Veneering / Resawing questions

[Alan Lightstone]

OK, now on to the top of my wife's drafting table. I've decided to use a few 9" boards that I have, resaw them, and then veneer them to a 3/4" plywood top. The LOML doesn't like the grain pattern of any of the commercial sapele pieces that I have purchased.

How thick should I make the resawed pieces?

I have a 14" bandsaw (Laguna), but I've been having trouble making consistent thickness pieces. I can run them through my drum sander, but I think my only chance for getting a flat top is to run the finished/veneered top through a wide belt sander at a local lumber supplier.

If I have to take that route, should I leave the veneer pieces at about 1/8" thickness to allow for more sanding with the wide belt sander, or should I get them pretty consistent in thickness with my drum sander before veneering (likely take the thickness down to about 1/16th")? I have a vacuum press, so I think I can securely glue down subtly different thickness veneer pieces.

[David Kumm]

I try to drum sand to 1/16 or 3/32 but be consistent as it seems easier to me to have the veneer match so that when glueing the seams can be taped tightly and you can see any problems more clearly. If you do that you should only need to run a ROS over the table and not need to sand the top using a drum or belt sander. If anything goes wrong after the top is veneered and the machine gouges, there is no plan B. Dave

[Van Huskey]

I want the veneer fairly consistent, not perfect but close. I am not afraid of a good wide belt or a good drum sander (Woodmaster et al) for a final sanding leveling. Sure something could go wrong but whats their point of existence if you are afraid to use them for what they were designed for. Hit it with the heavy grits to flatten it then ROS for the final sanding. IF you have enough boards to get 1/8" and the pattern you want I would go with slicing at 1/8", insurance is always nice.

[Peter Quinn]

Anything over 1/16" is fine IME, the thicker the better to a point, I wouldn't go past 1/8" thickness on the veneers personally. I want everything very close to the same thickness prior to glue up, BOTH SIDES, to keep the thing in balance. Wide belt or not I'd look at the BS set up closely, that machine should be making consistent slices for you. Of course sapele is about as stable as a crazy second cousin, so taking even a thin slice off can make the board warp a bit, then make the next slice a bit thin in spots, so it might take a bit of flattening between each pass to keep things going well.

I'd leave .020"-.030" per pass for the wide belt if going that route, or about two passes per side, which should be fine for most machines in decent order. Some wide belts are very accurate and made for even very thin veneers, others are a bit more corse, but .030" should cover it until you have more experience with the capabilities of the machine you will be using.

[Scott T Smith]

Typically I manufacture sawn veneer at 1/8", and then sand it down 1/32 on each side to slightly under 1/16" (start at .130 and sand down to about .055).

My resaw is fairly accurate though and usually the leaves are within a few thousands of an inch in thickness. You may need to start a little bit thicker due to the tolerances on your bandsaw.

[Alan Lightstone]

I did quite a bit better on some test pieces this evening. I noticed that the upper guides were set way too far apart - thus too much play even though the blade is tensioned pretty well as high as is possible on my saw.

I was able to get a pretty consistent 0.100", which, after sanding, yielded about 1/16" veneer. I'll try a few test pieces tomorrow.

My preferable goal would be to get four pieces out of a 0.75" thick 9" wide board, which would cover one side of the substrate. I don't know if it will be possible to get four 1/8" pieces out of the board. Perhaps, but the cuts would have to be pretty accurate, and the waste due to the kerf will certainly deduct from the total.

Do you think it's possible to get four 1/8" pieces out of that 0.75" board, or should I try for a little thinner (like 0.1")?

[Jamie Buxton]

You're sanding away .04"?! That's a lot, if you're getting consistent slices off the saw.
Dunno about your saw, but mine gives a surface good enough to be the glue face. A few grooves or a little roughness won't hurt the glue joint. So I saw the slices, re-do the edge jointing to fix the chipout on the exit side of the blade, tape the slices together, and glue that down in the vacuum press. I generally sand the panel with a 6" ROS, starting at 100 grit. You could go to a widebelt sander instead, but it isn't necessary.

[Jamie Buxton]

One more thought.... When you're cutting the last slice off your stock, the stock is going to be waving around in the breeze because it is so thin. Or maybe it is going to be cupping because of built-in stresses in the wood. In any case, that last slice may be garbage. A good trick is to start by gluing the veneer stock to another board -- lumber, plywood, whatever. That other board will hold the last bit of the stock flat so you can cut the last slice off it cleanly.

