How thin of a board can you run through ur thickness planer?

[SHADOWFOX]

Hello All,

I am fixing to build a coffee table and planning on re-sawing some curly maple down to about 1/4" and hoping that I could run it to the thickness planer to get it down to an eight of an inch to use as veneer to plywood substrate. Is this even possible or is this too thin to run through the thickness planer? Any info would be greatly appreciated by this newbie

I will be using solid Makore for the table legs.

Thank you!

[Tom Miller]

That seems awfully thin to be sending through a planer unsupported; especially a figured grain that may be prone to tearout could potentially explode in a planer.

This would be a great excuse to get a drum sander.

One option may be to tape down the material to a carrier, but getting it back off again could be nearly impossible.

Another option is to glue the 1/4" material to your substrate, then send it through the planer. But I'm guessing the substrate you're planning to use won't fit into your planer.

Regards,
Tom

[LarryG]

The manual for my Delta 22-580 says it'll go down to 1/8"; however
[please insert Tom's reply HERE as he said almost exactly what I was going to say].

[TheRic]

No clue if this would work, just thinking out load.
Glue the edges down on a carrier, then sending it thru. Once done cut off the edges where it is glued.

[drumpriest]

I'd say that this won't work. Most planers claim 1/8"-1/4", but that's not even the problem. Curly maple is the problem, it's hard to plane, you usually get tear out, and tear out on 1/8" material == doom.

This is EXACTLY what drum sanders are for. Cutting your own veneer. I've heard of some people using woodmiser (highland hardware) blades and getting a good enough cut off the BS to use them, then hand sanding. Ideally you use a DS for this.

[crokett]

Dumb question but why is thickness important other than your table top wil be a little thicker? why not resaw, glue the 1/4" thickness down as the veneer then hand sand/plane/scrape/whatever the finish? If you leave it a little thicker you have some to sand off for refinishing in future if necessary.

[New Guy]

On the picture frame I just finished,I planed red oak to .05 thicke for an inlay.
I used double sided tape and a big thicke board to stike it too. Just take realy lite cuts.

[SHADOWFOX]

Dumb question but why is thickness important other than your table top wil be a little thicker? why not resaw, glue the 1/4" thickness down as the veneer then hand sand/plane/scrape/whatever the finish? If you leave it a little thicker you have some to sand off for refinishing in future if necessary.

Just trying to get the most out of the 2" x 36" x 8" curly maple board so that I'll have enough for coffee and side table tops.

So if I re-saw it 3/8" thick can I use the thickness planer to plane it down to 1/4"?

Any BT3 members in Illinois have a drum sander?

[JTimmons]

I've got the DW734 and ran oak through it to get down to 3/8 with good results, just took light passes. Curly Maple is another story though.

[MilDoc]

My Ridgid will go down to 1/8" accurately if adjusted right. I did that for some trim on the bird house I made with hard maple.

[WoodButcher26]

I regularly go below 1/4" with my portable. I do have some problem with breakage, but not often. I went down to right around 1/8" on some cherry and mahogany I was working earlier this year with no issues.

I do use a piece of MDF that slides completely through the planer, covers both infeed and outfeed tables. Reduces my thickness capacity by 3/4", but allows me to surface the thinner stock.


Kim

[John Hunter]

My Delta will go down to 1/8" and I have done so several times. Light cuts is the way to go.

[atgcpaul]

Dumb question but why is thickness important other than your table top wil be a little thicker? why not resaw, glue the 1/4" thickness down as the veneer then hand sand/plane/scrape/whatever the finish? If you leave it a little thicker you have some to sand off for refinishing in future if necessary.

Well, as the theory goes, using too thick veneers leaves the substrate prone to
warpage by seasonal movement of the veneer. I suppose you can balance
both sides with an even thickness of "veneer" but then you're up to a 1/2" of
good stock on both sides. Consider that you started with a 3/4" board, you
might as well as saved yourself the time of resawing and planing to 1/4" and just
used the full thickness stock to begin with. From experience, I try to keep my
veneers under 3/16" thick.

Paul

[Tom Miller]

Well, as the theory goes, using too thick veneers leaves the substrate prone to warpage by seasonal movement of the veneer. I suppose you can balance both sides with an even thickness of "veneer" but then you're up to a 1/2" of good stock on both sides.

Not only warpage of the board, but perhaps failure of the glue bond if glued to a non-moving substrate like ply or mdf. Thinner veneer can't exert enough force to do this.

But, this got me to thinking: what if you face-glued to some other wood, then machined and edge-glued your panels from this bi-layer stock? The "veneer" could be any thickness, and now you can send these boards through the planer to smooth the bandsawn surface.

I'd do it like this:

- sandwich the good 2" thick stock between two 4/4 pieces of cheaper "substrate" wood
- resaw ~1/4" into the good stock from one side, leaving ~7/4" of good stock on the other board
- plane the surface of the 7/4" good stock while you still have a good, smooth reference on the other side (of the 4/4 stock)
- resaw ~1/4" into the good stock from the other side
- plane the leftover 6/4" piece of good stock, and re-sandwich to make more

Regards,
Tom

[mrojec]

I've planed stock (though not curly maple) down to less than 1/4" on my Delta portable planer without any problems, but it seems to work better with a "slave board" of 1/4" melamine or similar material on the base. Not sure why.
Mark