Power Hand Planer

[dkennedy]

I am getting ready to build a pavilion next to my pool. I love the look of timber construction, but really don’t have the time or really good crane to build and lift the timber constructs… so I’m going to build it out of 2x construction lumber laminated together for 12x6 and 8x4 pieces (done in place).

I want the edges nice and square so that when I lay in 2 or 3 or 4 pieces of 2x next to each other I can get square, even edges. Normally when I do this stuff I use my plane/jointer or hand tools… but I am going to be working with 12’ to 24’ pine construction lumber and my normal methods are not practical. I ran across a discussion of using power hand planers and wondered if anyone had any experience using them with construction lumber in this type application. This is not furniture construction so absolute accuracy is not required, but I would like to keep things looking good. I don’t mind doing any really fine finishing by hand, but it seems to me that the bulk of this needs to be done with the help of electrons.

Hoping someone has some experience or advice. Thanks in advance

[BuilderBill]

Gang-lamming 2x material on-site to make 4x8/6x12s is a lot of work, probably more than you might think. Gluing up a 24' 6x12 out of 7 2x6s? How many clamps do you have? How many trips up and down the scaffold is it going to take for each rafter? And what's it going to look like when you're done?

Have you considered using a lighter wood like red cedar? If you have a buddy or four to help long beams/rafters in dry cedar are (relatively) easy to handle.

Short of buying a Makita 1806B and doing a LOT of sanding or mortgaging your house for the Mafell 12-5/8" beam planer (and imagine running a 35-lb. machine up and down a 24' rafter on a ladder or scaffold) you're pretty much stuck with solid timber and manpower. Or just bite the bullet and hire a crane with an operator for a day. For what you're talking it won't take a big crane, probably cost in the neighborhood of $1000-1500 for the day. Two men to cut and rig, two men to set, unless you're talking a major undertaking it shouldn't take a day to put it all up.

We do stuff like this all the time:

But we hire a crane when we have to and have lots of manpower available for the rest. The first job with the glue-lam trusses needed a crane, all the rest were set by hand.

Time is money. What's your time worth?

Bill

[dkennedy]

I had considered red cedar, and that solves a lot of problems... I just didn't relish setting that stuff with the crane. I've done this before with a crew of friends... after I spent a couple months cutting the joinery. For me, the time isn't money (well, the crane part is, hehe), as I don't do this for a living.

It might just be easier with the crane, but I was trying to figure out another way... like piecing it together. I did kind of figure I would need to set the rafters with some help though. I've not thought that all the way through yet. This is kind of in the formative stage... like figuring out of it was even possible. I'll not be cutting that stuff with a hand plane as that was what I did last time and I literally broke two hand planes doing it (lack of skill and patience, not lack of good planes), hehe.

[Roger T]

Gang-lamming 2x material on-site to make 4x8/6x12s is a lot of work, probably more than you might think. Gluing up a 24' 6x12 out of 7 2x6s? How many clamps do you have? How many trips up and down the scaffold is it going to take for each rafter? And what's it going to look like when you're done?

Have you considered using a lighter wood like red cedar? If you have a buddy or four to help long beams/rafters in dry cedar are (relatively) easy to handle.

Short of buying a Makita 1806B and doing a LOT of sanding or mortgaging your house for the Mafell 12-5/8" beam planer (and imagine running a 35-lb. machine up and down a 24' rafter on a ladder or scaffold) you're pretty much stuck with solid timber and manpower. Or just bite the bullet and hire a crane with an operator for a day. For what you're talking it won't take a big crane, probably cost in the neighborhood of $1000-1500 for the day. Two men to cut and rig, two men to set, unless you're talking a major undertaking it shouldn't take a day to put it all up.

We do stuff like this all the time:

But we hire a crane when we have to and have lots of manpower available for the rest. The first job with the glue-lam trusses needed a crane, all the rest were set by hand.

Time is money. What's your time worth?

Bill

Bill,

You guys build the trusses in the pics or order them out. I love odd roofs like that. Just like framing roofs in general.

Roger

Nice work btw

[BuilderBill]

Bill,

You guys build the trusses in the pics or order them out. I love odd roofs like that. Just like framing roofs in general.

Roger

Nice work btw

Thanks, Roger. The gluelam trusses in the first pic were pre-built, everything else was done on-site except for the curved members in the 3rd pic which I cut in the shop on the Laguna.

Bill

[dkennedy]

After looking a lot closer at the pics and web site, I've changed my mind and am doing exactly what you showed. The pavilion I'm buiding is next to my pool, and nowhere near the spans you were covering... the trusses you showed are beautiful and I can build something like them myself, given the smaller scale I'm dealing with. Advice from professionals is a good thing.

When I get to working on it, I'll post pics

Thanks a lot for the advice!

Dave

[BuilderBill]

After looking a lot closer at the pics and web site, I've changed my mind and am doing exactly what you showed. The pavilion I'm buiding is next to my pool, and nowhere near the spans you were covering... the trusses you showed are beautiful and I can build something like them myself, given the smaller scale I'm dealing with. Advice from professionals is a good thing.

When I get to working on it, I'll post pics

Thanks a lot for the advice!

Dave

Glad to be of help! I was wondering just how big a pavilion you were planning when you mentioned 24' beams... That's a 30' wide building on a 12/12 pitch, I was thinking you had a helluva pool!

Have fun and let's see some photos. If you have questions feel free to PM or email me.

Best,

Bill

[dkennedy]

Glad to be of help! I was wondering just how big a pavilion you were planning when you mentioned 24' beams... That's a 30' wide building on a 12/12 pitch, I was thinking you had a helluva pool!

Have fun and let's see some photos. If you have questions feel free to PM or email me.

Best,

Bill

Hehe, nothing that big. The 24' stuff was for a header on the long side, the 12' for the headers on the short side, so approximately 24' x 12'. I'm building it over an existing patio surface on the inside of an L-shaped pool, and I want it set back 6' to 8' from the edge of the pool. I'm looking at probably an 8/12 pitch, so the longest rafters are only about 9 feet or so with overhang.

I really like the truss in the first picture. I'm currently mocking up a 1/6 scale model with a king post and angled supports for the outer two trusses, and just use a single king post for the inner trusses. Since this will all be exposed, I need to figure out what it is going to look like, and I'm in between other projects so have the time. When I get the mock up like I want it, I'll post pics of it first. It will be a couple months before I start the real thing...