Also- while the standard front shoe is straight and paralell with the rear shoe ( for planing wood flat ) nobody says it would have to be for a surfboard planer. Say, something with a bit of upward curve to it?
this is kinda fun…
doc…
Doc, as a boat-builder, you have most likely heard of/used this one:
Were you thinking something like that? Maybe not as much “rocker” or -why not- adjustable curve? It can easily be done.
The funny thing is I’ve been working on such a project together with an engineers school for some months. We have come up with a “cahier des charges” (what’s that in English? Something like “desired features list”?) that I’d be glad to translate and submit to all of you.
Wow - a lot of interesting stuff, which maybe I’ll take on in order; with a crude doodle
Handles - adjustable, at least the rear one, for angle. The way to do this might be with a couple of screws and one of those radially toothed setups like you see on outside floodlight bases.
Depth adjustment- I like that motorcycle type setup on the Festool, Pete, As is, it’s pretty neat, that tool, and has so many nice features. Though it blows away my budget.
Compass plane like front shoe, can be curved or straight-and if somebody was clever about it, could be on-the-fly too, not unlike the segmented shifter grips on some bicycles, such that both depth of cut and front shoe curve could be done - maybe a rack and pinion deal of some sort? Balsa, I’d be fascinated by the “cahier des charges”.
And, PlusOne - a screwy idea, maybe you could think about it; would Gordon Clark be interested in this project? I suspect he’d like to stay involved, y’know, though on a smaller scale, without having to deal wiith platoons of lawyers. Granted, it’s a screwy idea.
Anyhow- crude doodle, what you might call a ‘notional sketch’…
This has been rattling around in my head since the original post, so I finally took the time to make a prototype.
I like this planer because it has an aluminum body and not plastic. It’s out of production, but got this one on ebay for $11! and a new set of blades for $6.95
Found a cam tensioner like on your bike wheels with enough travel to move the front shoe.
i read a thread a few weeks back I think it was at foam ez that clarcks machinest was stiil popping out planners the guys e-mail was up so you could contact him…im looking no for where i exactly saw it.
yeah! tell me about it ,I modified a dewalt planner it was 190.00 $ seems to be a bit heavier than the hitachi …ive seen the unmodified hitachis for 80 bux at lowes.
This is where those forgotten skills samiam and I were talking about come to the fore:
investment casting a planer body to accept a cheapo motor and blade assembly with minimal futzing, machining it so the body would take a curvable front shoe like the Virutex curve planers and a rack-and-pinion rig to elevate it on demand. Hell, even throw in a set of Pachmayer grips to get that real nice feeling.
The Festool probably uses a similar rack-and-pinion rig to elevate the front shoe, changing that to either a worm gear and rack setup ( for those who like twisting knobs…that would be you, chipper) or a lever setup, thumb operated ( like a motorcycle lever off the back of the forward grip) wouldn’t be technically difficult…
The other day in my local shop i saw this Festool planer: Festool HL 850 EB-Plus. You can adjust the depth on the fly, but you need more than 1/4 turn to go from minimum to maximum depth, but i think it’s worth a look.
hey Ken …I removed all safety switches,trigger lock,ran the power cord up the handle it was coming strait out the back,filled the grooves in the base with 5min epoxy,slightly rounded the base so it slides smooth not to much though or it becomes tippy,exaust i left alone for now …as for the handle and depth guage,when i get a new planner im going to mess with the old one incase my expiriments are ireversable…its a little more money than the hitachi but the stock home depot ones I have seen seem a little flimsy compared to the dewalt in my opinion . also own a clark mod hitachi which is the only mod. you can buy new meant for shaping as we all no(BIG BUCKS) guess it depends on how much shaping you use it for,Me I skin and clean up my out line,then the rest hand tools…im in no hurry!
If you talking about a motorcycle clutch/front brake type pull, I tried a version that way. The trouble is that you always have to pull the handle if you use spring tension to bring the shoe back down to no cut position. In other words, you can’t let go of the front handle and it gets tiring. So I switched to the cam lever which will stay in place especially when the cam is fully locked forward (maximum depth) but also at intermediate depths. I’m working on the ergonomics of operating the cam lever with just the thumb, but the spring is pretty stiff so might have to change that. It also means moving the cam down toward the middle of the handle. I’ll post pictures of prototype 2 soon.
By the way, the mods on the front shoe are totally reversible.
