I'm building a torsion box with plywood strips for sides and ribs. A
friend suggested I clamp several strips together and run them through
the planer once on each side to guarantee uniform width (being very
careful that the clamps are well below the top surface).

Then I read in Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking not to run plywood edges
across the jointer since the glue would put nicks in the blade. Would
not the same would be true of the planer? IOW, even though my friend's
idea might be good theoretically, it may toast my planer blades.

Can anyone confirm or deny the wisdom of this idea?

David

wrote in message
Then I read in Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking not to run plywood edges
across the jointer since the glue would put nicks in the blade. Would
not the same would be true of the planer? IOW, even though my friend's
idea might be good theoretically, it may toast my planer blades.

Bad idea

wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm building a torsion box with plywood strips for sides and ribs. A
friend suggested I clamp several strips together and run them through
the planer once on each side to guarantee uniform width (being very
careful that the clamps are well below the top surface).

Then I read in Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking not to run plywood edges
across the jointer since the glue would put nicks in the blade. Would
not the same would be true of the planer? IOW, even though my friend's
idea might be good theoretically, it may toast my planer blades.

Can anyone confirm or deny the wisdom of this idea?

I haven't tried it, but maybe a drum sander?

Toller wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm building a torsion box with plywood strips for sides and ribs. A
friend suggested I clamp several strips together and run them through
the planer once on each side to guarantee uniform width (being very
careful that the clamps are well below the top surface).

Then I read in Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking not to run plywood edges
across the jointer since the glue would put nicks in the blade. Would
not the same would be true of the planer? IOW, even though my friend's
idea might be good theoretically, it may toast my planer blades.

Can anyone confirm or deny the wisdom of this idea?

I haven't tried it, but maybe a drum sander?

If you have a table saw with a good fence you ought to be able
to rip the strips every bit as uniformly as needed. If you do
a good job ripping them I can't imagine you'd really improve
the fit by running them through the planer. This is plywood
edge-grain after all.

If you don't have too many of them you can stack them (using
a _small_ amount of double sticky carpet tape) and rip
them together, though that shouldn't be necessary.

--

FF