[Alan Lightstone]

By consistent, I meant that it varied between 0.100 and 0.106. Considering the mess my first test piece was, that was very consistent.

I was assuming that I needed a very flat surface for the gluing, so I sanded off all the wavy parts.

Also, I read that Lonnie Bird and a few others suggested lightly face jointing the board (taking off 1/64") between passes to get a smooth side again. Is that necessary? Or should I just plan on sanding that waviness off afterwards?

[Jamie Buxton]

By consistent, I meant that it varied between 0.100 and 0.106. Considering the mess my first test piece was, that was very consistent.

I was assuming that I needed a very flat surface for the gluing, so I sanded off all the wavy parts.

Also, I read that Lonnie Bird and a few others suggested lightly face jointing the board (taking off 1/64") between passes to get a smooth side again. Is that necessary? Or should I just plan on sanding that waviness off afterwards?


Well, I don't know how rough your surface is, but mine at least is a glueable surface. Think about it this way... If your surface consists of valleys and ridges left by the saw blade, the tops of the ridges are going to get pressed closely to the substrate by the vacuum press. They'll have zero-thickness glue layer. Right next to them will be valleys, which will have a glue layer that's a little thicker. Even if those valleys had no glue in them at all, the glue on the ridges will hold everything together.

[John Lanciani]

I routinely saw my own veneer, and lots of it. As already mentioned, if you do a good job on the saw it is unneccessary to sand before glueup. I cut all of my veneer around 3/32" and sand after glueup to net around 1/16

Here's a few pics of the jig I built to resaw with. Since I couldn't justify a feeder I wanted something that allowed me to focus on just moving the stock into the saw and not have to worry about keeping it tight to the fence. It really helps on longer and wider stock. The spring tension is adjustable to keep everything uder control. Normally I can just make cut after cut, but if the donor stock is unruly I sometimes go to the jointer in between, taking 1/64" or so off to keep it flat

The saw is a MM20 with a driftmaster fence. My normal blade is a Lenox trimaster 1" 2-3 tpi.

[ian maybury]

Smoothness of cut is one thing (and a lot to do with the blade type - a conventional steel blade tends to produce a rougher surface than say a carbide tipped blade as used on a larger saw), but I'd say the plane or not to plane thing is quite a lot about how flat your saw is cutting the slices.

You'll get fairly consistent thickness off the saw if the blade is bowing/drifting the same on each cut, but a curl in the slice and a risk of thickness variation if the blade changes its behaviour is the risk.

I guess planing the show side may save finishing time and help keep things straight provided the saw is cutting straight and flat, while as Jamie says if the finish on the sawed side (as opposed to the flatness) is fairly decent it's likely good enough to glue down.

Against that if you plane and the sawed face isn't flat (as a result of blade drift) then you're probably going to end up sanding the planed surface away anyway to flatten it again after gluing it down.

I guess in the end that a lot of these calls are down to what's coming off the saw, and to how you plan to handle the finishing....

ian

ps nice pressure unit john, is it original?

[David Kumm]

John, neat setup. Hand feeding longer boards causes some insonsistencies. Any hesitation will create a slight ridge that will be magnified on the next cut. Each setup and each board are different but you get so you can feel when the cut is good enough that re jointing isn't necessary. The MM20 and trimaster are about as good as it gets- short of old cast iron- so John's results may be difficult to duplicate. Dave

[Alan Lightstone]

Wow, John. That's a really impressive setup. If I start making my own veneers, I'll have to revisit building something like that. Amazing design. How do you attach it to the bandsaw table? And how do you attach your fence to the Driftmaster (for whatever bizarre reason, the Driftmaster doesn't have holes for attachment to an auxillary fence.)

I'm using a quick and dirty homemade fence clamped to my driftmaster. On the open side of the bandsaw is a magnetic resaw guide with rollers.

I think part of my issue is the fence bending. No matter how I dial it in, I'm getting top/bottom thickness inconsistencies. I also thought I dialed out the blade drift, but I think some is still evident.

The blade is a Laguna Resaw King 0.75". Saw is a Laguna 14SUV.

