Avoiding chips on a thickness planer???

[Al Launier]

I was curious how to avoid chipping with a thickness planer, i.e. my DW735, when planing cross grain, especially when engaging the edges of the work piece. Although I consider myself an amatuer, I do orient the board according to the edge grain when planing the faces to provide the best finish, but this has been with the face grain. However, I currently have a project nearing finish that I would like to establish parallel surfaces, but it involves face grains that are 90° to each other & I'm concerned I might chip the finished surface, edges in particular. Would using very light depths of cut, i.e. 0.005" work, and/or butting up a backup board work, or are there better "tricks" to use. I don't have a trial piece to check this out with as I threw them away thinking I was done with them.
Hoping you experience woodworkers can suggest a trick or two!

[Mark Gibney]

I would try to find someone with a wide-belt sander to do this for you.

[J.R. Rutter]

I would try to find someone with a wide-belt sander to do this for you.

I second this.

Fallback: Glue some strips along the edges and then rip them back off after planing in small steps.

[glenn bradley]

Planers are not designed to go across grain or to do end grain. I know some folks take little bites and get away with it but, I steer clear. Wide belt and wide drum sanders take up a lot of space so for a one off I would try to find a cabinet shop in town to do this for you. For future projects, size the material earlier in the game. My parts come off the machines enough over-sized to remove any mill marks. I rarely use a machine for a final dimension with the exception of the tablesaw.

[Allan Speers]

I agree with using a sander, or a very high-angle handplane or even scraper plane.

If you really must try to make the planer work, try wetting the stock before running it. This always helps a little, with really tricky stuff like figured Maple & burl.

- And invest in a Shelix head, if you haven't already. They're not horribly expensive for the Dewalt, (Maybe $450, IIRC) and the reduction in noise alone is worth the cost.

[Al Launier]

This is the piece I'm referring to. I'm making a dozen of these trivets as Christmas gifts and despite trying to "average out" the stresses by alternately milling both sides, there is still some bow that prevents some from sitting flat.

I was thinking of hand sanding one side until it's reasonably flat, then planing the opposite side parallel. But, the "cross grain" has me concerned about chipping the "many" edges.

I'm currently trying a palm sander & so far that's not too bad in removing the slight center "hump". I've also tried supporting the trivet on two opposing corners & resting a weight on it to bend it slightly beyond the yield point. At first that seemed like a good remedy, but after a while the hump returned, but not as bad.

As can see, the carbide router bit dulled up leaving a lot of sanding. :mad: In this pic I'm using my dado blade to establish the tounge on each side that will fit into the grooved frame.

[J.R. Rutter]

No way I would put that through a planer.

[Brian Holcombe]

Use a hand plane with a sharp blade.

[Roy Harding]

That wouldn't be going through my planer. The problems you describe sound like you've milled the lumber before it's stable. Try milling the raw lumber somewhat oversized - leave it for a few days, then mill it to finished size. And check the moisture content of your raw lumber.

[Al Launier]

Actually I bought the wood from a local sawmill a little over a year ago that was claimed to be air dried 8-11% and then placed in my shop where I keep the humidity at 35-40% with a dehumidifier. I alternated milling the wood hoping to stress relieve it as balanced as I could. I think the stressing that occurred is normal when removing that amount of material. The cheap moisture meter that I have indicated 11% moisture content when I checked the wood before working the project.

[Roy Harding]

it seems like everything should have been fine. Even dry wood (6 - 8%) will move when milled - which is why I usually mill oversized, then finish after a day or two.

[Robert Engel]

If I'm understanding the pic, if you start out with all your stock milled accurately, you shouldn't have that much trouble.

Forget the power machinery.

This is hand plane/scraper territory.

[Al Launier]

Finally, after a couple months of on & off effort, aided by the help of SMC members, the Trivet project is done, as in finito!
Eleven were salvaged out of an initial dozen. The palm sander worked well such that the trivets now sit flat without rocking.
As shown, they were air drying for a couple days after dipping thiem in a 25% BLO/75% polyurethane for a couple minutes each, then drip dried overnight, followed by wiping off excess, then drying as shown. They dried slowly, moreso than I expected, but the results are what I was hoping for.
Fiinished product ready as Christmas gifts.

Onto the next Christmas project, but not so many this time!

[Al Launier]

After wiping off the excess 25% BLO/75% Polyurethane finish & hang drying for 3 days the trivets still have an "oily" feel to them. They haven't dried as well as expected. What would be a good way to remove this oiliness without removing the color or detrimentally affecting the finish? I tried using a light experimental wiping with Mineral Spirits, but that didn't seem to do anything. Also, there are a few spots of shiny Polyurethane on most of the trivets and they weren't removed with the Mineral Spirits.
If left to dry even longer(?) would a spray of straight, unblended Polyurethane clear satin adhere well to this "oily" surface and still look decent as I may go forward with the Polyurethane to have everything look the same???