If you are someone who is engaged in woodwork, you already know the importance of dimensions. The length, height and width of the wooden planks used have to be accurate in order to get the final product ready. However, one should remember that woodwork involves a lot of different and dangerous equipment. If one is not careful while working, it may cause some serious injuries.
One such machine for woodwork is the Thickness Planer. This is a blade and roller machine that helps cut a plain piece of wood into different thicknesses. In case of a slip of the hand or even the wood slipping off the table, the consequences can be terrifying for the worker. This is why it is necessary to have a few tricks up one’s sleeves when working with a planer. And if you are interested to have all your machines checked and protected, contact this trusted machine guarding solutions company.
Let us see some simple safety tricks a handyman should be aware of while using a safety planer in the workshop.
5. Hacks for Using a Thickness Planer
- Check the table’s condition: When the planer has to slide between the wooden planks in constant motion, there should be a smooth platform underneath. It is important to clean the table with mineral spirits. This helps to avoid any kind of dust, splinters, etc. It can also help to use wax polish to clean the surface of the table.
- Clean the machine regularly: The importance of cleaning all sorts of cutting devices can never be highlighted enough. When you are purchasing a thickness planer, there are a few things about its cleaning you should always keep track of:
- Blade maintenance – Maintaining the blade, changing it and cleaning it whenever needed
- Clean brushes – Because the motor brushes work the entire time that the planer is working, they need to be cleaned out or changed regularly.
- Clean screws – Elevation screws are the screws that help to maintain the elevation of the table. These might get rusty over time and have to be cleaned by spirit or even compressed air to keep them working.
- Avoid the sawdust – Sawdust can be a huge hazard when you are working around machines. The sparks from the machines can fly around and actually start fires if you do not clean out the sawdust off the table while working.
- Cleaning the rollers: The smooth function of the thickness planer depends on how the rollers of the machine work. The rollers pull the blade that cuts through the wood. This is also a reason one should clean the rollers after daily use, for safety. When the wooden pieces get stuck in the rollers, they can cause hindrance to the blades and even burn the sides. These burns can cause the blade to slip and cause injuries. Using mineral spirits can actually help a lot in cleaning the rollers of the planers.
- Attach pieces of Make it easy: Ordinary thickness planers cannot handle very small pieces of wood. In order to get around this limitation, there is a small hack that a handyman can use. Two pieces of wood can be taped together (normally using double-sided tape) to make a single long plank of wood. Once the whole thing is planed using the machine, the tapes can be removed. It serves the purpose of getting two pieces planed at the same time.
- Confirm that one side is smooth: A good trick for using a thickness planer is to have one side of the wooden plank smooth before using it. The part of the wood that is on the table is smooth, it does not let the plank move while the planer is being used. Otherwise, the rough side of the wood may slide off the table and cause an accident. It also has a chance of cutting off the wood in the wrong lengths and patterns.
Make Safety A Priority
Going through ahsaws.com, there are many options that keep the safety of any handyman in mind. So this can be a good site to be going through before purchasing a thickness planer.
Being a handyman is not an easy job, so safety should always be a top priority. It is always a good idea to have an idea about some hacks to make the process easier and more secure. Make sure to take care of the necessary precautions before you get too engrossed in your work!