I got some great test pieces, so I went ahead with the real wood. Not so good. Real big thickness variations. I only got 3.5 usable pieces out of it, not 4. As it turns out, after cutting the last piece down to 3.5" width, I think I have enough thickness for the face side of my table (with only 1.5-2 inches of excess. Once the pieces are joined together, even less. Whew!!!! No question I'll have to run the pieces through a sander. Thickness variation is unacceptable. Interesting that my test pieces came out just fine.

As David said earlier (and prophetically), there is no Plan B.

[John Lanciani]

Hi Alan,

The fence extension clamps to the driftmaster fence with thumbscrews, and the jig clamps to the table with two F-clamps. One thing that is not shown is that I put a clamp at the tail end of the fence after I have it set up, otherwise it deflects if I'm cutting anything with any lenght to it. That is one of the weaknesses of the Laguna fence...

PS Ian, I hope it's original, I'd hate to think that I spent so much time re-inventing something but it sure wouldn't be the first time!!:rolleyes:

[Scott T Smith]

I did quite a bit better on some test pieces this evening. I noticed that the upper guides were set way too far apart - thus too much play even though the blade is tensioned pretty well as high as is possible on my saw.

I was able to get a pretty consistent 0.100", which, after sanding, yielded about 1/16" veneer. I'll try a few test pieces tomorrow.

My preferable goal would be to get four pieces out of a 0.75" thick 9" wide board, which would cover one side of the substrate. I don't know if it will be possible to get four 1/8" pieces out of the board. Perhaps, but the cuts would have to be pretty accurate, and the waste due to the kerf will certainly deduct from the total.

Do you think it's possible to get four 1/8" pieces out of that 0.75" board, or should I try for a little thinner (like 0.1")?

You should be able to get 4 slices if your band is accurate enough. Most folks really like the Resaw king bands from Laguna. They are carbide tipped and very precise (with about a .035 kerf).

[Alan Lightstone]

BTW, I looked at the Minimax website after seeing John's post. Those guides on that bandsaw look great. The video said that they are universal (they said the mounting posts are the saw on "all" bandsaws). I really dislike the guides on my Laguna. Does anyone know if the Minimax guides can be used on a Laguna 14SUV?

The resawing adventure here was largely a disaster. The inner lower guide loosened and this caused the bottom of the blade to drift inward during the cut. Lots of ruined boards. A fully bookmatched top is clearly not in my future. I have good wood for the top of the drafting table, but the balance veneer on the bottom isn't the prettiest. Fortunately, it's the bottom, so no one will notice. But I'll know. What was clear is that I need to be able to secure the lower guides better, and need a better resawing fence/setup.

Jamie was talking about sanding away 0.04 is a lot. I had to sand away about .08 on each board. Crazy wasteful.

[John Lanciani]

Hi Alan,

Not sure if you were looking at the guides on my saw but they are Carters. For whatever it's worth I don't really set the side guides very tight, I could probably resaw without them. My secret weapon is an upgraded tension spring. When I bought the saw it would not tension the 1" trimaster properly so I had a spring custom wound with about double the spring rate to replace the stock piece. Now 30,000 lbs. of tension on the 1" blade has the spring less than half way compressed. This setup is not for the faint of heart but it works for me and I'm completely comfortable with it.

[Alan Lightstone]

John:

Been looking at your jig again. More and more impressed every time I look at it.

One question though, Do you run into any problems with the casters if the wood has irregular depth in spots. I've run in to that with my magnetic resaw guide. In other words, if the wood you are resawing is a little wedge shaped (but with a flat face against the blade) do the casters have too much resistance pushing the wood towards the fence? I would think that tight springs could accomplish this, but I wonder if the bolts have an issue with this.

BTW, Laguna had a special and I replaced my fence with their taller version of the Driftmaster. Quick and easy for the fence side. Now I just need to deal with the jig side.

[John Lanciani]

Hi Alan,

Each finger of the jig is independent of the others and they have plenty of travel and adjustment to cope with anything that I've sawn. The heavier compression springs allow for about 1/2 - 5/8" of travel, the bolts are used to adjust where the starting point of the travel is. I can start with a piece of 10/4 stock and slice it all the way through, adjusting the bolts every 4 or 5 slices. The lighter tension springs are just to control the fingers at the end of the cut. I normally only dress one face of the blank if I'm cutting veneer, but if the blank is really rough I'll give the back side a quick pass or two on the jointer just to smooth it out a bit.

