I have a cheap 3 1/4" hand-held power planer, and some 4x4s that I'd like to plane down about 1/16" on all four sides to square up the corners. Normally, I'd do this on the table saw, but my saw is out of service at the moment, and my hacked-together upside-down-circular-saw-in-MDF version isn't big enough to cut all the way through the 4x4. (It also wobbles, which isn't great.)
The issue I'm having is that, since the planer is narrower than the board, I get a lovely step / ridge in the middle. I've tried setting the fence so that I can plane half of the board at the time, but this gives results best described as "amateur hour."
Suggestions?