicular to the table.
3. Some of these attachments do not recomend using a guard.
Don't believe them. Make a guard if you have too. You should
also hold the work piece against the back fence with a pair
of feather boards.
4. Do not overload the tool. Most of these attachments are not
ment to cut much more than an inch wide path. Do wider boards
in multiple passes. Don't even think about cutting more than about
1/32" deep on hard woods.
5. Do not use the tool on exotic woods that are either very hard,
or prone to shatter.
Larry Lohkamp
Just a wood butcher at heart
Chris Palmer
>>> Does anyone have any experience with the surface planar attachment that
>>> can be put on a radial arm saw (or drill press) to 'convert' it to a
>>> planar. Is this just a toy, or does it actually work??? I am only
>>> interested in planing pieces up to 5" wide and 1 ft long.
I have one of these, but was never able to make it work properly. You
can only plane a strip about an inch wide at a time, and then must
move the head out and then plane another strip.
This would be fine, if slow, but... unless your radial arm saw is
perfectly aligned with the cutting table, the planing stripes will not
be level with each other, and you will have a sort of washboard
effect. On my RAS (the Delta 10") there is no adjustment on the yoke
to align the head perfectly to the table, the table must be adjusted.
It is almost impossible (so far as I am concerned ) to align an RAS
accurately enough to use this planer. (This particular setting - with
the saw blade horizontal - does not affect any normal operation of
the saw.)
Also, the planer is basically a fly cutter, like that used in
metaworking. and it leaves circular scratches just like you see on
machined metal parts.
The planer seemed safe - I never had it grab work - but then, I never
ran small boards through it. 5" by 1' boards are very small, and it is
difficult to safely plane them. If you can. plane large boards and cut
them up later. Otherwise, make some sort of carrier that ties the
small board to a larger board and run it through a planer.
Here's another idea. Are your boards mostly the same size? Make a
frame of wide boards that fits around your board, and use this frame
to support a router. Then use the router and a large straight bit to
plane the board. You may have to make an auxiliary base for the router
to span the frame.
Hope some of this helps.