I've thought about the tall driftmaster fence but what has kept me away is the inability to lower the guidepost enough when cutting narrower veneer. That's why my fence has the odd shaped cutout in the middle.

[Steve Kohn]

John, can you provide detail on the springs? Like part numbers and supplier?

[John Lanciani]

John, can you provide detail on the springs? Like part numbers and supplier?


I just went to the hardware store and went through the spring bins squeezing and tugging until I found ones that I liked. The compression springs are about 1.5" long and just fit over a 1/4" x 20 bolt. they take a very firm pinch between my thumb and index finger to compress. The tension springs are very light, just strong enough that the fingers don't whip when the tail end of the board passes the rollers.

[David Kumm]

Hi Alan,

Not sure if you were looking at the guides on my saw but they are Carters. For whatever it's worth I don't really set the side guides very tight, I could probably resaw without them. My secret weapon is an upgraded tension spring. When I bought the saw it would not tension the 1" trimaster properly so I had a spring custom wound with about double the spring rate to replace the stock piece. Now 30,000 lbs. of tension on the 1" blade has the spring less than half way compressed. This setup is not for the faint of heart but it works for me and I'm completely comfortable with it.

My experience is similar. At 25000 lbs- the sweet spot on my saw- the quides become somewhat irrelevant and most important the blade doesn't push against the back bearing and heat up. Keep in mind that few saws can tension a 1" trimaster to 25-30K. Larger saws, the MM16 and 20, old cast iron saws etc. If the frame isn't heavy enough a stronger spring will just cause the frame or the wheel housing to deflect enough to cause all sorts of problems. You need to start with the right machine for the tension to benefit. Dave

[Alan Lightstone]

I just went to the hardware store and went through the spring bins squeezing and tugging until I found ones that I liked. The compression springs are about 1.5" long and just fit over a 1/4" x 20 bolt. they take a very firm pinch between my thumb and index finger to compress. The tension springs are very light, just strong enough that the fingers don't whip when the tail end of the board passes the rollers.
Definitely confused at this point. Which are the tension springs and which are the compression springs? I see one row of springs on the outside of the jig.

Actually, is that the row of compression springs with the 1/4" x 20 bolts through them?

[Jerome Hanby]

My experience is similar. At 25000 lbs- the sweet spot on my saw- the quides become somewhat irrelevant and most important the blade doesn't push against the back bearing and heat up. Keep in mind that few saws can tension a 1" trimaster to 25-30K. Larger saws, the MM16 and 20, old cast iron saws etc. If the frame isn't heavy enough a stronger spring will just cause the frame or the wheel housing to deflect enough to cause all sorts of problems. You need to start with the right machine for the tension to benefit. Dave

Since throat depth is pretty much a non issue for re-sawing, could a brace added to help prevent deflection help?

[John Lanciani]

Definitely confused at this point. Which are the tension springs and which are the compression springs? I see one row of springs on the outside of the jig.

Actually, is that the row of compression springs with the 1/4" x 20 bolts through them?

Yes Alan, the compression springs are around the 1/4" bolts, in the pics they are behind the thinner tension springs. I'll try to take a few better pics tonight when I get home.

[Van Huskey]

Since throat depth is pretty much a non issue for re-sawing, could a brace added to help prevent deflection help?

One could do that, I think the big issue is where to mount the bottom of the brace, the table would not be a good place since any distance from the blade and thus away from the center of the trunnion would produce a lever which would throw the table off. I am surprise someone hasn't built a welded steel saw with a spine on both sides of the blade sorta like a vertical version of a horizontal resaw bandsaw.

[Van Huskey]

Yes Alan, the compression springs are around the 1/4" bolts, in the pics they are behind the thinner tension springs. I'll try to take a few better pics tonight when I get home.


I would also appreciate more pics! I have been mulling over ways to build something similar for a while

[Dave Novak]

I think John could make a decent living selling plans for his resaw contraption :). I'd buy them.

[Alan Lightstone]

Heck, I'd buy the whole thing completed.

[Dave Novak]

John better get the thing patented before Kreg, Incra, Woodpeckers, someone starts mass producing them.

[John Lanciani]

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Here's a few closeups of the guts. The threaded rods coming in from the left are used to adjust the projection of the fingers. There are threaded inserts in the outer upright and they get screwed in or out to move the wheels in relation to the fence. The heavier springs on the rods apply the pressure to the fingers to keep the stock tight to the fence. The lighter springs in the foreground control the motion of the fingers so that they are kept in contact with the heavy springs. Each finger is independent of the others so that the blank is kept tight to the fence through the cut regardless of whether it is 4 square or only milled on one face.

