To keep my post short, I actually skipped over the long period of time where I tried using hand planes. Problem is I couldn't invest in getting several of them,

To keep my post short, I actually skipped over the long period of time where I tried using hand planes. Problem is I couldn't invest in getting several of them, so I don't have a proper joiner one. Even then, using the planes on a hard wood like oak was really hard. I love hand planing, but it'll be a while before I'm good at it, it's still an investment money-wise, and it's much harder than running the boards across a joiner.