Hey! I just started shaping boards and did one by hand with a surform. Im on my second and im thinking about getting a planer. What do they do to convert the planers? I saw there was one in Home Depot for 60 bucks. Thats more in my price range for now. Do I need to do anything to it to make it work on foam? That hard coat of foam really is a job to get off with a surform. Thanks Devin
Hey! I just started shaping boards and did one by hand with a surform. Im > on my second and im thinking about getting a planer. What do they do to > convert the planers? I saw there was one in Home Depot for 60 bucks. Thats > more in my price range for now. Do I need to do anything to it to make it > work on foam? That hard coat of foam really is a job to get off with a > surform.>>> Thanks>>> Devin Devin, I went thru the same thing youre going thru now. Shaped my first board with a surform, too much elbow grease. I then purchased an inexpensive Black and Decker planer for like 50 bucks. It did the job better than a surform for sure but couldnt take deep enough cuts. Id suggest you shell out the extra bucks for a Clark modified Hitachi. Youll skip the step of buying a regular planer and wanting the Hitachi. FD
Is it true that the modifications can be done by yourself? Fill the holes in the sole, smooth the edges. A problem will be the adjustable depth while shaping. Is this something you really use, or can you do without it? I haven’t shaped my first board, but I can get a second hand hitachi… Maybe other machines can be modified too? Martijn 
…don’t know how that picture came in… I posted that pic in another post… sorry
Devin,>>> I went thru the same thing youre going thru now. Shaped my first board > with a surform, too much elbow grease. I then purchased an inexpensive > Black and Decker planer for like 50 bucks. It did the job better than a > surform for sure but couldnt take deep enough cuts. Id suggest you shell > out the extra bucks for a Clark modified Hitachi. Youll skip the step of > buying a regular planer and wanting the Hitachi.>>> FD Ya, that makes sense. Ill probably get one of the clark foam ones then. Thanx for the advice.
I’ve done relatively few boards and never really found the need for the depth change on the fly feature. With a close tolerance blank, there is an argument that you could over shape a blank in a hurry. A sharp block plane with the correct setting will remove crust much easier than a surform - maybe you don’t even need an electric planer.
I’ve done relatively few boards and never really found the need for the > depth change on the fly feature. With a close tolerance blank, there is an > argument that you could over shape a blank in a hurry. A sharp block plane > with the correct setting will remove crust much easier than a surform - > maybe you don’t even need an electric planer. True That. I forgot to think of that for the hard outer covering. I’ll give that a try. Thanx - Dev