[Van Huskey]

Thanks much for the pictures!

[Alan Lightstone]

Thanks, John. Very instructive.

Are the spacing blocks between the fingers glued to the fingers (The top of one block glued to one finger, the bottom of that block not glued)?

Do the casters help keep the board against the base (and not riding up) as opposed to using roller balls?

[Steve Kohn]

I'll second the motion. Draw it up and I'll buy a set of plans from you.

[John Lanciani]

Are the spacing blocks between the fingers glued to the fingers (The top of one block glued to one finger, the bottom of that block not glued)?

Yes, they also have UHMW tape on them to make them slide against each other better.

Do the casters help keep the board against the base (and not riding up) as opposed to using roller balls?

I used the casters for two reasons; they were locally available, and more importantly they end up within 1/4" of the blade on the final cut so metal was out. There is plenty of downward force from the blade so there is no real chance of the stock riding up either way.

[Brian Crist]

John,
Can I get the plans to that re saw jig?

[John Lanciani]

John,
Can I get the plans to that re saw jig?

Only if you can read my mind.:p Seriously, I just built it by eye with stuff I either had laying around or could get locally. I made it to fit a particular machine to solve a specific problem I had. Hopefully the pics will provide some ideas for people. For what it's worth I'm already designing v.2 in my mind, it will be self setting so that I don't have to mess with adjusting all of the fingers every few passes.

[Jerome Hanby]

For what it's worth I'm already designing v.2 in my mind, it will be self setting so that I don't have to mess with adjusting all of the fingers every few passes.

Looking at your pictures I was already thinking about that. I think the basic setup you have now could be setup to ride on some runners setup on a flat base with a threaded mechanism to advance or retard it. That would leave all your individual adjustments in place for fine tuning and the base adjuster for sliding closer to the blade as you sliced off strips.

[Alan Lightstone]

John:

Did you ever build version 2 of the jig? Building this, I think, is next on my list of things to do for my shop. I still do a lousy job resawing, and want to get far, far better.

[John Lanciani]

Not yet, I haven't wrapped my mind around a solution that fits all of my needs. I need to be able to process blanks between 4 and 15" wide and from 10/4" thick down to the last slice. Until I figure out a solution to make it self adjusting there is no real reason for me to change the jig. It really does work well as it is, it's just a little slow to adjust but I've been using a small cordless drill with the clutch turned way down to adjust the fingers and it works pretty well.

[Alan Lightstone]

Building this is now moving to the top of my list. I'm still fuzzy on why there are both compression and tension springs.

John, could you elaborate on that?

You really should talk to Kreg or some other company about producing these.

Thanks.

[Alan Lightstone]

An additional question, John. How are the far side of the moving pieces attached. Are they mounted on a vertical dowel so that they pivot? If not, aren't they all very loose at that end (although that is past the blade).

[John Lanciani]

Hi Alan,

Yes,the fixed end of the fingers pivot on a dowel. I put UHMW tape on the spacers between the fingers so that they move fairly easily. (v.2 will have bearings and shims instead) The compression springs put pressure on the stock to keep it on the fence, the tension springs are just to control the fingers when the before and after the cut. Feel free to ask more questions, I'll do my best to answer.

John

[Alan Lightstone]

Now what I'm trying to figure out is the compression springs. I see a stop nut on the back of it, a threaded coupler on a bolt in the middle with a washer, then the spring and another washer resting against the back of the fingers. What's not visible inside the fingers?

Also, when wood is tensioned and the jig is ready to go, do those threaded couplers rest against the back piece of wood? If not, I just don't get how the tension is applied to the wood.

[John Lanciani]

Stand by, more pics tonight...

[Erik Loza]

Very interesting fence design, never seen anything like that. Thanks for sharing.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[John Lanciani]

I hope you noticed what saw it was sitting on Erik!!:p

[Erik Loza]

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[John Lanciani]

242362242363242364242365

Hopefully pictures really are worth a thousand words...:)

[Alan Lightstone]

Making more sense by the minute, John. Thanks a million for the pictures.

