Electric Plane SWMS

Suits carpenters, builders, joiners, maintenance crews and handymen who plane doors and door frames with a hand-held electric plane. It follows the job in order: checking the timber and surroundings, checking the plane, supporting the door, blade changes, power and isolation, planing edges and frames, dust, noise and vibration, and packing away. Thicknessers need their own SWMS (see the Planer Thicknesser SWMS).

Planing a door or frame with an electric plane is not high risk construction work by itself, so no item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is required by law only for high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 299). If the planing is part of construction work, tick the reg 291 items that apply, for example a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres (reg 291(a)) or work on or near energised electrical installations or services (reg 291(k)). Otherwise the document works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment that you tailor to your plane and site.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Electric Plane SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job and check the door, frame and surroundings” to “Clean up, pack away and store the plane”. The hazards and controls include:

• Exposed rotating blades and cutter contact
• Kickback and grabbing of the plane
• Hidden nails, screws and hinges in the timber
• Chips and shavings thrown at the face and eyes
• Damaged cords and electric shock
• Unexpected starts during blade changes
• Fine wood dust in occupied buildings
• Old paint that may contain lead
• Noise and hearing loss
• Hand-arm vibration
• Heavy doors falling or slipping
• Falls from ladders at door frames

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Operator trained and assessed as competent on the electric plane used, covering the depth knob, blade change, blade guard, dust extraction and safe planing of doors and frames (no high risk work licence class applies to an electric plane)
• General construction induction training card (white card) when the planing is construction work on a construction site, and site induction
• Competent person to inspect, test and tag corded planes and leads where the site or the Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 requires it; a licensed electrical worker for any repair to the plane’s cord or wiring (Electrical Safety Act 2002 ss 18 and 55)
• Awareness of lead paint in older buildings, so painted doors and frames are treated as possibly lead-painted until tested (the lead process definition is in WHS Regulation s 392)
• Trained first aider available on site, with first aid provided as s 42 of the WHS Regulation requires

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 203, 206, 207, 208, 210 and 213 (plant: managing risks, proper use, plant not in use, guarding, operational controls, maintenance and inspection)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 36 and 44 (hierarchy of control, personal protective equipment)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 56 to 58 (noise)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 60 (hazardous manual tasks, including exposure to vibration)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 49, 50, 344, 346 and 351 (exposure standards, air monitoring, safety data sheets, hazardous chemicals register, managing chemical risks)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 392(o) (lead process: using a power tool to remove a surface coated with paint containing more than 1% by dry weight of lead, and handling the lead waste from the removal)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 42 and 43 (first aid, emergency plan)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): ss 18 and 55 (electrical work and electrical work licences)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 131 to 136, only where the work is manufacturing work as section 123 defines it (assembly, disassembly, fabrication, installation, maintenance, manufacturing, refurbishment or repair, but not amusement, construction or rural industry work): no double adaptors or piggyback plugs (s 132); specified electrical equipment inspected, tested and tagged by a competent person at least yearly if double insulated and otherwise at least every 6 months, and used from a socket-outlet that has a safety switch (s 133, with the exemption in s 135); a non-portable safety switch for qualifying socket-outlets, only where manufacturing work is the primary work performed at the workplace (s 134); and testing of safety switches under AS/NZS 3760 (In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment and RCDs) (s 136)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 137 to 139, only where the work is service work or office work as section 123 defines it (for example teaching at an education facility): specified electrical equipment inspected and tested by a competent person (at least yearly, or at least every 5 years if used only for office work) or connected to a safety switch (s 138), and testing of safety switches under AS/NZS 3760 (s 139)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): s 140, only where the work is construction work: electrical equipment for the work, and construction wiring, comply with AS/NZS 3012 (Electrical installations – Construction and demolition sites); a tag showing a test or retest date goes only on equipment mentioned in AS/NZS 3012 clause 3.1 that is new or was inspected and tested by a competent person and found to comply (s 140(3)); s 140 sets no test interval and no safety switch rule
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace
• AS/NZS 3012 Electrical installations—Construction and demolition sites (named in Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 s 140, which applies to construction work)
• AS/NZS 60745 (series) Hand-held motor-operated electric tools—Safety (listed as an example technical standard in Appendix D of the Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (16 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: safety glasses with side shields (chips are thrown from the blades); hearing protection suited to the noise level, used after other controls
• Emergency arrangements for: blade contact or cut, electric shock and eye injury from chips
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed November 2026.