Using a Planer

General Discussion
1

I’ve shaped a few surfboards and find it difficult to learn how to use a planer. I like the “practice makes perfect” credo but do have some questions as someone with little experience. I haven’t been taught and don’t know of any books or videos that explain it in detail. I saw JC’s video Shaping 101 and he mows the blanks so fast it’s difficult to understand how he is using it. he doesn’t get into much depth about using the planer either. Also, he makes passes perpendicular to the stringer and carves out the nose keeping the thickness the same from one rail edge to the other.

I’ve found it difficult for me to make nice even passes when I am stripping a blank. I often accidentally adjust the blade depth and the project spirals down the drain as I try to correct it. Any tips on how to skin a blank with a power planer (I use the new Hitachi), how to correct small mistakes (raised lines of foam on the blank from starting too far past the previous pass). Do you open and close the depth adjustment as you make passes, to tweak the rocker? Any other useful tips for using a planer (concaves, rails, etc) would help.

2

Hey rookie,

Put me on the list too! I’m completely in the dark about how to use one too.

When I’m shaping it’s all by hand cause no one has ever taught me how to approach using one.

Mahalo, Rich

3

Hi mate,

things I’ve learnt (and I’m only just ahead of you)

  • Don’t worry about the ridges - you’ll be surprised just how straight it is when you sand it

  • Take very shallow cuts and don’t go too fast - watch Jim Phillip’s shaping DVD from Damascus Productions for more tips. these two came from him

  • Look at the Dave Parmenter shaping clip. an abridged version can be found in the archives (though i can never find anything in there). the full clip is on the Surfline site, go to surfology and it is called “Hands, Brains and Soul”. If you can work out how to download each step and SAVE them, please let me know. His written instructions accompanying the video can be downloaded and are great.

  • I have trouble planing the deck because of the curved surface. i actually adjust the cut to be deeper than the bottom, but I’ve still got a lot of work to do here to become remotely competent. Maybe someone else might have tips for both of us.

  • I never adjust the blade as I cut. I’m concentrating full on just trying to make steady even cuts. JC says he adjusts the depth and I’ve read on Swaylocks before someone saying those SKIL planers could be adjusted but that is way beyond me.

Hope that helps

4

I echo the Master Shaper video. If for no other reason it lets you see how bad you really are. I am working with eps foam and I’ve found it best to shape to a rough shape then start working with 60 grit sand paper. It really cleans up nicely (my planning is so bad I just had to laugh)

5

I’m not a pro but here’s a few suggestions for the power planer:

  1. learn how to keep the depth adjustment steady while you’re learning. Focus on keeping your front hand pointing the same direction relative to the planer (not the board).

  2. Don’t try to cut with the planer perpendicular to the stringer. You’ll just mangle stuff. Unless you have a grit drum, which you almost certainly don’t.

  3. You can angle the planer (relative to the stringer) to some degree but don’t overdo it when you’re learning. Big mistakes will happen fast.

  4. Angling the planer (relative to the stringer) can allow you to keep the tail of the planer on areas you’ve already planed - this helps when skinning the blank to keep all your cuts the same depth (although even more important is depth knob control with your front hand)

  5. I find it easier to skin the blank with a fairly full cut (particularly on the bottom of the board), that way you get through the crust all in one fell swoop.

  6. Watch the surface coming out from under the back of the planer. You will see any mistakes much sooner. e.g. if you’re going too fast and ripping the foam, you’ll see it almost immediately. Slow down if this happens!

  7. wear ear protection but listen to the sound the planer is making. You’ll learn to recognize the tone of a good cut.

  8. I adjust depth of cut when doing rail bands, particularly the farthest-outside ones. Because of the foil of the board (thin nose & tail, thick center) you can make deeper cuts in the middle of the board than at the ends. Thus, when cutting rail bands, and with the planer at an angle (relative to the floor) start with the smallest (zero) cut, but while walking forwards, gradually increase the depth of cut so that you’re cutting more in the middle of the board – then reverse as you approach the other end of the board.

  9. similar technique can apply to depth of cut for concaves, etc. But it’s always safe & sane to use multiple shallow cuts rather than one deep one – unless you need to remove a huge amount of foam for some reason - maybe recycling a broken board or ???

  10. increase depth of cut to skin blanks on the deck as you approach the nose – boards with lots of nose rocker require this, as well as turning the planer at an angle to the stringer. Careful here, easy to make deep gouges or remove the nose altogether…

hope that makes sense, others probably do it differently.

6

Hi Keith,

re point 8.

