Planing to 1/8"....how?

[Dee Dee Martin]

I've got some hardwood I've resawn to 1/4" and some to about 3/16".

I need to get it to a true 1/8" thick. It's bloodwood, and really burns my paper on my thickness sander easily. In addition, the drum sander is so slow (performax).

Can I plane this down to 1/8" ? Or is it gonna blow up in my planer?

If any of you have planed to 1/8", what planer did you use?

Oh....just to let you know...I've got thousands of linear feet that I've got to get to 1/8".

[John Lucas]

I have used my 13" portable Delta but this is too thin to handle. I built a quick jig. I took a piece of white melamine and about one foot it, I mounted a piece of 1 inch stock that was about 1/8" high. This stop block kept the thinner stock from scooting.
I put the thin stock to be planed on the carreir board with the thin stock against the wood stop and eased the whole thing through the planer. I took very gradual depth cuts. At first I used double faced tape t keep inplace but it wasnt necessary. I did ad sandpaper to places along the way so that the carrier board kept the thin stock from moving.
Here is one picture of same method from years ago just diffeent planer:
http://www.woodshopdemos.com/plan-p13a.jpg

[Dee Dee Martin]

Are you saying that you are moving your thin stock, that you are reducing down, as well as the melamine carrier board all through the planer at once? As one whole unit? Or is the meamine stationary?

[Alan Turner]

I have a 20" 4 post imported planer, and it will do 1/8" with no problem.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I have done 1/8th inch on my 12 inch craftsman before. It is is the minimum thickness it will handle, but it did it wonderfully. Just took 1/4 turn passes for the last 4. (1/64th of an inch each pass)

[Jim Becker]

My Mini Max can go to 1/8", but I wouldn't do it due to the seriated rollers. I was able to do 1/8" material successfully with my previous Delta 22-560 with its rubber rollers.

[Byron Trantham]

I have a DeWalt 13" and it planes 1/8" with no problem. Heck, if the wood you want to plane is dear to you, just try the process on another piece that you don't give a hoot about. :rolleyes: Good luck.

[Tim Farrell]

I have used the same method as John mentions above. Take some thicker stock and place the piece to be planed on top of it. Make sure it is secured with a stop block or sand paper or something.
You can then run the entire assembly through your planer and 1/8" should be no problem.

[Glen Blanchard]

Although I have never done it myself, I believe another way to do this (while keeping the planer knives away from the metal bed) would be to place a "false bed" in the planer. Take that same piece of melamine (or MDF) and tack or glue a stop strip to one end. The melamine bed should be placed in the planer with the stop on the bottom-side and on the in-feed side of the planer. The stop should engage the lip of the infeed table, and by doing so, this temporary bed will be stationary. Very similar to John's suggestion, except that the melamine is fixed in place. Might make it easier not to deal with having to run it through with each pass.

[Harry Goodwin]

Just my two cents. I never put sandpaper near my planer lest it self destruct and new knives. I would not use a stop piece lest when the rollers pick up the 1/8th they raise it a bit on the back and land on top of stop block and lots of excitement. Without the stop block pinch them from a distance and insert in planer and let go as it catches the 1/8th inch piece. Once it catches no problem. My old AMT planer will do it repeatedly. Harry