What Is A Wood Planer And How Does It Work?

Simply put, a wood planer is a woodworking tool, which can be used for producing boards of even thickness that also happen to be totally flat on either side. While the traditional wood planer was more of a handheld tool, the modern power planers come with a planing platform for quick and accurate thickness adjustments and can be controlled either manually or electronically.

Basically, what you do is first set the cut depth either by adjusting the cutter head/drum or the planing platform, and switch on the machine. Then, as you feed a board through the machine, it is carried forward by the in-feed roller and placed under the fast spinning blades of the cutter drum. From the other end, the out feed roller systematically moves the completed section of the board out of the machine and thus a smooth and consistent reduction in thickness is achieved across the board in no time.



Though a wood planer proves to be a handy tool for woodworks, it is not something that you can start working with right away. When planers are operated by inexperienced personnel, they result in tear outs, snipes and inclined planes on the board’s surface, all of which will only increase the work duration and at to the total cost of a project. Therefore, take the time to properly understand the operational aspects of this machine and practice what you have learned with unused boards in your workshop before you actually start using it for a new woodworking project.