# Planing varnished/finished boards



## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

Is there any reason why it would not be a good idea to feed a finished board through a thickness planer? Will this somehow wear the knives or otherwise be unsafe or harm the machine?

I like to reuse lumber from old furniture or previous projects and would like a quick way to get down to the original wood.


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## Just Bill (Dec 29, 2008)

My concern would be that the heat will melt the varnish and gum up the blades. And I assume you removed any nails or metal, that would tend to be hard on the blades.


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## RussBoyd (Feb 28, 2009)

*planer*

Safety is probably not an issue and like Bill said, it might gum up the blades after awhile. My opinion would be....are you saving enough by reclaiming wood to sharpen or even buy new blades. I would think it would be worth the cost myself. Try it, but be ready to at least have to clean the blades off. I think lacquer (if that's what it is) is plenty hard enough not to melt under the knives. I've done painted doors parts before and it worked well.


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## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

You could always use a scraper to remove the majority of the finish, then send it through the planer.


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## Gerry KIERNAN (Apr 20, 2007)

My only concern would be wearing, or gumming up the blades. If the wood is clean, and free of any hardware it should plane out fine.
I also like to use reclaimed wood, where possible, but I do think it is harder on the blades than new wood.

Gerry


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

SW,
I have planed previously finished wood before to reclaim it. I don't think you will have a problem with gumming up the blades unless that's all you run through it. Like the others said, though, I would be more worried about imbedded metal. Check the wood over carefully. If you are not sure, invest in one of the magnetic wands that will find hidden metal.
Mike Hawkins


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## Gerry KIERNAN (Apr 20, 2007)

The only other downside I can think of is the amount of old furniture you have to go through these days to find some actual "wood".

Gerry


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

I would think about getting a metal detector, if you don't have one. I plane a lot of used/old wood to reuse. 
Someone recentlly gave me some 2 1/2 x 2 1/2" legs of a bed of some kind. It was a dark mahog. finish. I ran my metal detector over it and had quite a few hits.
Got out a trash blade and started cutting.
The leg was made up of 8 pieces of assorted wood. Some looked like mahog, and oak. Each piece was about 1/2 x 2 1/4" The 8 pieces were wraped in a 1/16" veneer of some non discript blonde wood, which was finished to look like mahog.
The bitch was that the leg had lots and l;ots of brads in iot where all the pieces were fastened together. 
Sure glad it didn't go thru the planer!
A metal detector is a planers best friend!


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## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

Thanks, everyone. Good suggestions. I'll definitely pick up a small metal detector.


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