Planing thin stock

[poolhound]

To what thickness, I guess thinness in this case, have you folks succesfully managed to get a planer to take various stocks. With no thickness sander in my shop I wondered if I could use my planer to an 1/8 or maybe less.

I have had no problem at a 1/4 but wanted to take some of my nicer stock and resaw it into thinner veneers.

I have heard of folks doing this with an auxilary table although I am not sure why, is it just to save the potential to damage the main table?

[shoottx]

I have heard of folks doing this with an auxilary table although I am not sure why, is it just to save the potential to damage the main table?

A lot of the thickness planers will only go down to a certain limit. Using an aux table lets you fool the planer.

[RodKirby]

A wide drum sander will go a low as you want

[RayintheUK]

... I have heard of folks doing this with an auxilary table although I am not sure why ..

As Mike says, some thicknessers have built-in limits.

I've used auxiliary ply or MDF sleds (consider them sacrificial - you may overdo it!) which are usually OK, but you have to be realistic about it. If what's going to be left is intended to be less than what's being planed off, then the whole piece is likely to get shot out of the end.

"Carefully" and "gently does it" are the ways to proceed. I've used a strong double-sided tape to tack the piece on the sled once or twice, with good results, but if you're looking to plane down to <1/8" you'll have to reckon on some disasters, depending on what the grain structure, knots, etc. is.

Ray.

[softop41]

I've gone to about 1/16" to 5/64" by mounting the stock on a sled with double-sided tape. You just have to take very light cuts and be VERY careful when removing the stock from the sled. DAMHIKT
Jerry

[pecker]

If it's going to end up as veneer, it might be better to glue it to the substrate while it's still relatively thick, then send the whole thing through the planer.

[poolhound]

A wide drum sander will go a low as you want

I would love one, would you care to donate $1000 to Jon's drum sander fund

[poolhound]

I've gone to about 1/16" to 5/64" by mounting the stock on a sled with double-sided tape. You just have to take very light cuts and be VERY careful when removing the stock from the sled. DAMHIKT
Jerry

I think 3/32 is about as low as I would want so the DS tape maybe a good solution.

[poolhound]

If it's going to end up as veneer, it might be better to glue it to the substrate while it's still relatively thick, then send the whole thing through the planer.

I had thought of that although it wont work on parts wide than my 13" planer. The other issue is if you get bad tearout or worse then you have not only wrecked the veneer but the substrate also.

[pelligrini]

Going really thin isn't always easy.

I needed a few thin pieces of maple. My DW735 will adjust down to 1/8" so I figured I'd give it a go. I took them down to 1/4" pretty quickly and then did a bunch more passes to get down to the final 1/8". Like others have said, do very light cuts. I got a little aggressive on my third board and it ended up shattering to pieces. It wasn't a pleasant experience, It also tore a small piece out of one of the rollers.

If your wood is really figured, the chances of it coming apart inside the tool is greater. I would think that some freshly sharp blades might make things a little better.