This is kind of a “thinking outside the box” question: One thing I’ve been contemplating is the difference between a normal block plane and an electric planer. It seems odd to me that the front metal pad moves up and down, as opposed to the blade actually moving up and down. When at full cut depth, the front pad is raised up, leaving the blade exposed, but the rear pad is in is original position, meaning that the two pads are not on the same level. This doesn’t seem logical to me in shaping a surfboard. It would make sense to me if you were planing the side of a door down, as you’d start with the front pad on the door and the blade and rear pad off. Then, as you moved the planer, it would cut the door and the rear pad would be on the newly cut surface while the front pad would be on the uncut surface. Once reaching the end of the cut, the front pad would not be touching anything and the back pad would be resting on the tip of the surface, with the surface cut at exactly the measured depth. So, how does that really work with a surfboard? If you set the planer on the top of the deck, with it adjusted to full cut, the front pad does not lie flush on the board! And, if you set the back pad flush, the blade will never touch the foam!!! I feel like I’m missing something. Thanks for any clarification and insight you can provide…
As the planer enters the blank, the blade must be exposed in order to cut. Thus the front platen must be higher than the blade. The rear platen should ride on the cut made by the blade, for stability at least. This way the tool rides flat on the material even though the front and rear platens are not in the same plane (their elevations are different). If you look at it closely, the carpenter’s plane can work at two angles of attack: one, only the rear edge of the carpenter plane’s front platen touches the work, OR two, the full face of the front platen, and the blade, only. The thinner depth of cut, and much greater stiffness of wood (plus tradition and other things I can’t think of just now) allow this to happen. Now let me pose a question of my own: when resetting sharpened blades on a planer, does anyone set the blades at a depth other than dead even with the rear platen?
Okay, for starters - The front shoe, as it’s called in some circles, rests on the surface to be cut. The rear rests on the surface that has been cut. This gives you a cut of a set depth, controlled by the difference between the front height and the back height. To take off X amount, you start with just the front shoe resting on the end of whatever you’re whittling. Right, now, think of the blades alone, hanging down underneath the body of the planer. First off, your depth control goes blooey. As you move along you’re doing fine until the rear of the plane hits the cut- whrrrrapp… instant gouge. Unlike the regular power plane, which goes along with the blades even with the rear shoe and can’t go below those. Second, how you gonna get off high spots? All you can make is gouges. Evenly skinning a blank? Nope. Starting at one end of the blank and taking off a clean cut? Can’t be done. The thing I look for in power tools, and as I’m a boat carpenter most of the time I use quite a few, is controllability. Now, there is an interesting tool called a compass plane, used for doing the inside of curved surfaces. It has flexible steel spring surfaces both in front of and behind the blade. And I have seen power versions… doc…
are the compass planes small enough to work on surfboards? where might i find some info? sounds like a nice tool for shortboards…
I have a curved bottom planer. It is heavy!!! It is made for boat building----the concept is a sound one for surfboards, but the weight of it resting on the blank bends the blank… A light weight curved bottom woul work swiftly…and I have one… As for the front and rear shoes being at the same height. Imagine a router…the cutting tool is always below the base plate…rest my case. This stuff is for the more advanced shapers… However, having the rear shoe rest on what was cut is a good control for both doors and surfboards.
I’d imagine anybody with access to a clever machinist could take the guts out of a cheap ( Harbor Freight or equivalent) power plane and put it in an aluminum body and make themselves a rather nice powered compass plane…and you’d have to, as the Virutex powered compass plane is over three hundred bucks ( amazing that anybody makes one - see http://www.tapeease.com/virutex1.htm ) , or elswe whittle something out of wood. Speaking of which, has anybody tried the Virutex CE24E big plane? As far as I can see, it’s the only all metal power plane made these days, as the Skil 100 and the Porter Cable/Rockwell 653 are extinct. doc…
doc and others, thanks for your responses. So, everything I read makes sense, but that leads me to another question. Do you always start a pass with the front shoe on the board (the tail for example), and the rear shoe (and blade) off the board? I thought that sometimes you might want to start your pass at 12" from the tail (for less tail rocker, etc) and finish your pass at 12" or so from the tip of the nose, rather than making a pass from tip of tail to tip of nose… Maybe this is where the depth knob plays it’s important role? What would happen if you started on the edge of the tail with a half depth cut, then when you got to 16" inches in you went to full depth? Wouldn’t the front shoe be off the board altogether, with the rear shoe being flush on the board, in the half depth cut just made? Or, would/could you then tip the planer towards the front shoe, so that only the front edge of the front shoe and the front edge of the rear shoe are touching the blank… That’s really the scenario that I’m picturing - it doesn’t see like it would have much control like that. Looking forward to learning more…
Wayull…this is where theory and practice have kind of a train wreck. On a fairly incompressible material, like say white oak, cranking up the front shoe isn’t gonna do anything if a healthy down pressure is maintained on the rear handle… however, foam is compressible, so cranking up the front shoe while maintaining down pressure on the planer is gonna do a gradual down/deeper cut. Prolly more pronounced/easier on a shorter planer like the Harbor Freight ( which I use for scrub-plane work) than on a longer planer like the Skil 100 or the Rockwell 653. Another trick from the boat biz - to get a flat-ish surface; Make one cut ( blue in the incredibly crude dwg ) , then for subsequent cuts swing the planer so that the rear shoe is on the cut and the front shoe and cutter aint ( yellow in said incredibly crude dwg ). hope that’s of some use doc 
The blades are set flush with the rear shoe at the peak of the ark of the drum.As for the big Virutex door planer the front shoe is too large for surfboard shaping (it may have merit for wood boards).The compass plane is nice but you can accomplish the same thing by skewing the planer as you cut.All of the fine details should be cleaned up with sharp hand planes.How sharp?The hand plane blades should shave hair.Electric planer blades don’t need this degree of honing.Lots of stuff in the archives on these subjects. R. Brucker
You should actually set the blades slightly below the rear shoe of the electric plane. This prevents the planer from riding up and out of the cut and results in the most consist depth along the length of the cut, especially on the stringer. Many block or smooth planes have unadjustable front and rear shoes, and the blade is narrower than the shoes so you will find a small “side shoes” on each side of the blade. Contrast this with a power plane where the cutter is at least as wide as the front and rear shoes. The two tools work differently. One shaves and the other chops. A good planer for working on a surfboard will be short with a quick acting depth knob (like the old Bosch 135). Make sure that there is rabbeting clearance on each side of the cutter or the planer will rock over when one side of the housing rides on the cut line. Clark foam used to sell a modified Hitachi planer and one of the mods was they would grind down the housing on the non-rabbetting side to eliminate chine walking on the cut ridge.