Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what
most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I will
mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than 1/8" that
would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.

You will need to use a sled to plane to 1/8th". I think that its
dangerous to feed something that thin into a thickness planer.
I think yo would be better off with a drum sander.
Robert

Grant wrote:
Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what
most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I will
mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than 1/8" that
would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.

Grant wrote:

Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what
most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I will
mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than 1/8" that
would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.


best planer for 1/8" would be a drum sander.

I want one myself so I can do veneers.

Dave

I have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a tad less is
not recommended. I have done this for a friend, but with mixed results. I
supported the strips on 3/4inch plywood, but sometime the front and end
pieces have a lot of snipe due to the plane head lifting the pieces. Some
pieces even had snipe in the middle again due to lifting.

Also some species of wood do not finish plane well.

Although a drum sander does work better for this thickness, be aware that at
this drum elevation, as the sander is turned on in preparation for sanding
the drum sander can easily touch the wide feed belt, resulting in smoothing
the feed belt which then does not do its job in feeding consistently. This
happened to me when I changed from trying to plan my friends 1/8inch ash
strips and then decided to use my drum sander.

The feed belts are over $30 so it was an expensive favour.

I tried putting the slats on a sled, but then had a problem keeping them to
feed at the same rate as the sled. Caused some inconsistencies in the
thickness, which is rather critical at only 1/8inch desired thickness.

All in all, this is not easy.

Dave Paine.

"Grant" wrote in message news:UwTxe.3117$HV1.2452@fed1read07...
Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what
most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I
will mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than
1/8" that would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.

Tyke wrote:

I have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a tad less is
not recommended. I have done this for a friend, but with mixed results. I
supported the strips on 3/4inch plywood, but sometime the front and end
pieces have a lot of snipe due to the plane head lifting the pieces. Some
pieces even had snipe in the middle again due to lifting.

Also some species of wood do not finish plane well.

Although a drum sander does work better for this thickness, be aware that at
this drum elevation, as the sander is turned on in preparation for sanding
the drum sander can easily touch the wide feed belt, resulting in smoothing
the feed belt which then does not do its job in feeding consistently. This
happened to me when I changed from trying to plan my friends 1/8inch ash
strips and then decided to use my drum sander.

The feed belts are over $30 so it was an expensive favour.

I tried putting the slats on a sled, but then had a problem keeping them to
feed at the same rate as the sled. Caused some inconsistencies in the
thickness, which is rather critical at only 1/8inch desired thickness.

All in all, this is not easy.

Dave Paine.

"Grant" wrote in message news:UwTxe.3117$HV1.2452@fed1read07...

Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what
most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I
will mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than
1/8" that would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.




I didn't realize that could be a problem, Dave. What model sander do
you have? I'm guessing that a loose wrap of paper is the problem? I've
never owned one, so I'm guessing. I've looked at the 16 and 22
performax units at the store but haven't had the opportunity to see one
plugged in and running. Please tell me there's a solution to the drum's
paper contacting the belt. LIGHT BULB MOMENT! the problem is the FEED
BELT rising up, isn't it?

Dave

Yes, the feed belt is the problem. This can take a "set" due to infrequent
use. If I were to spend the time to release the tension after each use, it
would be minimized, but I doubt most folks are willing to do this since
retensioning is a pain in the butt.

I happen to have the Performax 16/22, but expect any model with a feed belt
could take a "set" due to being tensioned in a position for long periods of
time.

I have to say the replacement belt does not have the same degree of "set" as
the old, but I would not want to try another 1/8inch sanding excercise.

Dave Paine.


"David" wrote in message
...
Tyke wrote:

I have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a tad less is
not recommended. I have done this for a friend, but with mixed results.
I supported the strips on 3/4inch plywood, but sometime the front and end
pieces have a lot of snipe due to the plane head lifting the pieces.
Some pieces even had snipe in the middle again due to lifting.

Also some species of wood do not finish plane well.

