[wither]

It's necessary to move up to a 20” planer. I am a part-time wood worker and I work with old New Orleans barge boards. The majority of them are 16 to 20”s wide. A few are 26 to 30”s wide but the few times I used these width, I'll work them by hand. I am interested in spiral cutterheads. If a nails get by, only damage is why you called a few inserts are damage. My concern is how will a spiral cutterhead work with old paint. The normal process is to de-nail, scrape, wire brush and sand (a lot of sanding). Then usually a light planning. I am trying to do away with the sanding and more planning. Thanks Wither

 

[Dave Paine]

I think you have a trade off between cost of sanding supplies vs cost of the spiralhead cutters.

Paint is tough on cutters. They will get dull much faster than wood alone.

I think the sanding step may be less expensive for you than planing off the paint.

 

[woodnthings]

carbide inserts

http://www.grizzly.com/products/15-Planer-with-Spiral-Cutterhead-Polar-Bear-Series-/G0453PX

The inserts are $55 for 10. They have 4 edges to wear out and carbide will wear much longer than HHS, so they may be fine. I have no first hand experience with them, but if time is money :yes: and sanding takes a whole lot of time, then I would be inclined to go with the insert type cutters. I doubt if the paint itself will wear them out, but a missed nail will cause a "shoot out" in the planer. A metal detector will pay for itself in a short time.

 

[Steve Neul]

I've surfaced painted boards before and it isn't worth it. Just a couple of boards will completely dull the blades. I've tried both oil based paint and latex with the same results. I don't try anymore. If you have some really expensive wood it might be worth chemically stripping it first, otherwize I would dispose of it.

 

[Fred Hargis]

I have a spiral head on my planer, but I haven't tried to remove paint with it. That said, I'll speculate anyway. The carbide is going to behave much like HSS, only it will take longer. So, if paint makes the knives dull more quickly, it will also make the carbide dull more quickly....but you will get a hell of a lot more boards planed before you see the effect. Someone else mentioned it, if you're in business it may well be worth the cost of the spiral head.

 

[TimPa]

when i HAVE to plane paint, i try to take a deeper cut to get under the paint and lift it off. seems to help, if you can afford the thickness loss.