A motorized woodworking machine equipped with a rotating cutterhead and feed rollers. A board is fed through the machine, and the cutterhead shaves off material from the top face, making it perfectly parallel to the flat bottom face. It is used to reduce rough lumber to a precise, consistent thickness across its entire length.
Heard on the job
Run these oak boards through the planer until they hit exactly three quarters of an inch.
Insider tip
Never put a bowed or twisted board straight into a planer. You must flatten one face on a jointer first, or the planer rollers will just press the warp flat during the cut and it will spring right back afterward.
Also heard as
- thickness planer
- thicknesser
Do not mix it up with
- Jointer: A jointer flattens a warped face or straightens an edge, while a planer requires one already-flat face to make the opposite side parallel to it.