Although a drum sander does work better for this thickness, be aware that
at this drum elevation, as the sander is turned on in preparation for
sanding the drum sander can easily touch the wide feed belt, resulting in
smoothing the feed belt which then does not do its job in feeding
consistently. This happened to me when I changed from trying to plan my
friends 1/8inch ash strips and then decided to use my drum sander.

The feed belts are over $30 so it was an expensive favour.

I tried putting the slats on a sled, but then had a problem keeping them
to feed at the same rate as the sled. Caused some inconsistencies in the
thickness, which is rather critical at only 1/8inch desired thickness.

All in all, this is not easy.

Dave Paine.

"Grant" wrote in message news:UwTxe.3117$HV1.2452@fed1read07...

Hello,
Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask
what most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material.
I will mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than
1/8" that would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.




I didn't realize that could be a problem, Dave. What model sander do you
have? I'm guessing that a loose wrap of paper is the problem? I've never
owned one, so I'm guessing. I've looked at the 16 and 22 performax units
at the store but haven't had the opportunity to see one plugged in and
running. Please tell me there's a solution to the drum's paper contacting
the belt. LIGHT BULB MOMENT! the problem is the FEED BELT rising up,
isn't it?

Dave

So even though planers say they can do 1/8" it is really not recommended?
Then what is acceptable with portable planers or even more stationary ones?

"Tyke" wroteI have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a
tad less is
not recommended.

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 20:36:33 -0400, "Tyke" wrote:

Interesting discussion. I, too, am getting ready to plane some cherry
veneer I am cutting on my bandsaw. I was wishing I had a drum sander
but after following this thread I am not so sure that this is going to
be the right solution.

I think I will try just taping my veneer down on 3/4" plywood using
double-sided tape and run it though my planer. Does anyone see a
problem with this technique.

On second thought, I would still like to have a drum sander but I have
been considering the one that is made in USA (somewhere in midwest).
Name does not come to me but I bought one of their planers about 15
years ago and it has been a very faithful planer as well as an
excellent molding machine. It seems like their sander would be
preferable to the Performax since it not open on one end and should
therefore be more accurate. I believe it comes in 24 and 30" width.
Anyone had any experience with this machine?

I have cut veneer before and just used a scraper to even it out. This
is OK for small quantities but I am not thinking about cutting more.
Also, I was jus treading a FFW article which recommends running your
stock over the jointer each time a piece of veneer is sliced on the
bandsaw. I never did that before. Does it really save time? Seems
it would since you would only have to plane/sand one side if you did
this. Of course the trick would be to have your bandsaw so well tuned
and equipped with such a good fence that nothing but mild sanding of
each slide would be required. I've never had my band saw that well
tuned. Perhaps some of you are able to do this.

Not having or ever used one, I can't say from personal experience but David
Marks, on his show, frequently drum sands veneers with no apparent problem.

"Tyke" wrote in message
...
Although a drum sander does work better for this thickness, be aware that
at
this drum elevation, as the sander is turned on in preparation for sanding
the drum sander can easily touch the wide feed belt, resulting in
smoothing
the feed belt which then does not do its job in feeding consistently.
This
happened to me when I changed from trying to plan my friends 1/8inch ash
strips and then decided to use my drum sander.

The feed belts are over $30 so it was an expensive favour.

I tried putting the slats on a sled, but then had a problem keeping them
to
feed at the same rate as the sled. Caused some inconsistencies in the
thickness, which is rather critical at only 1/8inch desired thickness.

I've done 1/8" with my Delta. Not a lot of it but what I did do worked fine.

"Grant" wrote in message news82ye.3260$HV1.2443@fed1read07...
So even though planers say they can do 1/8" it is really not recommended?
Then what is acceptable with portable planers or even more stationary
ones?

"Tyke" wroteI have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a
tad less is
not recommended.

Joe,
That was sort of my thought too. I was thinking of making a jig to hold the
peice up a bit higher, as if it were thicker. The peices I want to plane
are going to be 10"x40" or so.


"Joe Bleau" wrote Interesting discussion. I, too, am getting ready to
plane some cherry
veneer I am cutting on my bandsaw. I was wishing I had a drum sander
but after following this thread I am not so sure that this is going to
be the right solution.
his.