planers

[Farrell]

Are you thinking an electric planer? What kind of cap material do you intend 
to use - solid - laminated - and if laminated, how thin do you intend to 
make the laminations?

I'm using laminated caps, and I prefer to not plane the caps for final 
bridge height - I plane the root to set downbearing. I plane the bridge root 
with a hand plane. Works great. I have been making the laminations in my 
laminated caps about 2 mm thick - as thin as my Dewalt 12-1/2" electric 
planer will possibly go (and that took some doing). But I wish to make 
thinner laminations and I will be doing that with a drum sander.

My Dewalt electric planer I would imagine is typical of most that size. It 
has two knives. Blade changes are not difficult, but sharpening them takes a 
while. It's fairly cheap, has been reliable. A set of new resharpenable 
blades costs about $40. Below is a link to my planer.
http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Tools-Benchtop-Planers_12i-DeWalt-Dewalt_Dw733__Heavy-Duty_12-1_2_Portable_Thickness_Planer/display_~full_specs

However, if I were to do it again, I would spend another $100 and get their 
three-knife planer
http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=5934  A set of 
these knives cost about $40 also, but are reversable, so they would last 
about three times as long as mine.

Or, spend another $100 and get their 13-inch planer which I am not familiar 
with, but can only assume it is another full step up.
http://www.tools-plus.com/d-wdw735.html  or 
http://www.dewalt.com/us/articles/press_release.asp?Site=woodworking&ID=972

Or, get a good hand plane, plane your bridge roots for downbearing and use 
my laminated caps!
http://www.farrellpiano.com/bridge.htm

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
>I need to buy a planer mostly for bridge work--preparing cap material and
> planing bridges prior to notching and attaching to the soundboard.  Not
> heavy use but I need something accurate with easy to change blades and not
> too expensive.  Anybody have anything they really like?
>
> David Love