I have adopted the (prob lousy) technique of only making a pass or two on the rails near the tail (to skin it) and then bringing my planer down about 18 inches up . I then proceed until I feel it’s not starting to lose its cut and start to angle the planer which allows me to go further up the rail to the nose. I might try your way next go - the rails take me ages. Do you know how others approach them? I’ve seen JP’s and JC’s but am waiting to see JP’s shortboard DVD as JC’s method doesn’t really work for me.

7

not sure I follow your post…there’s no harm in being tentative while you’re learning - particularly in the thinner areas of the board – but sooner or later it makes sense to get brave and use your planer for what it’s good for. And that depth adjustment is there for a reason. Try to find a reject blank or strip a broken board, then go to town on it, make rails 5 different ways and see what works for you…

Yes, I’m looking forward to Jim Phillips next installment myself.

8

It takes a lot of practice.Blanks are expensive.Go get a cheap sheet of foam insulation and us it for a test dummy.Learn how to plane both ways (nose to tail…tail to nose).If you have a Clark Hitachi tape the lever so it is fixed at a set depth until you get the hang of it and can plane a flat surface.You don’t really need to change the depth until you get in to railbands or foiling. RB

9

case in point …my first 14 boards I basically avoided using the electric planer . I used a surform , a sanding block , gauze , hand held sandpaper …everything except my planer . Go figure.

Doing the bonzer , I finally decided to bite the bullet . Used [Hicksy’s] electric planer [I was at his place]. We marked out lines for the ‘rail bands’ [as opposed to J.C.'s video’s ‘dots’, we joined the dots… and got LINES to follow ! Easier to see, too, with our bad eyesight !]

Although the rails were nowhere near as perfect as John’s boards [about 15,000 boards difference, perhaps ?!] I was still fairly happy because : -

  1. overcame my fear of planers [following having one ‘blow up’ in my hand, a few years back]

  2. quicker result

  3. it actually came out fairly even , following the lines , and counting the strokes…

On the upcoming thinned [9’11" , reduced to] 8’ windsurfer blank, in terms of reducing the thickness quickly …well…what can I say ?

… I used the planer, and will for the rails, too. [At present , the blank has gone from nearly 6" thick to just on 3" thick at the thickest point [thinner in the nose and tail , already ]

  ben
10

Rookie,

The biggest problem I had with the clark Modified was the depth adjustment lever. I found it very awkward to get precision movement out of it.

So what I did was to take Rubber Pipe insulation and craft a new handle on the depth adjustment lever. Now instead of the that ridiculous little marble at the end, i have a what looks like a reversed rudder about 1.5 inches thick and andbout 2 inches tall. This helped me tremendously with working the depth adjustment. As soon as i can I will post a pic of what i am talking about. Though I do think that you can buy different hadles for the depth adjustment knob commercially. But i just made my own cause it seemed very easy to do.

Here’s some advice on better ways to think about using the planer:

Shaping with the planer requires that you have both hands, arms, and lower body moving harmoniously in unison to ensure steady precision passes. This is something that I feel no one realy talks about. You get your balance from your center of gravity…your knees through your hips. This is where all physicall activity stems from and something that you need to kep in mind when shaping. Without proper body positioning, you will not have good balance and not be able to fully utilize your upper body to shape.

I know this will sound crazy but one activity that I found had an amazing benefit to shaping is, oddly enough, ballroom dancing. Bear with me peeps. If you took a look at the male position in ballroom dancing, the movement is actually quite similiar to taking long passes with the planer. Your arms and shoulder are heald very steady, whilst your lower body is constantly moving and shifting. We can see this unison of upper and lower body and how both need to work in unison to accomplish the task, in this case, not stepping over your girlie and making a general ass of one’ self.

I’m not sayig that you run out and take some ballroom lessons, but if you got a girlie that you want to impress, nothing, I mean nothing will make her swoon more than taking her dancing, and at the same time you can just pretend that you are shaping beautiful boards.

And lastly the best thing that you can do is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Go buy the largest, worst reject blank that you can find and have at it. Don’t worry about shaping anything. In fact forget that you are even shaping. Just take the planer and spend a few hours a day getting the feel for how it works.

Consider it cross traiing for shaping. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE PLANER. Concentrate on left hand posiion on the depth knob. Practive taking varied length passes, and then repeat, only this time continuolsy adjusting the depth knob deeper until max depth, then slowly release the depth knob as you end each pass. Draw lines on the board that tell you where to begin each pass, where to start the depth adjustment, where to end the deepenst part of the depth, and then where to end the pass. Same thing with rail passes.

I would say to do this excercise before you shape another board. That , a new depth adjustment knob, and some dancing lessons will have you much more familiar with the planer, and in no time you will become very profficient with it.

Drew

11

strip old boards for practice. Make friends, help out, watch until they allow you to ask a question.

