planer

2 Articles

Motorized Planer Height Adjustment Dials In

August 29, 2026 by 4 Comments

Having access to a planer opens up a lot of options for woodworking. It enables a craftsman to work with much rougher lumber and the finished results generally have tighter tolerances. But as [DendroLabsDev] found out, the height adjustment wheel on a planer needs a lot of turns to go from its lowest to highest position, and this gets tiresome when greasing parts during maintenance. So what started as a quick hack to quickly perform this single maintenance task eventually resulted in this programmable height adjustment that’s in use on the planer full-time now.

The motor attached to the height adjustment for the planer is a stepper motor, capable of around 1000 steps per inch. Since revolutions on this tool with the stock wheel adjust only a small amount per revolution, this can in theory enable very small tolerances to be dialed in consistently. Not only that, but [DendroLabsDev] has programmed it with a few different modes, the first of which allows a board to be planed to a certain thickness by making several passes, mimicking the workflow of a human-controlled machine. Then a device to zero the position was added, and then the ability to save the height adjustments to make replication across different boards was added, and then a mode to step through set amounts per pass.

What [DendroLabsDev] has essentially made is a high-dollar planer control that is actually available in the most expensive planers, but adapted for a DeWalt planer easily available and semi-affordable at many local hardware stores. It is also theoretically adaptable for any planer with an adjustment wheel, and [DendroLabsDev] has some plans to improve the control system and package it with a PCB and enclosure that would allow it to be a more accessible product for other woodworkers. Adding electronics to woodworking tools other than routers is a popular pastime, take this CNC-controlled scroll saw for example.

Power Planer Brought Back To Life

August 17, 2017 by 14 Comments

Having the right tool for the right job is not always possible, but it’s an ideal that’s nice to try to live up to. The problem is that a lot of the time, the right tool is often very expensive. We have found lots of ways around this, though, from building our own CNC machines to finding new ways to electroplate metal. Sometimes, though, the right tool for the job doesn’t have to be improvised or built from scratch, it just falls in your lap.

Admittedly, [Sam]’s power planer didn’t literally fall into her lap, but she did pull this neglected tool from the garbage. With no idea what was wrong with it, [Sam] let it sit on the shelf for years until she finally needed it. Assuming there was a major problem with the tool, she set about replacing the blades and bearings only to find that the likely culprit behind why the planer was thrown away in the first place was a faulty switch. This was likely a deal and circuit-breaker for someone who would use it all day, but not so for someone who only needs it for occasional use.

While some might not consider this a “hack”, it is at least a reminder that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, especially if that trash only needs new bearings and a switch. There are two lessons here: first, that tools aren’t usually beyond repair, and that it’s possible to find all kinds of tools in the dumpster from people who don’t heed this advice.