Planer Question

[Travis]

How thin can you get wood with a planer? My dad has a planer that I use on occasion, and I was thinking of resawing some wood then planing them down for a fretwork project (nothing in mind, yet...but the wheels are turning). Can you get down to a 1/4" or 1/8"? I'd imagine 1/4" wouldn't be much problem. 1/8" seems to be pushing it, though. I'd love to get a baby drum sander someday. But I think that's waaay down the road. Unless I win the lottery! 4 8 15 16 23 42

[tazman4647]

travis i plane my wood down to 1/4 then glue them together to the size i need, i also have a drum sander after glued up i run them through drum sander i go down to 3/16

Wade

[blame]

I'm like Tazman take it down to 1/4", but i've planed down to 1/8" thou. was not very good quality lumber either

[The MediaBoy]

Travis, I've planed down to 1/4" several times with no issues. I would imagine that you could make a planing 'bed' out of MDF, or some other extremely flat stock, and get down to 1/8" pretty easily. Either put a 3/32" cleat on the leading edge of the 'bed' or use double-sided tape to attach the stock that you're planing.

 

Just thinking out loud here...,

 

I would imagine that a solid wood panel at 1/8" thick would be pretty unstable. Don't think I'd even try it here in humid Central Florida. I could leave a perfectly flat 1/8" panel in the shop overnight and find it bowed up like a tent the next morning.

[Travis]

This is good to know. Yah, I guess you're right about 1/8" stock being fragile. I'd imagine it would be used as an applique or have some other form of reinforcement. Looks like a lot of clocks and other fretwork seems to be about 1/4" stock. I have reclaimed a bunch of cedar from a wood fence. I'll plane it down to 1/2" or smaller for some projects. I figured some sort of baskets or a clock. John Nelson has a lot of the Victorian patterns that has always caught my eye. Maybe I'll try one of those. Hrmmmm

[greasemonkeyredneck]

I have a Ryobi 13" planer. I plane down to 1/4 on a daily basis. There have been times I needed 1/8 for certain clock parts. It'll go to 1/8, but I always start with material bigger than I need because there will be tear out. The thing to watch for on my planer when going to 1/8 is the tore out pieces. By the time you close the planer up that much, the pieces that tear off don't alway have room to get out of the planer bed. So they will fly around under the cutter head until they are small enough to throw back and hit you in the stomach. So if you hear what sounds like chunks getting thrown around, stop the planer, raise it up, and get them chunks out before continueing. I haven't had any accidents yet, but with the sounds it makes, I don't want to take chances either.