How to Convince my Parents to get a metal planer

[Braeden P]

I know where a planer is and I have enough money to buy it and I have space to put it but my mom says that I should wait and my dad says its a piece of junk. Its from the 1860s and is hand crank the table is about 3' long about 1' wide but I have not seen it for about a year so the size is not exact. Does anyone have good reasons to get one?

 

[Braeden P]

These are the only pictures I have, the table is being used to hold stuff so I could not get a useful photo.

 

[projectnut]

You should ask yourself what you intend to use it for? If it doesn't have any work, it's just a hunk of iron taking up space and draining your pocketbook. It might be "nice to have", but I'll bet within a year it would serve the same function in your shop as it now does in the current owner's shop.

Some machines have gone by the wayside simply because the functionality they once provided has been surpassed by smaller less expensive and more versatile machines. This in my opinion is one of those machines. It's more of a museum piece and a money pit than a useful addition to a machine shop.

 

[ConValSam]

I agree a planer is unlikely to garner much active use in a modern machine shop, but if the price is right why not use it as a workbench?

The cool factor would be very high.

 

[Braeden P]

Ive always wanted a planer and it will be a good project to improve my scraping and flaking I have alot of projects that could be done so much better if I had a machine tool that could make a flat surface.

 

[FOMOGO]

How much money are we talking about? Mike

 

[Asm109]

As a parent, I know that in a few years you will be away at college or out in the working world, living in small apartments with zero time for a 19th century boat anchor. Meanwhile your Dad's garage is filled with said boat anchor. Wouldn't happen on my watch. (And I love machine tools and have a shop filled with them. Just no boat anchors.)

 

[matthewsx]

I’d have a hard time convincing myself to buy one. Most folks these days use a mill
for making flat surfaces, agree this is one of those tools that almost nobody uses anymore. Even a shaper would be more useful, save this project for when you have your own shop.

How’s the lathe coming along?

John

 

[projectnut]

As a parent, I know that in a few years you will be away at college or out in the working world, living in small apartments with zero time for a 19th century boat anchor. Meanwhile your Dad's garage is filled with said boat anchor. Wouldn't happen on my watch. (And I love machine tools and have a shop filled with them. Just no boat anchors.)

I was in a similar situation some 45 years ago. In my case I was long out of the house, through school, and owned 2 Standard Oil service stations. I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with no place for tools and little place for storage. As a promotion to entice operators to purchase more inventory Standard Oil was offering "points" for each dollar spent that could be used to purchase items from a merchandise catalog. Bonus points were offered when eclipsing the previous years purchases.

I had recently purchased the second station and the inventory was minimal to say the least. I ordered what I thought I could sell. As it turned out I had had accumulated over $14,000.00 in "points" . I was told I had to redeem the points by a certain date or they would expire. I ended up ordering a radial arm saw, a jointer, a router, a bandsaw, an 8 man rubber raft and a few other goodies. I still had over $10,000.00 in points so I decided to automate the pumps with indoor digital readouts. The readouts read the total gallons and price for each transaction and could only be reset at the terminal inside the station. It was the forerunner of todays computerized pumps.

When all the merchandise arrived I had no place to set it up or store it. It all went to my parents garage some 40 miles away. Fortunately my parents were DIY people so they set up the equipment and used it for several years. When they moved out of the house the equipment came back to me. I still have the radial arm saw and the bandsaw. The router, jointer, and raft are long gone.

While it turned out well for all involved looking back on it I'm sure it was a hassle for them to deal with the equipment for nearly a dozen years.

 

[machPete99]

I agree with many of the prior posts. A small milling machine would probably be a better thing to get, can probably do much of what a small planer can do, and much more. That said, I have never used one, but would probably entertain getting a small shaper over a planer, and I already have a mill and a lathe. Even still, the shaper is kind of a one trick pony too.