Best Way to Flatten Small Pieces of Wood?

[Steve H Graham]

What's the best way to flatten small pieces of wood, like 6" square? I have something about that size and 3/8" thick. I fooled around with a smooth plane, but now the piece is ten thousandths thicker on one side!

I don't know if it's a bright idea to run things this small over the jointer.

[Peter Quinn]

I did something even smaller recently, made a sled for a wide belt with material on all four sides to positively hold the object being sanded in place, some could work for a planer or drum sander, possibly a belt sander could be made to work too. The jointer is a no no at that dimension, good way to lose the piece or worse.

[Victor Robinson]

A router sled would also work.

[Brian Kent]

I don't think the jointer is a good idea, unless it was somehow held tight on a larger board.

[daryl moses]

A jointer is the wrong tool for making a piece of wood the same thickness no matter how large the lumber is. A jointer is for "flattening" lumber so that it can be planed to the proper dimension.
Something as small as what you have is going to be hard [and dangerous] to run through a planer without the aid of a sled.

[glenn bradley]

316526

Glue two strips of milled lumber to the sides, run 'em through the wide belt or the planer and saw the "rails" back off.

[Carl Lavigne]

I use a hand plane.

[Frederick Skelly]

What's the best way to flatten small pieces of wood, like 6" square? I have something about that size and 3/8" thick. I fooled around with a smooth plane, but now the piece is ten thousandths thicker on one side!

I don't know if it's a bright idea to run things this small over the jointer.

Forgive me for being so dense, but I've gotta be missing something important. 10/1000 thicker on one side is only 1/100 of an inch. Am I missing something? If not, why is that a problem - your eye will not see it and the first humid day will change it that much? (I'm not sure my lunchbox planer could do better, nor a drum sander.)

PLEASE don't run that over a jointer. You're gonna get hurt Steve.

[Scott DelPorte]

I think I would go back to the smoother and hit the high spots

[Dan Hahr]

Using a proper push block, I'd run that (6" long) over my jointer and through my Dewalt 735 with no worries. A one handed push block with a trailing stop on the jointer and a following board backing up the board in the planer should work fine unless the wood was brittle or split. Also, running it through diagonally would work. I just measured my rollers and they are just a shade less than 6" apart. I wouldn't run it through by itself, but with backer, I've never had it miss a lick.

Dan

[Dan Hahr]

I should mention that I would only take the lightest passes, though.
Dan

[Ellery Becnel]

When I first started making end grain cutting boards, I used 6" long pieces of hardwood turning stock. I would, and still do stick them using dbl sided tape to a piece of Plexiglas
Mounted to my work bench. Using a trim/palm router with a wide rectangular base. Mount a 1" or taller strip of 3/4" wood along each side, at the edge. Lightly touch off and
Glide away. I use the Blue, Duck Tape brand found @ Wal-Mart. It holds really well. I can mill parallel to .001 using this method. I have successfully milled 3/16" thick strips
Without any issues. I use a trim router, because they are lighter and won't flex on the wide base. Also you will not be taking a heavy cut. A 3/4" wide cutter works well.
It may seem like a lot to do, not very costly and can be done safely.
Just giving you another option.

Ellery Becnel

[Jim Wheeler]

What's the best way to flatten small pieces of wood, like 6" square? I have something about that size and 3/8" thick. I fooled around with a smooth plane, but now the piece is ten thousandths thicker on one side!

I don't know if it's a bright idea to run things this small over the jointer.

That is much too small to safely hand hold and run across a jointer. At a pattern shop where I once apprenticed small pieces like that were routinely flattened on a stationary disk sander preparatory to stack laminating. It actually produced a flatter surface than either a planer or jointer. If we wanted it to have parallel sides, we would machine the other side with a rotary plane held in a large drill press. Of course, both tools left swirl marks, but they didn't matter for our purpose.


Jim
​
He who welds steel with flaming pine cones may accomplish anything!

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Best way, although very costly is a drum sander. I do it all the time, no sled. I make smaller pieces too, but 2 inch square or so I use a sled.

[Robert Engel]

Face joint and thickness the board *before* you cut it into 6" lengths. :)

[Pat Barry]

What's the best way to flatten small pieces of wood, like 6" square? I have something about that size and 3/8" thick. I fooled around with a smooth plane, but now the piece is ten thousandths thicker on one side!

I don't know if it's a bright idea to run things this small over the jointer.
Belt sander - you have to be careful of course, measure frequently and sneak up on the final dimension.

[Steve H Graham]

I have a Ridgid oscillating sander which is great for thicknessing small parts accurately, but the part can only be so wide. I made a vertical fence that clamps to the table, and you just bop it until you get the opening to the size you want.

[Peter Quinn]

I have a Ridgid oscillating sander which is great for thicknessing small parts accurately, but the part can only be so wide. I made a vertical fence that clamps to the table, and you just bop it until you get the opening to the size you want.

Sounds like the idea has potental....to chuck the work piece about 30'! The concept is pretty much similar to a drum sander, vertical fence acts like the table, but what holds the work piece to the fence? And how do you maintain a consistent feed rate? Bobbling in a sander van cause far more harm than good ime. I've seen the small parts drill press drum sander thicknessers they sell in luthier supplies for small shops, they seem to work, seems like you could easily end up with more than ".010 variation with such a set up.

[David Spurr]

Plane stop and a smoother

[Dave Richards]

Ignoring the safety, or lack thereof, of running the small piece over the jointer, if you are concerned about being a few thousandths out of parallel now, it's unlikely that the jointer will make it any better. Having an even thickness implies that both faces are parallel and to get that, you need to reference the face opposite the one you're working on. If you have a planer, Glenn's method is a good one. You could do a variation on it and make a sled of MDF (https://flic.kr/p/vpRY1k) with a low stop on it to keep the work from shifting and rails on either side of the work for the planer's rollers to grip. This would also make it easy to do a bunch of small pieces and get them to be the same thickness.

[Steve H Graham]

Sounds like the idea has potental....to chuck the work piece about 30'! The concept is pretty much similar to a drum sander, vertical fence acts like the table, but what holds the work piece to the fence? And how do you maintain a consistent feed rate? Bobbling in a sander van cause far more harm than good ime. I've seen the small parts drill press drum sander thicknessers they sell in luthier supplies for small shops, they seem to work, seems like you could easily end up with more than ".010 variation with such a set up.

Unfortunately, I made the fence and started using it successfully before I realized it was impossible. :D

It's really simple. I don't have the fence in front of me right now, but it's your basic fence. Two pieces of half-inch MDF at precise right angles to each other. You can clamp it at the ends. You just set it so it's at the right distance from the sanding surface, and you shove the wood through it slowly, against the rotation of the drum or belt.

This thing rotates pretty slowly, so it's not like it will leap at you and rip your arm off.

I don't really know how accurate it is, but as I recall, I was very satisfied with the results.

[Matthew Hills]

I would use a hand plane, mark the desired thickness around the edge, and then plane to the mark (set your plane for a fine cut and check your progress as you go).
Or you can try various jigs for router or handplane (or sander(?!)) that provide mechanical control.

Assuming your current work piece is irreplaceable, I'd recommend making some test pieces and testing any technique on that first.