The Baileigh Planer

There are two machines/tools that are commonly paired together in woodworking: a jointer and a planer. All too often, these machines get confused with one another. A jointer is used to create flat, smooth surfaces on all four sides of a board. A planer is the machine that cuts a board down to a desired or specified thickness by shaving off the top surface of the wood. Typically, a woodworker will run a board through the jointer first; ensuring each side or edge of the board is flat, and parallel to its opposing side.

After a board has been sent through the jointer, it then goes into the planer, where a cutting head trims off the top side of the board to the desired thickness set by the woodworker. When planing material, we first need to determine how thick our material needs to be and then make the necessary adjustments to the cutting heads or planing platform. Once the cut depth is set, the operator feeds the material into the front of the machine. The “in-feed” roller grips the material and pushes it under the cutting drums, or the knives that trim the top of the material. After the material passes under the cutting drums, it reaches the “out-feed” roller, which pushes the trimmed section of the board out of the machine.

A planer has a series of “supportive” parts from the base to the saddle, and also has several “functional” parts–like cutting heads or cross rails. Cross Rails are used to help move and adjust the tool heads up and down, altering the depth the material is cut at. Cutting Heads are what does the cutting and trimming of the wood. They contain the tool post and cutting tools/knives.

The saddle is where the cross rail and cutting heads are fixed. There are two saddles on the machine; one for the right cutting head, and one for the left. The bed is a cast iron piece that lays the groundwork for the entire machine. It supports all the other parts of the machine. The table, a rectangular cast mount, sets atop the bed and supports the materials (wood) being cut.

The housing is a vertical casting that straddles the table and the bed. It supports the cutting head and other components of the machine (ie. cross rails, saddle, etc.) Infeed and Outfeed Rollers–move the wood through the machine. The infeed roller is placed ahead of the cutting heads, and the outfeed is placed behind the cutting heads.

A recent project found us in dire need of a new planer. After researching a few different planer brands, the quality, price, and customer service offered through Baileigh were the best fit for our needs; not to mention the non-existent wait period to get the machine, the Baileigh facility was just a four-hour drive from our shop! 

We needed a new planer and we needed it now. As it turns out, Baileigh’s 2209 “Heavy Duty Thickness Planer” was exactly what we were looking for. It is a 22” planer that has a max cutting height of 9”. The cutter head has five spiral blade rows and can cut anything down to ½” thick.

The table raises and lowers on two separate columns for added accuracy. We chose a planer that uses a hand crank table adjustment instead of a numerical control adjustment. One of the more interesting features of this machine is the rear pressure bar that maintains a consistent pressure on the planed wood. This eliminates the “snap” that other planers sometimes produce. Better yet, this planer is MUCH quieter than “The Quiet One”!