It takes a lot of time, skill,and desire.

Keep at it…it will pay off.

Also, the tool itself makes a lot of difference. Sharpness and proper adjustment are key. It’s easy for planners to be out of adjustment in anumber of ways.

12

Hats off to Drew for making a valid point.You are for sure using your whole body when shaping a board.When I turn rail bands my upper body,arms,hands are locked at a certain angle.The forward motion you need is accomplished by your legs.As some guys say"It’s like making baby crossteps on a longboard".You young beginners need to keep in mind that it takes a long time to master the planer so don’t get discouraged.Jim Phillips tought me to shape and it took me around 40 boards before I had it wired(or so I thought)…and that was with him looking over my shoulder correcting my moves.I was lucky. RB

13

…all the guys talked rigth, but you need a lot of shapes to understand a power planer…before i buyed the clark hitachi, i used the hitachi F 30 without any modification, i shaped a lot of boards with this planer, and i learned the harded way…, but when i pick up the modified, was like a children game…

…also you NEED to understand the design you ll shape…that´s really important!!

14

I had the same problems using the planer on my first few boards. Not that I am anywhere near the level of a pro, my results improved once I watched a few pros shape. It is amazing how quickly you can learn little techniques by just sitting and watching (and listening to!!) a pro shaper.

For one, I noticed that a lot of guys “walk the board” (even a shortboard) instead of planting their feet and using only their upper body to move the planer. It is almost as if the arms and upper body hold the planer like a robot arm while the legs (and NOT the arms) move the planer down the length of the board. I suppose there are many ways to skin the cat but it greatly improved my results once I started “walking the board” and quit standing in one place and reaching all over the board.

Another thing that helped was listening to the planer, which has already been mentioned.

Finally, I think that pure practice and simply overcoming the “fear” of using the planer was a huge step in improving results. Whereas I used to get an adrenalie rush when I fired up the planer, which would cause me to get amped up and rush the process, I am now more comfortable using it so I tend to be more methodical and take my time.

When it comes to using the 1/2", 1.5 H.P. router to cut out the board, however, I have definitely NOT become comfortable and relaxed. Pucker factor of 10 on a scale of 10 when that thing spools up to its full 30 bazillion rpm’s, but that is another story in and of itself…

15

Building a control knob that fit my hand made the planer more comfy. I put some soft packing foam between the front foot and the body of the planer, so if I let go of the depth knob, the cut returns to zero. Another thing that helps me is to keep my pinky finger and next to pinky finger of my left hand sitting on top of the planer to help as a reference point and stabilizer for the rest of my hand as the planer is walked along the board.

16

actually there is a guy named ANDREW LOSKA shaping in MIDGET SMITHS shaping room right on a live wb cam. it is kinda a birds eye view. check it out - usedsurf.com

17

Got a makita planer - good brand but never heard of shapers using them. I feel comfortable planing the bottom. The planer does have a dial adjustment so I’ll have to give it a go as it’s the rails in particular that give me the most grief

18

Yeah i didn’t explain it real well. As I replied to Cleanlines, I have a Makita with a dial adjustment. I need to find a broken board, actually I’ve prob got an oldie in the garage I can use and have a go at diff ways. The rails I’ve done do turn out okay but it takes me ages and lots of hand sanding rather than doing the bulk with the planer and finishing with the screen and sandpaper.

19

I wouldn’t hack up any real board just to practice with the planer. Just go to Home Depot and get the thickest EPS or XPS they have, $14. I’d say 2" minimum.

Cut it into 2’ wide pieces and then template it. Thin the nose & tail so you get the idea of cutting deeper rail bands in the middle. The thinning will give good practice too. That one piece will give you as much shaping practice as 2 boards, for $14. Heck, do 10 if you want, 5 sheets of EPS is cheaper than one Clark blank + shipping…

20

All good tips. It’s important to have your shaping racks set at the proper height, too. Not too low, not too high! I

wound up overshaping plenty when first starting out and even burned one or two blanks. The Skil 100 has a notched plate that a bump in the adjustable slide runs along to vary depth. The pro guys would bend it up so the bump didn’t even touch the notch and swung freely. Beginners could bend it slightly, so it still had some resistance to it. The Clark-modified Hitachi adjustment knob swings pretty loose. I like it like that because it allows an easier adjustment on the fly. But my son wound a rubber band around its base to stiffen it up until he became more comfortable with it. And definitly watch as many experienced guys as you can. You’ll learn tips you never would pick up as a beginner. And watching a pro will show you the way not to do certain things- otherwise you may keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. After that, it just takes time and practice! Good thing there are cheaper foam alternatives these days!