Reducing thickness of a curved board?

[Brian Penning]

Making a bow-armed Morris chair and after gluing up one of the laminated arms I realized it's too thick at a little over 1". The other is 7/8".
We've all heard the expression "banana in, banana out" for using a planer without a jointer.
What about if I want to keep the banana shape and pass it through my Ridgid planer? The curve/bow is a little less than 1" over 42".
Think it'll work?
Hoping....

[Brian Kent]

I think I would use a Random Orbit Sander with 60 grit or coarser sandpaper, a hand-held belt sander with about 80 or 100 grit, or if the grain is straight, a #5 jack plane.

Good luck to you.

[Jason Pinsonneault]

sorry having a hard time visualizing this , could ya post a picture?

[Brian Penning]

I think I would use a Random Orbit Sander with 60 grit or coarser sandpaper, a hand-held belt sander with about 80 or 100 grit, or if the grain is straight, a #5 jack plane.

Good luck to you.


Over an 1/8" with a sander??? Thanks, but I don't think I could hang in there for the length of time needed to do that...:)

[Brian Penning]

sorry having a hard time visualizing this , could ya post a picture?


Visualize reducing the thickness of the arms of this chair...

http://shakerstyle.com/img/livingRoom/living_bowArmBack.jpg

[Harold Burrell]

Visualize reducing the thickness of the arms of this chair...

http://shakerstyle.com/img/livingRoom/living_bowArmBack.jpg
I would think you would be fine. The planer would just be making the sides parallel...bent or not.

[Kent A Bathurst]

One alternative......

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/images/4_5_lg.jpg

[Myk Rian]

A planer would do it with the curve facing up.

[Jamie Buxton]

Like Myk says, if you're going to try it with a planer, go concave tpward the knives. However, you're almost certain to get snipe at both ends of the plank. So make light passes until the sniped area gets to 7/8", and then go to handheld tools.

[Tom Veatch]

Depends.

The feed rollers exert considerable down force against the workpiece, but that force is limited. If the board is thick/stiff enough there won't be enough force to flatten the curve against the platen and you won't get a consistent thickness. Don't know if that's the case here. No more curve than you're talking about, it may well work. After all, we're not talking about machining to tolerances of a thousandth of an inch. As previously suggested, the curve facing up would give you the best shot at success.

You might think about something like a Stanley 13, 20, or 113, if you have one available, to hog off most of the waste and using an ROS to finish up.

[Darnell Hagen]

Were I you I'd glue another ply on the skinny arm.

[Van Huskey]

Were I you I'd glue another ply on the skinny arm.


That was my thought when I first read this, but seemed to obvious to post, but it does seem to be a no brainer approach to me, with the least chance of an epic fail.

[Peter Quinn]

I'd use a BS with a single point fence and a blade that can follow the curve. Leave it a little thick and finish up with a belt sander and or smooth plane. If its a radius you could make a template to do it exactly, if not you could trace the thinner arm on the thicker one and cut to the line.

I suppose a planer could work if the wheels hold things flat enough and your lamination is willing to bend. Only one way to find out with that approach.

[jim gossage]

I agree on the bandsaw with a narrow blade. You could easily take off an 1/8" or less and touch up with sanders. Another option would be a good spindle sander, clamp a board to the table on its edge so that it is slightly closer to the outside of the spindle sleeve than the thickness of the board, and then push it through slowly (against the direction of rotation). After 1 or two passes, reclamp the board a little closer and repeat. Kind of like a makeshift vertical drum sander. I have no idea if it will work, but I hope you'll try it and let us know!

[jerry nazard]

A handplane would be fast and leave you with a finished surface. You could drive a nail through a piece of small stock, cut the end of the nail off at 1/8", and file the stub end down to a sharp cone shape, thus making a depth marking gauge. Stipple the surface of the 1" board with the homemade depth gauge. Plane to remove the marks. You are now at 7/8" and done.

[Richard Dragin]

Brian,
I think the planer would work except if it is already cut to length because it'll probably snipe the end. Also your lams might end up off and not match each other.

Your best bet might just be a do over.

[Mike Henderson]

You don't need to thin the whole thing down, just the edges. On the bottom, cut a bevel, like you'd do with a raised panel, and leave the middle the same thickness. It will appear to be the same thickness as the other arm.

Mike

[george wilson]

The bandsaw idea with a single point fence is the best,and safest way to reduce the thickness. Follow up with a little hand planing and sanding.

Go getting fancy with a planer,and you might really ruin the arm,and have to start over.

[Brian Penning]

Ha! The planer idea worked beautifully and rather easily too. Not too much snipe either as I kept a little pressure upwards on the ends.
Thanks a bunch.