I wonder?

[Gregor1]

I guess I am just a curious person by nature. I wonder about things a lot. Sometimes I will take things apart, just to see what makes them tick. I usually get them back together. Today while working on a seat frame, I got to wondering about something. ( If this question is too stupid to warrant an answer, please forgive me, but it's not something I just want to jump into and try.) Imagine a square, flat frame. Much like a cabinet door frame. 1" thick. What would happen if you ran that frame through a planer. I understand the stiles would probably come out fine. what about the rails?

Thanks Greg

[Bill Holt]

I think type of wood, depth of cut, and knife vs insert will have much to do with the quality of the surface.

Sometimes we learn by doing.

It is generally considered risky to run an end grain cutting board through a planer, but I have done it successfully several times.

[FS7]

I've done similar things before. The part with the grain will be fine. The part that's 90 degrees to the grain direction will have some fuzz or tearout.

[iclark]

I've done similar things before. The part with the grain will be fine. The part that's 90 degrees to the grain direction will have some fuzz or tearout.

Does it matter if the grain for the stiles go in opposite directions?

[Willyou]

If I was going to do that, I would make sure to run sacrificial runners through the planer with the frames to eliminate snipe. As stated, the parts where the knives were cutting across the grain, will likely suffer some fuzz and maybe some tear-out. If the frame is small enough (or the planer large enough) I might try running them through at a 45 deg angle so that everything is being cut at the same angle and they would probably come through smoothly.

[BillN]

When I needed to even the joints on my frame and panel cabinet doors I was able to rent time on a wide belt sander at a local cabinet shop. (their operator did the work-didn't take long)

[Gregor1]

"Does it matter if the grain for the stiles go in opposite directions?"

The grain in the stiles will  be perpendicular to the grain in the rails. The grain of both stiles will be in the same direction. Unless I am misunderstanding the question.

[brianwelch]

I would attempt at 45 degrees and with a sacrificial "snipe tamer" both as noted above. With very sharp blades, and only if very confident that the glue joints are intact.