Did you use 3/4" plywood for the fingers and 1/4" for the spacers? (my guess, looking at the pictures)

Also, is that a captive T-nut (or just an epoxied in nut) on the back side of the fixed rear plywood piece? That would explain what I couldn't figure out regarding how the tension was transmitted to the fingers.

[Alan Lightstone]

OK, John. Your jig has a twin brother.

242933242934
It was quite an intricate build. I was more and more impressed with every step required.

By the time I was finished, I figured that I used all of the following equipment:
Forstner Bits
Brad Point Bits
Festool Shop Vac
Festool Domino Joiner
Drill Press
Drum Sander
Scroll Saw
Table Saw
Oscillating Sander
Miter Express
Crosscut Sled
Sandpaper
MagJigs
3 sizes of rulers, 2 sizes of triangles.
Workbench
Calipers
Scraper
Casters
1/2" Plywood
3/4" Plywood
Screwdrivers
2 sizes of screws
Pliers
TB III glue
Portable Drill x 2
Saddle Square
X-Acto Knife
Utility Knife
3 sizes of clamps
Seneca Woodworking Domino Jig
1/4-20 threaded rods
1/4-20 stop bolts, nuts, washers
Threaded T-nuts
Compression / Extension springs (Don't want to mention just how many of these I tried)
Screw Eyes

And I'm sure some stuff I forgot.

The only piece of equipment I didn't use was the bandsaw, which this is for in the first place. LOL.

It's impressive design, John. I only made 1 real change to it, which was adding the magjig magnets (which was a pain to place properly, but should avoid the need for clamps.

Now that I have it built, any suggestions/hints as to its use?

[John Lanciani]

So don't lie, how many trips to the hardware store?? I got lucky with my springs, I played with a bunch at the store until I found ones I liked on the first try. I'm curious to see if the mag switches work for you, my jig has a runner that fits into the miter slot in the table so it can't go anywhere when it's clamped down.

As for using it, just a practice run or two should give you a good feel for adjusting the fingers. I run mine tight enough so that all I have to do is shove the wood through the blade, the jig does all of the guiding for me. I typically push until the last 1/2" or so and stop just before the wheels come of the end of the blank. Then I go around and pull to finish the cut.

[Alan Lightstone]

Countless trips to Lowes and HD. What was most depressing, is that they all would have 6 of something when I needed 8 of them. So I would wind up going to 2-3 Home Depots, then 2-3 Lowes, then trips to return stuff, etc... It was ridiculous after a while.

Placement of the mag switches was difficult. The larger your bandsaw table, the easier that would get.

I could have used a runner, I guess (certainly a cheaper solution. I thought you had yours clamped down, but I didn't want to use that approach). I'll let you know how the mag switches work.

It sounds like you have the fingers set pretty tight? Do you carefully adjust your fence for drift before starting, or keep it square?

[John Lanciani]

Plain and simple, my saw does not drift (or more correctly, the lead angle is 0 deg.). Flat tires, a 1" trimaster blade, and tension that would make most people cringe (30,000+ psi on the 1" blade when I'm cutting veneer) allows for a saw that cuts parallel to the wheel axles all the time. I do use clamps on my jig, the miter slot is just to locate it quickly. I run the fingers tight enough that I have to clamp the back end of the fence or it delfects significantly.

[Alan Lightstone]

Works pretty well. Certainly uncovers any issues with fence not being perfectly parallel (which is a real issue with the drift master fence).

I can get thicknesses that vary at worst about 0.005 inches front to back, and after I re-squared the fence and table, top-bottom. a number of times I got 0.001 variation - the limit I can measure. Top to bottom is a bigger issue - getting the fence perfectly square isn't easy with the drift master.

Is that acceptable resawing performance with my Laguna 14SUV and 0.75" resawing king blade?

It is difficult to finish the cuts with my setup, as I can't get behind the saw to pull the wood through. have to reach over the top and pull through.

[John Lanciani]

My driftmaster is not perfectly square to the table but a couple of pieces of masking tape on the back of the extrusion got it pretty close. My bigger problem is my auxiliary fence face that I use for wide veneer. It is difficult to attach it perfectly in plane with the fence every time since it is made of plywood and does not stay flat all the time. What I do is to just adjust the table tilt so that the fence face is parallel to the blade when I'm doing wide stuff. .005" total deviation in thickness is plenty accurate in my book, if I'm under .01" when cutting veneer I don't make any further adjustments.